Walter Chetwynd 1633-1693

Walter CHETWYND 1633-1693

One of several armorial binding stamps used by Chetwynd (British Armorial Bindings)

Biographical Note

Of Ingestre, Staffordshire; son of Walter Chetwynd, and a member of a long-established gentry family. Admitted to the Middle Temple 1657. MP for Stafford 1674, 1679, 1685 and for Staffordshire in 1690; he also held various public offices. He worked as a government agent in the 1680s. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1678. "A convivial and hospitable man, who kept a fine cook and whose gardens at Ingestre were stocked with choice fruit" (ODNB).

Books

Chetwynd was a keen antiquary, noted by the ODNB as interested in "numismatics, literature, theology, mathematics, and above all antiquities and natural history". He was friendly with many contemporary antiquaries, including Robert Plot and William Dugdale, and compiled extensive collections on the history of Staffordshire; he wrote A short survey of Staffordshire but the work was not printed until 1909. Numerous books with his armorial stamps survive. Listed in Edward Bernard's Catalogi manuscriptorum, 1697, as owning 22 manuscripts. The Chetwynd family library was auctioned in London, 18.5.1821.

Sources

• British Armorial Bindings.
• History of Parliament.
• Greenslade, M. W. "Chetwynd, Walter (1633–1693), county historian." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Maggs, catalogues of the London booksellers Maggs Bros: 1212 (1996)/39.