John Stephens (politician)
Encyclopedia
John Stephens was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

 at various times between 1645 and 1660.

Stephens was the second son of Thomas Stephens of Little Sodbury
Little Sodbury
Little Sodbury is an English village in South Gloucestershire, located between Chipping Sodbury, to the West, Old Sodbury to the South, Badminton, and the A46 road to the East and Horton and Hawkesbury Upton, to the north....

, Gloucestershire and was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...

. In 1620 he entered the Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

, where he was called to the bar in 1628, and practised law in Elm Court.. He was the brother of Edward Stephens
Edward Stephens (MP)
Sir Edward Stephens was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1640 and 1660....

.

Stephens inherited from his father Lypiatt House in the neighbourhood of Bisley. The house was garrisoned by Parliamentary troops during the Civil War but partially set on fire during a Royalist attack under Sir Jacob Astley, who was later forced to make good the damage from his own assets.

Stephens was elected Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury (UK Parliament constituency)
Tewkesbury is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 in the Long Parliament
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

 in 1645. In 1659 he was elected MP for Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire (UK Parliament constituency)
The constituency of Gloucestershire was a UK Parliamentary constituency. After it was abolished under the 1832 Electoral Reform Act, two new constituencies, West Gloucestershire and East Gloucestershire, were created....

 in the Third Protectorate Parliament
Third Protectorate Parliament
The Third Protectorate Parliament sat for one session, from 27 January 1659 until 22 April 1659, with Chaloner Chute and Thomas Bampfylde as the Speakers of the House of Commons...

. In April 1660, he was elected MP for Bristol
Bristol (UK Parliament constituency)
Bristol was a two member constituency, used to elect members to the House of Commons in the Parliaments of England , Great Britain and the United Kingdom . The constituency existed until Bristol was divided into single member constituencies in 1885.-Boundaries:The historic port city of Bristol, is...

 in the Convention Parliament.

Stephens married four times: Elizabeth Ram of Essex, Grace, the daughter of John Brown of Frampton, Dorset, Anne, the daughter of John and sister and co-heir of Thomas Moulson of Hargrave, Cheshire, and Hester, daughter and co-heir of Mr Barnes of Alborough Hatch in Barking, Essex. He was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas, who was MP for Gloucestershire in 1695.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK