MUSCHAMP, William (1593-1660), of Rowbarnes, East Horsley, Surr.

Muschamp came from a cadet branch of a family that had held manorial property in Surrey since at least 1536. His grandfather acquired Rowbarnes by marriage to the heiress of the Agmondesham family in 1598. Manning and Bray, iii. 29, 414. Muschamp’s West Country connections derived from his marriage to Frances Lisle, whose sister wed the Dorset landowner Bampfield Chafin*. One of Muschamp’s sons was born at Folke, Chafin’s principal seat, in 1622, and it was doubtless Sir George Trenchard†, Chafin’s stepfather, who arranged Muschamp’s return at Bridport two years later. Oglander Mems. ed. W.H. Long, 80; Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 565; iv. 183. Ostensibly the novice Member left no mark on the 1624 Parliament’s records, but he was possibly the ‘Mr. Mustian’ who attended four meetings of the committee for the bill to settle the customs of Beaminster Second manor, Dorset. C.R. Kyle, ‘Attendance Lists’, PPE 1604-48 ed. Kyle, 201 (which suggests John Mostyn instead).

Muschamp played no known part in local government until 1638, four years before he succeeded to his patrimony. While he was appointed to both royalist and parliamentarian commissions at the outbreak of the Civil War, he may have preferred to remain neutral, for his name disappears from the records after August 1643. Muschamp died in November 1660, and was buried at East Horsley. No will or administration grant has been found. He was the only member of his family to sit at Westminster, though his grandson Denny Muschamp was twice elected to the Irish Parliament. Manning and Bray, iii. 29; E.M. Johnston-Liik, Hist. Irish Parl. 1692-1800, v. 332.