Early Life
Child was born in about 1630 and baptised in 1631, the second son of Richard Child a merchant of Fleet Street (buried 1639 at Hackney) and Elizabeth Roycroft of Weston Wick, Shropshire. After serving his apprenticeship in the family business, to which after much struggle he succeeded, he started on his own account at Portsmouth, as victualler to the navy under the Commonwealth, when about twenty-five; he is also described as "agent to the Navy Treasurer". He amassed a comfortable fortune, and became a considerable stock-holder in the East India Company. In 1659, he was elected Member of Parliament for Petersfield in the Third Protectorate Parliament. He was elected MP for Dartmouth in 1673 in a by-election to the Cavalier Parliament.
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