TUFTON, Richard (1640-84)

As in the case of his elder brother John Tufton, 4th earl of Thanet, what we know of the early life of Richard Tufton comes from the diary of his grandmother, Lady Anne Clifford, dowager countess of Dorset and Pembroke, and her records of his infrequent visits to her northern castles. Diaries of Lady Anne Clifford ed. D.J.H. Clifford, 138, 149, 165. The countess was determined to nominate one of her younger grandsons at the January 1668 by-election for Appleby and, as Daniel Fleming^‡ warned another aspiring candidate, the under-secretary of state Joseph Williamson^‡,

unless you can secure Lady Pembroke, which I fear will be hard to do, you will have a cold appearance of the electors of Appleby, since they dare not go any way but that chalked out by my lady, who is as absolute in that borough as any are in any other. CSP Dom. 1667–8, p. 190 et seq.

She offered the seat first to her favourite grandson John, who declined (perhaps persuaded by Williamson) ‘in favour of a country life’, and then to the next eldest, Richard, who likewise preferred to continue his travels, before settling it on the fourth, Thomas. Ibid. p. 213.

Richard pursued a military career instead, and in April 1673 was commissioned a captain in Colonel Russell’s regiment of Foot Guards, the ‘King’s Regiment’. CSP Dom. 1673, p. 120. Confusion in tracing the course of his military career is caused by the fact that his younger brother (the second earl’s fifth son) Sackville also became a captain in the same regiment the following year, thus leading to many references to a ‘Captain Tufton’. CSP Dom. 1673–5, p. 345; 1677–8, p. 509. Richard was later formally made governor of the blockhouses at Tilbury and Gravesend in June 1681, although he had been unofficially commanding the garrisons there since late 1679. CSP Dom. 1679–80, pp. 304, 459; 1680–1, pp. 318, 319, 331. These commands further solidified his prominent position in Kentish society, which he had been exercising since coming to adulthood in the 1660s. By August 1678 he was still engaging in some of his family’s ancient land disputes, such as one concerning the lighthouse at Dungeness, and at the time of the Rye House Plot was seen as a natural leader for a volunteer troop of Kentish gentlemen. CSP Dom. 1678, p. 340; July–Sept. 1683, p. 89.

In both elections of 1679 he was selected on the Clifford interest as burgess for the northern borough of Appleby, replacing his younger brother Thomas. He was marked ‘base’ by Anthony Ashley Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury, and continued his association with the court faction after he had succeeded his elder brother to the earldom of Thanet in August 1680, during the long prorogation of the second Exclusion Parliament. HP Commons, 1660–90, iii. 610. He continued his northern connection after inheriting the earldom, and with it the reversion to the Clifford estates in Westmorland, and was evidently acting himself in his role as hereditary sheriff of the county in September 1680, instead of appointing a deputy. HMC Le Fleming, 170. He also ensured that his youngest brother, Sackville, replaced him in the parliamentary representation of the borough.

Thanet first sat in the House on 21 Oct. 1680, when the second Exclusion Parliament finally convened after months of prorogation, and he continued to attend for 83 per cent of the meetings of that Parliament. He was not active in select committees, being named to only two during the Parliament. He was opposed to the country party and voted to reject the Exclusion bill on 15 Nov., while a week later he voted against the establishment of a joint committee to consider the state of the kingdom and on 7 Dec. he judged William Howard, earl of Stafford, not guilty. He was also concerned in protecting his own rights and brought before the House two complaints of breach of privilege. On 10 Dec. 1680 he informed the House that John Blow and his servant had forcibly seized some of his horses; after their submission five days later he requested their discharge from custody. On 20 Dec. he accused John Matson of infringing his privilege by distraining property on the farm of John Lidgate, one of Thanet’s tenants.

In the weeks before the Oxford Parliament in March 1681, Thomas Osborne, earl of Danby (later duke of Leeds), considered Thanet one of those lords who would support his petition for bail at the forthcoming Parliament. Danby’s son Edward Osborne^‡, styled Viscount Latimer, listed the earl as one of Danby’s ‘friends’ who had not yet arrived in Oxford by 23 Mar. to help present the petition. HMC 14th Rep. IX, 425. Thanet arrived the following day and on 25 Mar. was appointed to the committee to receive information about the Popish Plot, but does not appear to have taken part in any other proceedings of this short-lived Parliament. He still supported Danby in the months following the dissolution of Charles II’s last Parliament and was one of the signatories to a petition to request the king to consult with the judges about the legality of Danby’s continued imprisonment and the possibility of his bail. Eg. 3358 F; HMC 11th Rep. VII, 21.

At the beginning of February 1684 Thanet was afflicted with a devastating fever. Sir Ralph Verney^‡ was able to report on 23 Feb. that he was ‘yet alive’, although this was the 29th day of his ailment: ‘He sleeps better than he did, which gives some hopes of recovery. But when he awakes he is light-headed, which is looked upon as a very ill sign.’ Verney ms mic. M636/38, Sir R to J. Verney, 23 Feb. 1684. Verney’s initial confidence was misplaced, as Thanet died on 8 Mar. 1684, unmarried and childless. By his will of February 1684 he divided his personal estate and fee-simple lands between his two younger brothers, Thomas and Sackville, while the Thanet title and the entailed estates in Kent, Sussex, Westmorland and Yorkshire passed to the next in the long line of Tufton brothers, Thomas, the 6th earl of Thanet.