Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton
Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton (18 April 1613 – 4 February 1696) was an English peer.
A Parliamentarian during the English Civil War, he served in various offices including soldier, politician and diplomat. He was appointed as the Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire by Parliament in July 1642.[1] He was a Puritan and a favourite of Oliver Cromwell, which is why, from 1660 onwards he often ran into difficulty with the Crown. In 1676 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and later (in 1685) fled the country when King James II came to the throne.
He spent time while abroad in the Court of the Prince of Orange and subsequently his family line was back in Royal favour when the latter came to the throne of England in 1688.
He had one surviving daughter, Elizabeth, by his first wife, Elizabeth Wandesford.[2] By his second wife, Jane, only daughter of Colonel Arthur Goodwin and heiress to the extensive Goodwin estates in Buckinghamshire, he had seven additional children: Anne, Margaret, Thomas, Mary, Goodwin, Philadelphia, and Henry.[2]
Lord Wharton was a prominent art collector and patron. In the 1630s he commissioned a series of portraits painted by Anthony Van Dyck of several members of his family, including himself, his wife Jane, his father-in-law Arthur Goodwin, and his daughters Philadelphia and Elizabeth.
In his will he left land near York to support a Bible charity, which was devoted to the distribution of bibles to children for use outside of the church or school. The terms of the will require the recipient to learn by rote the 1st, 15th, 25th, 37th, 101st, 113th, 145th psalms. The will also requires the Shorter Catechism also be included. Many thousands of Bibles have been distributed and the Trust still distributes Bibles to under eighteen year-olds.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ 'House of Lords Journal Volume 5: 2 July 1642', Journal of the House of Lords: volume 5: 1642-1643 (1802), pp. 175-76. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=34839&strquery="Lord%20Wharton". Date accessed: 13 April 2007.
- ^ a b Clark, J. Kent (2004).Whig's Progress: Tom Wharton between Revolutions, p.11. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Madison, N.J. ISBN 0838639976
- ^ http://gmb.orpheusweb.co.uk/lowrow/bible.html Date accessed: 4 May 2008.
| Honorary titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Lord Paget |
Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire (Parliamentarian) 1642 |
Succeeded by Vacant |
| Peerage of England | ||
| Preceded by Philip Wharton |
Baron Wharton 1625–1695 |
Succeeded by Thomas Wharton |
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