Baptist Hicks, 1st Viscount Campden

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Baptist Hicks
Baptisthicks.jpg
Born1551
Died18 October 1629
OccupationAristocrat, merchant, politician
Parent(s)
RelativesMichael Hicks (brother)

Baptist Hicks, 1st Viscount Campden (1551 – 18 October 1629) was an English merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1621 and 1628. King James I knighted Hicks in 1603 and in 1620 he was created a baronet.

He was MP for Tavistock in the House of Commons of 1621 and for Tewkesbury in the parliaments of 1624, 1625, 1626 and 1628. In 1628 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Hicks, of Ilmington in the County of Warwick, and Viscount Campden, of Campden in the County of Gloucester,[1] with remainder to his son-in-law Edward Noel, husband of his daughter Juliana.[2]

Early life[]

Hicks was the youngest of six sons born to Robert and Juliana Hicks, and the grandson of John Hicks of Tortworth. His father died while Baptist was only a child.[3] His mother was a moneylender[4] and he was one of three sons who survived childhood. The others were Clement and Michael Hickes.[5]

Baptist Hicks matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1568 and was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1573.[6]

Career[]

Hicks was brought up in his father's business and took over the business from his mother, who died in 1592. He imported rich silks from Italy and other foreign places. Through the influence of his brother Michael he contracted a large amount of business with the court and amassed a large fortune. By 1596 he was appointed Mercer to Queen Elizabeth I regarding the purchase of fabrics.[7]

Hicks wrote to James VI of Scotland on 1 March 1600 hoping for repayment of sums due to him by Robert Jousie, a bankrupted textile merchant working on the king's behalf. He had written twice before to the king, and was disappointed to hear from the Scottish ambassador that he would not be paid from the annuity awarded by Queen Elizabeth.[8] Hicks employed Humphrey Dethick as his factor in Florence buying fabrics, until he left in 1602.[9]

Having made large loans to the Crown and prominent courtiers, he was knighted on 23 July 1603, soon after the accession of James I. He was one of the first citizens who kept a shop to continue in trade once knighted.[10] He was in dispute with the Court of Aldermen of the City of London because he was unwilling to serve as an alderman; however the king directed that he be excused as a "king's servant".[11] Hicks supplied King James Court with silks and "rich mercery ware".

Sir Baptist Hicks estate in Chipping Campden, drawn in the 18th century

He purchased the manor of Campden soon after 1608 and built a large manor house there near the church, around 1612. The property included gardens, a canal, water gardens and terraces.[7] The house was burned to the ground down by Royalists in the Civil War.[12] He founded and endowed an almshouse in 1612 for 12 pensioners in Chipping Campden; the Grade I listed Almshouses on Church Street still remains in use for that purpose.

Hicks and Thomas Woodward provided the fabrics supplied to Princess Elizabeth for her wedding to Frederick V of the Palatinate in February 1613.[13]

In 1627, he built a market hall at the centre of town as a shelter for the vendors; the Grade I listed building is still in use.[14] He performed many other charitable acts, in his life-giving £100,000 for charity. He was created a baronet on 1 July 1620.[15]

Hicks also built a large mansion in Kensington as well as a Sessions House for the Middlesex Magistrates which was called Hicks Hall.[7]

Personal life, death, and legacy[]

The Hicks memorial in St James church

Hicks married Elizabeth May in 1585. She was the daughter of Richard May of London and Sussex, and sister of Sir Humphrey May, Alderman of London.

His elder daughter Juliana married Edward Lord Noel, who became 2nd Viscount Campden.

His younger daughter Mary married:

  1. Sir Charles Morrison, 1st Baronet of Cashiobury,
  2. Sir John Cooper, 1st Baronet,
  3. Sir Edward Alford.[15]

Hicks died at the age of 78 and is buried under a classical monument in Chipping Campden St James church.[16][17]

His will left £10,000 for charitable purposes;[18] the funds helped to establish Campden Charities, a non-profit organization to alleviate poverty in Kensington.[19]

All that now remains of Sir Baptist Hicks' once imposing estate are a gatehouse and two Jacobean banqueting houses;[20] the latter of which were restored by the Landmark Trust.[21] Afterwards, Lady Juliana Noel, Sir Baptist's daughter, her husband Edward Noel, 2nd Viscount Campden, and family lived at the converted stables near the site in Calf Lane, now called the Court House.[22] Her descendant still lives in that Grade II listed building.[20][23]

References[]

  1. ^ https://www.chippingcampdenhistory.org.uk/content/history/people-2/sir_baptist_hicks, Sir Baptist Hicks
  2. ^ Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 229–239.
  3. ^ "Sir Baptist Hicks | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. pp. 329–349. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  4. ^ Bennell, John (2004). "Penn [née Arthur; other married name Hicks], Julian (d. 1592), moneylender". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52153. Retrieved 27 July 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ "Hickes, Sir Michael (1543–1612), administrator". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13215. Retrieved 27 July 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ^ "Hickes, Baptist (HKS568B)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c https://www.chippingcampdenhistory.org.uk/content/history/people-2/sir_baptist_hicks, Sir Baptist Hicks
  8. ^ William Fraser, Memoirs of the Maxwells of Pollok, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 51
  9. ^ Calendar State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth: 1601-1603 (London, 1870), p. 201: Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 150.
  10. ^ ODNB
  11. ^ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=59893[bare URL]
  12. ^ "Sir Baptist Hicks". Cotsworld Famous People. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
  13. ^ Frederick Devon, Issues of Exchequer: Pell Records (London, 1836), pp. 151-2.
  14. ^ https://www.cotswoldlife.co.uk/out-about/places/a-warm-welcome-from-chipping-campden-1-5785653, A warm welcome from Chipping Campden
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b W R Williams Parliamentary History of the County of Gloucester
  16. ^ David Verey, Gloucestershire - the Cotswolds (The Buildings of England, Penguin,1970)
  17. ^ http://www.churchmonumentssociety.org/Gloucester.html[bare URL]
  18. ^ https://www.british-history.ac.uk/middx-county-records/vol4/pp329-349, Sir Baptist Hicks
  19. ^ "Annual Report of the Campden Charities Trustee & Campden Charities" (PDF). Campden Charities. 31 March 2015. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016. The Campden Charities were founded by endowments in the wills of Baptist Viscount Campden and Elizabeth Viscountess Dowager Campden who died in 1629 and 1643 respectively. The endowments were “... for the good and benefit of the poor of the Parish forever …” and “… to put forth one poor boy or more to be apprentices …” The Charities’ area of benefit remains the old Parish of Kensington.
  20. ^ Jump up to: a b https://www.cotswolds.info/famouspeople/baptist-hicks.shtml, Baptist Hicks (1551 - 1629)
  21. ^ https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/Search-and-Book/landmark-groups/old-campden-house/#Search, Sir Baptist Hicks
  22. ^ https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101342016-court-house-chipping-campden, Court House
  23. ^ "The Times & The Sunday Times". thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
Parliament of England
Preceded by

Sir Francis Glanville 		Member of Parliament for Tavistock
1621–1622
With: Sir Francis Glanville 		Succeeded by
John Pym
Sampson Hele
Preceded by
Giles Brydges
Sir Dudley Digges 		Member of Parliament for Tewkesbury
1624–1628
With: Sir Dudley Digges 1624–1626
Sir Thomas Colepeper 1628 		Succeeded by
Sir Thomas Colepeper
Sir William Hicks
Peerage of England
New creation Viscount Campden
1628–1629 		Succeeded by
Baronetage of England
New creation Baronet
(of Campden)
1620–1629 		Extinct
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