Person:Sidney Montagu (1)

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Sir Sidney Montagu (died 25 February 1644) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1593 and 1642. He supported the Royalist cause in the First English Civil War.

Montagu was one of the younger of the eight sons of the judge Sir Edward Montagu of Boughton and Elizabeth Harington. He was the grandson of another judge Sir Edward Montagu and his third wife Helen or Eleanor Roper. He matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge in December 1588 and was admitted at Middle Temple on 11 May 1593.

In 1593, Montagu was elected Member of Parliament for Brackley. He was elected MP for Malmesbury in 1601 and for Wells in 1614. He became Master of Requests to King Charles I^[1] and was knighted on 28 July 1616.

In November 1640, Montagu was elected MP for Huntingdonshire in the Long Parliament.^[2] Since he was reputed to be a man of great wealth, the Commons at the outset of the Civil War were infuriated by his refusal of their request to contribute £2000 to their cause. He was expelled from the Commons and committed to the Tower of London in 1642 as a known Royalist. He was released two weeks later after promising to contribute £1000 to the Parliamentary cause, although it seems that he only paid £200. He spent his remaining years in retirement.

1. ↑ Sidney Montagu, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
2.   Sir Sidney Montagu, in Lundy, Darryl. The Peerage: A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe.
3.   MONTAGU, Sidney (c.1572-1644), in The History of Parliament.
4.   Harvey, William; Augustine Vincent; and Walter C. (Walter Charles)(ed.) Metcalfe. The Visitations of Northamptonshire Made in 1564 and 1618-19: with Northamptonshire pedigrees from various Harleian mss. (London: Mitchell and Hughes, 1887)
   p. 115.