BAESHE (BASHE), Edward (1594-1653), of Stanstead Abbots, Herts. and Aldersgate, London

Baeshe’s grandfather, Edward Bashe†, the son of a Worcester tradesman, served in the naval victualling department for 40 years, and obtained a grant of Stanstead Abbots in 1559.VCH Herts. iii. 369-71; Chauncy, Herts. i. 383. When his father died, Baeshe’s wardship was purchased by his maternal grandfather, Sir Edward Carey, but he was brought up mainly by his stepfather, Sir George Manners*, who was presumably responsible for his election at Lincoln in 1614.WARD 9/348, f. 129. Still technically a minor at the time, Baeshe left no trace on the records of the Addled Parliament. Six years later, in 1622, he was summoned before the Privy Council to explain his failure to contribute to the Benevolence for the Palatinate.SP14/127/77. In 1625 he bought a place in the Exchequer from Sir Nicholas Fortescue, a Worcestershire Catholic who was obliged to sell out ‘because the king will admit of no man inclined to popery to serve him’.Berks. RO, D/EL1/C1/132 (Letter to Sir Nicholas Carew, 2 May 1625).

Baeshe was returned to Parliament again in 1628, this time for Stamford. His connection to the town was again via Manners, whose cousin was married to the borough’s main patron, the 2nd earl of Exeter (William Cecil†). Baeshe’s appointments included committees to hear a petition from the puritan printer, Michael Sparkes, against the bishop of London’s chaplain (20 May 1628), and to inquire into the commissions for compounding with recusants (24 May). He was also named to consider bills concerning the scarcity of gunpowder (4 June), and the imposition of a levy on malt by the corporation of London, which hit the Lea valley barge traffic (25 June).CD 1628, iii. 492, 539; iv. 83, 467. In the second session he was appointed to bill committees to prevent the begging of forfeitures before attainder (23 Jan. 1629) and corruption in the universities (23 February).CJ, i. 922a, 932b.

Baeshe’s second marriage, to the coheir of Sir Charles Montagu, raised his status, but he remained childless. In 1635 he conveyed his estates, which he had enlarged, to Manners, now 7th earl of Rutland, Lord Newburgh (Sir Edward Barrett*) and two other trustees to purchase impropriations if the family became extinct. He also founded and endowed a free grammar school and a row of almshouses in Stanstead Abbots.HMC Rutland, i. 495, 498, 502, 521, 524. He was removed from the Hertfordshire commission of the peace in 1637 for non-attendance.C231/4, f. 256. He represented Grantham in the Short Parliament, but thereafter never stood again, and maintained neutrality during the Civil War.G.E. Aylmer, King’s Servants, 418; CCAM, 239. Having drawn up his will in 1648, he died on 12 May 1653, and was buried at Stanstead. His widow married his cousin, the son of Sir Philip Carey*. The estate was entailed on a cousin on the other side of the family, but it was sold to Edmund Feilde† in 1676, thereby frustrating Baeshe’s good intentions.PROB 11/225, f. 355; Chauncy, i. 383-4. He was the last of the family to sit in Parliament.