Matthew Babington
Matthew Babington of Rothley Temple was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1660.
Early life and education
Matthew was born 17 May 1612, the eldest son of Thomas Babington of Rothley Temple, Leicestershire and his wife Katherine, daughter of George Kendall of Smithesby. He graduated from Queens' College, Cambridge at Easter, 1631.Professional life
He was admitted at the Inner Temple in November 1631 and was called to the bar in 1639.In 1657 he was appointed Justice of the Peace for Leicestershire, a post he continued to hold until his death in 1669. In 1660 he was also appointed a commander for the Militia, as well as Judge to the oyer and terminer court.
In 1660, he was elected Member of Parliament for Leicestershire in the Convention Parliament. An inactive Member of the Convention, he made no recorded speeches but was appointed to eight committees, of which the most important were to appoint army commissioners and to enable discharged soldiers to exercise trades in corporate towns. On 8 Dec. he carried the estate bill of George Faunt to the Upper House. He is not known to have stood again, and was buried at Rothley on 27 Sept. 1669. Two years later the King obtained a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge for his younger son, Matthew, in consideration of Babington’s ‘eminent loyalty... both to the hazard of his life and impairing his estate’.