Christopher Wandesford - Life

Life

Wandesford was born on 24 September 1592 at Bishop Burton, near Beverley, Yorkshire, the son of Sir George Wandesford (1573-1612) of Kirklington, Yorkshire.

Educated at Clare College, Cambridge, and Gray's Inn, he entered Parliament as MP for Aldborough in 1621 and 1624. He was then returned for Richmond in 1625 and 1626 and Thirsk in 1628. His rise to importance was due primarily to his friendship with Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Strafford. Although at first hostile to Charles I, as shown by the active part he took in the impeachment of Buckingham, Wandesford soon became a royalist partisan, and in 1633 he accompanied Wentworth to Ireland, where he became Master of the Rolls.

His services to his chief were fully recognized by the latter, whom in 1640 he succeeded as Lord Deputy of Ireland, but he had only just begun to struggle with the difficulties of his new position when he died, after a short illness, on 3 December 1640. He had married Alice (1592–1659), the only daughter of Sir Hewett Osborne and sister to Sir Edward Osborne, vice-president, under Wentworth, of the Council of the North. They had seven children, five of whom survived to adulthood. During the Irish Rebellion of 1641 his widow and children were forced to flee from their home and after some hardship returned safely to Yorkshire. In the confusion Wandesford's will disappeared and was not found until 1653- this led to bitter family disputes and years of litigation.