STAINES, Richard (1650-1705), of Sowerby, nr. Thirsk, Yorks.

Staines, the son of a Thirsk tradesman, won a scholarship to Cambridge and settled down as a lawyer in the adjacent suburb of Sowerby. A tenant of Lord Derby, he was returned for the borough to the Convention, presumably as a Whig. His only committees were to consider the charges of malversation against William Harbord and to recommend changes in the poor law, and he was not listed as a supporter of the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations. He usually voted with the Whigs in the next two Parliaments. He died on 28 Jan. 1705 and was buried at Sowerby, the only member of the family to sit in Parliament.HMC 9th Rep. pt. 1, p. 334; W. Grainge, Vale of Mowbray, 165.