Richard Onslow

Sir Richard Onslow (1601 – 19 May 1664) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1628 and 1664. He fought on the Parliamentary side during the English Civil War. He was the grandson of one Speaker of the House of Commons and the grandfather of another, both also called Richard Onslow. Life Young life Onslow was the younger son of Sir Edward Onslow of Knowle (in Cranleigh), Surrey, and his wife Isabel (Elizabeth), daughter of Sir Thomas Shirley of Wiston, West Sussex. He was baptized on 30 July 1601. He had an elder brother Thomas (the heir), and three sisters. His father died in 1615, appointing Elizabeth his executrix and residuary legatee. To Richard was bequeathed an annuity of £100 per annum from manors and estates in Gloucestershire. The manor of Bramley (with lands in Bramley, Shalford, Wonersh and Dunsfold), was left in the hands of overseers to provide annuities for the sisters in their minorities, and then to be sold by them, with an option for Thomas Onslow to purchase for £2000 within three years. On 10 September 1616 Thomas Onslow and his mother settled the manors of Cranleigh, Knowle, Holdhurst and Utworth (lying also in Guildford, Hascombe and Cranleigh) on his intended marriage with Mary daughter of Sir Samuel Lennard. However he died childless in December 1616, possibly before the marriage itself took place. Richard's three sisters, all unmarried at their father's death, proceeded to respectable marriages.