Richard Onslow 1654-1717

Sir Richard ONSLOW 1st bart 1654-1717

One of Onslow's bookplates (British Museum Franks Collection *169)

Biographical Note

Sir Richard Onslow of Clandon in the County of Surrey.

The eldest son of Sir Arthur Onslow, second baronet (1622–1688), politician, of Knowle and West Clandon, Surrey, and Mary Foot, second daughter and coheir of Sir Thomas Foot, first baronet, mayor of London.

Matriculated from St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1671. Admitted to the Inner Temple in 1674, but never called to the bar.

Married Elizabeth Tulse (1661-1718), daughter and heir of Sir Henry Tulse, grocer, of Lothbury, London, on 31 August 1676.

MP for Guildford 1679 and 1685. Succeeded to the baronetcy of Knowle and West Clandon, Surrey in 1688, and was returned for one of the Surrey county seats in the Convention Parliament of 1689. Lost his Surrey seat in the 1710 election, forced to sit for St Mawes, Cornwall instead.

Speaker of the House of Commons 1708-1710. Chancellor of the Exchequer 1714.

Created Baron Onslow of Onslow, Shropshire, and of Clandon, Surrey, in 1716.

Books

Onslow used two bookplates, Franks *169 and *170 (dated 1704).

Arms: Onslow, quartering Stapylton? Carr, Bond, Houghton? Strangwayes, and Trelawny? with Tulse on an escutcheon.

Sources

• Ellis, Kathryn. "Onslow, Richard, first Baron Onslow (1654–1717), speaker of the House of Commons." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903.