James Calthorpe (Roundhead)


James Calthorpe of Ampton who was Sheriff of Suffolk, in 1656, during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, by whom he was knighted at Whitehall, 10 December, in the same year.

Biography

Calthorpe was the third son, and the only one of ten children of Sir Henry Calthorpe and his wife Dorothy to survive to adulthood. He was educated at Catherine Hall, Cambridge.
He was Sheriff of Suffolk, in 1656, during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, by whom he was knighted at Whitehall, 10 December, in the same year.
James Calthorpe survived his father by twenty-one years, being interred in the chancel of Ampton Church the same day of the month on which Sir Henry died, 1 August 1658.

Family

Calthorpe married Dorothy, second daughter of Sir James Reynolds, of Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire, and sister to Sir [John Reynolds Calthorpe|Reynolds (Roundhead)|John Reynolds], Commissary-General in Ireland, on whose death she became his sole heiress). They had three sons and six daughters who were still living when he died in August 1658:
  • James, was nine years old when his father died. He inhered his father's, estate and during his adult life endowed a hospital for boys in Ampton. His brother Christopher inherited the estate.
  • Christopher who became a politician and courtier; and Henry who became a rector and never married; and three daughters. As Henry predeceased James and he also died unmarried, with his death, the direct male line of his family became extinct.
  • Reynolds. He was a member of parliament, married twice and had several children.
  • Henrietta-Mary.
  • Dorothy she bequeathed £1,000 for the endowment of an alms-house in Ampton, for six poor old widows or old maids of the age of sixty years and upwards and another £500 to help apprentice poor boys into handicraft trades in the town of Bury St. Edmunds. She died unmarried.
  • Barbara.
  • Katherine,, on 10 February 1680 married the Rev. Robert Lowe, Rector of Ingham in Suffolk.
  • Jane, married Mr. Mordaunt Cracherode, citizen of London.
  • Elizabeth,, married the Rev. Charles Trumbull, LL.D. Rector of Hadleigh.
After Calthorpe's death, Dorothy remarried. On 15 June 1662, she married Sir Algernon May of Old Windsor, Berkshire, with whom she had several children.