Sir John Pelham, 3rd Baronet

Sir John Pelham, 3rd Baronet (1623–1703) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England variously between 1644 and 1698.

Pelham was the son of Sir Thomas Pelham, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Mary Wilbraham.

In 1645, Pelham was elected Member of Parliament for Hastings to replace disabled Royalists in the Long Parliament. He was secluded in Pride's Purge in 1648. He inherited the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1654. In 1654 he was elected MP for Sussex in the First Protectorate Parliament and continued sitting in the Second Protectorate Parliament until 1658. After the Restoration he was MP for Sussex from 1660 to 1681 and from 1689 to 1698.

Pelham married Lady Lucy Sydney, daughter of Robert Sydney, 2nd Earl of Leicester and his wife Lady Dorothy Percy, on 20 January 1647. They had three sons and two daughters:

• Elizabeth Pelham, married Edward Montagu
• Lucy Pelham, married Gervase Pierrepont, 1st Baron Pierrepont
• Thomas Pelham, 1st Baron Pelham (1653–1712)
• John Pelham, died unmarried
• Henry Pelham (c.1661–1721)

He was succeeded by his son Thomas who was created Baron Pelham in 1706.

In 1694, Pelham attended a cricket match at Lewes and his personal accounts refer to him paying for a wager at the time. This is one of the earliest references in cricket history in which a named individual is involved.

Bibliography

• Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.