Silius Titus - Political Life

Political Life

Silius Titus first took up arms for the Parliament. Although he was a strong Presbyterian Titus became an ardent Royalist devoted to Charles I and King Charles II.

He became a Member of Parliament, successively representing Ludgershall (1660), Lostwithiel (1670-1678), Hertfordshire (1678-1679), Huntingdonshire (1679-1685) and Ludlow (1691-1695).

Though not eloquent, he would often illustrate his speeches with a humor that rendered them effective. For instance, when it was complained that Titus made sport of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, he retorted that "things were not necessarily serious because they were dull". Once again, when Charles II offered to impose limitations on a Roman Catholic Church sovereign rather than exclude his brother from the throne, Titus likened such a plan to "having a lion in the lobby and then voting to secure ourselves by letting him in and chaining him, rather than by keeping him out".

Titus also served King James II but later transferred his allegiance to William III. During his life he held a number of royal appointments: Keeper of Deal Castle (1661-1669), Colonel of the Cinque Ports Militia (1661-1669), Commissioner for Assessment for Middlesex (1661-1663), for Kent (1664-1669), for Leicestershire (1673-1679), for Hertfordshire (1673-1680), and for Huntingdonshire (1677-1680), Assistant, Royal Adventurers into Africa (1663), Assistant, Royal Fishing Company (1664), Captain of a Company in the Admiral's Regiment (1666), Privy Councillor (1688), Commissioner for Trade and Plantations (1688-1674), Conservator of the Bedford Level (1679-death), Deputy-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire (1680-1681, 1687-1689, 1701-death) and Commissioner for Inquiry into Recusancy Fines (1687).

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in January, 1669

When he died in 1704 Titus was buried at Bushey. He had married c.1645 Katherine, daughter of James Winstanley, Counsellor-at-law, of Gray's Inn and Braunstone, Leicestershire.