Samuel Backhouse

rdf:langString Samuel Backhouse

rdf:langString Alan

rdf:langString Andrew

rdf:langString Rosemary

rdf:langString Davidson

rdf:langString Sgroi

rdf:langString Thrush

rdf:langString Aylesbury

rdf:langString Member of Parliament for Windsor

rdf:langString Member of Parliament for Aylesbury

rdf:langString New Windsor

rdf:langString BACKHOUSE , Samuel , of Swallowfield , Berks.

rdf:langString The Parliament of 1614

rdf:langString BACKHOUSE , John , of Sindlesham and Swallowfield , Berks. and Kingsley, Hants.

rdf:langString Samuel Backhouse (sometimes Bacchus or Bakehouse; bapt. 18 Nov. 1554 – 24 June 1626) was an English merchant who later became a country gentleman based in the county of Berkshire. He was a member of Parliament (MP) twice early in James I's reign, first for New Windsor in 1604 and then for Aylesbury in 1614. Backhouse was brought up in the prominent Backhouse family of the North of England, son of a wealthy London Alderman and Grocer. Educated at Oxford, he first came into a sum of land upon his father's death, in 1580. The next sum came after marrying Elizabeth Borlase, member of the Buckinghamshire gentry, as he purchased the manor of Swallowfield in order to reside closer to his new affinial relatives. Here Backhouse lived the life of a country gentleman, fulfilling several minor municipal duties and, in 1600, entertaining the Queen as Sheriff of Berkshire. Perhaps emboldened by his successes as a country gentleman in Berkshire, Backhouse entered parliament. His first stint in parliament, during the Blessed Parliament of 1604–10, saw him nominated to fifty committees, though he was not recorded as giving any speeches. In the much shorter Addled Parliament of 1614, Backhouse was nominated to another nine committees, but again remained a silent MP. After the Addled Parliament, Backhoue did not seek reelection, and soon returned to Swallowfield. He became a shareholder in the New River Company in 1619, engaged in a minor familial dispute around the Swallowfield church, and possibly cultivated associates interested in esotericism. After his death in 1626, Backhouse's lands passed to his eldest son John, and subsequently to his youngest, William. Only William had progeny, and in turn, William's only child to not predecease him—Flower—died childless, thus ending Backhouse's line.