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Peter and
George Osborn(e) of Chicksands: both MPs for Horsham
briefly
There was an embarrassing item in the papers some time
ago: a woman captain from the MoD's Defence
Intelligence and Security Centre, while on a military
exercise, popped into the Hitchin branch of
Sainsbury's to answer a call of nature. The
embarrassing bit was not that but the fact that she
left behind her a 9mm automatic pistol on the cistern
when she left, and by the time the poor woman had
discovered her terrible mistake the weapon, loaded
with blanks, had disappeared. But what on earth would
the average Sainsbury's shopper do with such a thing?
What caught my eye in particular was the fact that she
was based at Chicksands Priory in Bedfordshire, the
ancestral home of the Osborne family but in government
ownership since 1936, and by coincidence I had been
taking a look at the lives of Peter and George
Osborne, both members of a family who had once
briefly been MPs for Horsham.
In fact it was Peter Osborne who had bought the Abbey
(as it was known then) into the family. He was born in
1521, in the reign of Henry VIII, and was the second
son of Richard and Elizabeth Osborne of Tyld Hall in
Essex. He was educated at Cambridge and then entered
Lincoln's Inn, but at the age of thirty left the law
for the world of administration, and around the end of
1551 was promoted to the post of keeper of the privy
purse to Edward VI. He also held arcane titles such as
'remembrancer to the lord-treasurer', but did not
always find favour, as it is believed he spent a spell
in prison during the reign of Queen Mary.
He was a strong supporter of the Reformation, which
might well explain his incarceration, and was a close
friend of Sir John Cheke, a great Greek scholar and
tutor to the young Edward, and a fervent advocate of
protestantism. When Elizabeth came to the throne
things got better for Osborne, and he became much
involved in the state's financial affairs. He played a
part in the official minting of coins, and was made an
ecclesiastical commissioner in 1566. It was just three
years before this, in 1563, that he served very
briefly as an MP for Horsham but there is no reason
to suppose that he ever visited the place. In his time
he was also MP for Plympton (1572), Aldeburgh (1584
and 1586) and Westminster (1588), so he spread his net
fairly wide.
In fact he lived in London, firstly in Wood Street and
then Ivy Lane, and built up a strong reputation in
commercial matters; he had a finger in many pies. He
recommended, for example, that there should be an
incorporation of the English merchants trading with
Spain, and was also a deputy governor of the
corporation of mineral and battery works that was
established in 1568. As well as all this he married
Anne, the daughter of Dr John Blyth, the first regius
professor of physic at Cambridge (and a niece of Sir
John Cheek) and between them they managed to have
thirteen children.
Peter Osborne was the founder of the family fortunes,
and he bought Chicksands Abbey in 1576, so
establishing a family base that was to last for over
350 years. The manor is mentioned in the Doomsday
Book, and in 1147 became a base for the rare Libertine
Order. Apparently Thomas a Becket took refuge there in
1164, disguised as a canon, and it is also said that a
misbehaving nun was walled up on the premises in 1538.
Osborne died on 7 June 1592, at the goodly age for
those times - of 70, and his wife followed him in
1615, no doubt an exhausted woman.
It was to be another 217 years before another Osborn
(by now the 'e' had been dropped) was to represent
Horsham, and this time it was the 4th baronet, Sir
George, who took on the role. He was born on 10 May
1742, and was married twice firstly to Elizabeth
Bannister, who died in 1773, and secondly, in 1788, to
Lady Teenage Finch, who died in 1820. He was also a
military man through and through, and rose to the
position of major general in the Scots Guards. He saw
active service in the American War of Independence,
but on a less warlike note also served as groom to the
bedchamber to George III.
He was a one-time MP for Bedford, and also represented
Horsham, as one of its two MPs, in 1780. As William
Albert put it in his A Parliamentary History of
Horsham: 'From 1715 to 1790 there was no contested
Election at Horsham....no one dared to intrude upon
the Lords Irwins private political preserves....in
opposition to the thraldom in which they held the
Borough. So-called Elections, of course, took place,
but the candidates were arbitrarily nominated and as
arbitrarily made Members of Parliament by orders from
Temple Newsam or Hills (the family home in Horsham)'.
In the case of Osborn, he was returned uncontested, in
Lady Irwin's interest, and was a replacement for
George Legge (Earl of Dartmouth), who had been
nominated for both Horsham and the county of Stafford,
but decided to choose the latter.
Sir George Osborn died on 29 June 1818, his brief
association with Horsham long over. His title,
however, lives on, and the current possessor is Sir
Richard Henry Danvers Osborn, 9th Bart. |
