Sir Roger Twysden, 2nd Baronet (21 August 1597-27 June 1672), of Roydon Hall in Kent was an English historian and Member of Parliament. His mother, Anne, was the daughter of Sir Moule Finch, and his father, Sir William Twysden, was a courtier and scholar who shared in some of the voyages against Spain in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and was well known at the court of King James I. He was one of the first baronets.
He was the eldest son of Sir William Twysden, 1st Baronet, and succeeded to the baronetcy on 8 January 1629. He was educated at St Paul's School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge.[1]
He entered Gray's Inn on 2 February 1623. He succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death in 1629. For some years, he remained on his estate at Roydon Hall, East Peckham, largely engaged in building and planting, but also in studying antiquities and the law of the constitution. King Charles I's attempts to govern without a parliament, and the interference of his lawyers and clergy with the freedom of all classes of men, offended Sir Roger as they did most other country gentlemen. He showed his determination to stand on his rights by refusing to pay ship money, but, probably because the advisers of the Crown were frightened by the unpopularity of the impost, was not molested.
He entered Parliament in 1626 as member for Winchelsea. During the eleven-year period when Charles I refused to summon Parliament, Twysden became one of the leaders of the Kent gentry, and refused to pay Ship Money. In 1640 he was elected to represent Kent in the Short Parliament; however, becoming disillusioned he was not a member of the Long Parliament elected later the same year. In common with most men of his class, Sir Roger applauded the early measures of the parliament to restrict the king's prerogative and then became alarmed when it went on to assail the Church. The attainder of Lord Strafford frightened him as a tyrannical use of power, and he became a typical example of the men who formed the strength of the king's party in the English Civil War. He considered himself too old to serve in the field and therefore he did not join the king at Oxford.
In 1642 he was arrested after signing a petition from Kent and, once released on bail, published the seditious Instructions; caught while trying to flee the country, he was imprisoned again and in 1643 his estates were sequestrated. After the execution of the King he returned to Kent, and although he was made Deputy Lieutenant of the county after the Restoration, he was never fully reconciled to the Court or government.
But his respect for legality would not let him rest, and he was soon in trouble again for another demonstration known as "The Instruction to Mr Augustine Skinner." For this he was again arrested and for a time confined in a public-house, called "The Two Tobacco Pipes," near Charing Cross, London. He was released with a distinct intimation that he would be well advised not to go back to Roydon Hall, but to keep out of temptation in London. He took the advice and applied himself to reading.
One plan for going abroad was given up, but at last he endeavoured to escape in disguise, was detected, and was brought back to London. He was now subjected to all the vexations inflicted on Royalist partisans of good property: sequestrations of his rents, fines for "malignancy," and confinement in the Tower of London, where he consoled himself with his books. At last he reached a settlement in 1650 and went home, where he lived quietly till the Restoration, when he resumed his position as magistrate. He died on 27 June 1672. Memorials to the Twysden family are to be found in St Michael's church, East Peckham.
Twysden's claim to notice rests on three works published during this period: The Commoners Liberty (1648), Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores Decem (1652), a pioneering work of English medieval history, and An Historical Vindication of the Church of England (1657).
He married Isabella Saunders, daughter of Sir Nicholas Saunders of Ewell; their son, William (1635-1697), succeeded to the baronetcy on Twysden's death.
| Baronetage of England | ||
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| Preceded by William Twysden |
Baronet (of Roydon Hall) 1629-1672 |
Succeeded by William Twysden |
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