Baptist Hicks, 1st Viscount Campden

Baptist Hicks, 1st Viscount Campden (1551 – 18 October 1629) was an English merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1621 and 1628. King James I knighted Hicks in 1603 and in 1620 he was created a baronet.

Baptist Hicks
Born1551
Died18 October 1629
OccupationAristocrat, merchant, politician
Parent(s)
RelativesMichael Hicks (brother)

He was MP for Tavistock in the House of Commons of 1621 and for Tewkesbury in the parliaments of 1624, 1625, 1626 and 1628. In 1628 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Hicks, of Ilmington in the County of Warwick, and Viscount Campden, of Campden in the County of Gloucester,[1] with remainder to his son-in-law Edward Noel, husband of his daughter Juliana.[2]

Early life

Hicks was the youngest of six sons born to Robert and Juliana Hicks, and the grandson of John Hicks of Tortworth. His father died while Baptist was only a child.[3] His mother was a moneylender[4] and he was one of three sons who survived childhood. The others were Clement and Michael Hickes.[5]

Baptist Hicks matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1568 and was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1573.[6]

Career

Hicks was brought up in his father's business and took over the business from his mother, who died in 1592. He imported rich silks from Italy and other foreign places. Through the influence of his brother Michael he contracted a large amount of business with the court and amassed a large fortune. By 1596 he was appointed Mercer to Queen Elizabeth I regarding the purchase of fabrics.[7] Hicks employed Humphrey Dethick as his factor in Florence buying fabrics, until he left in 1602.[8]

Having made large loans to the Crown and prominent courtiers, he was knighted on 23 July 1603, soon after the accession of James I. He was one of the first citizens who kept a shop to continue in trade once knighted.[9] He was in dispute with the Court of Aldermen of the City of London because he was unwilling to serve as an alderman; however the king directed that he be excused as a "king's servant".[10] Hicks supplied King James Court with silks and "rich mercery ware".

Sir Baptist Hicks estate in Chipping Campden, drawn in the 18th century

He purchased the manor of Campden soon after 1608 and built a large manor house there near the church, around 1612. The property included gardens, a canal, water gardens and terraces.[7] The house was burned to the ground down by Royalists in the Civil War.[11]

Also in 1612 he founded and endowed an almshouse for 12 pensioners in Chipping Campden; the Grade I listed Almshouses on Church Street still remains in use for that purpose. In 1627, he built a market hall at the centre of town as a shelter for the vendors; the Grade I listed building is still in use.[12] He performed many other charitable acts, in his life-giving £100,000 for charity. He was created a baronet on 1 July 1620.[13]

Hicks also built a large mansion in Kensington as well as a Sessions House for the Middlesex Magistrates which was called Hicks Hall.[7]

Personal life, death, and legacy
The Hicks memorial in St James church

Hicks married Elizabeth May in 1585. She was the daughter of Richard May of London and Sussex, and sister of Sir Humphrey May, Alderman of London.

His elder daughter Juliana married Edward Lord Noel, who became 2nd Viscount Campden.

His younger daughter Mary married:

  1. Sir Charles Morrison, 1st Baronet of Cashiobury,
  2. Sir John Cooper, 1st Baronet,
  3. Sir Edward Alford.[13]

Hicks died at the age of 78 and is buried under a classical monument in Chipping Campden St James church.[14][15]

His will left £10,000 for charitable purposes;[16] the funds helped to establish Campden Charities, a non-profit organization to alleviate poverty in Kensington.[17]

All that now remains of Sir Baptist Hicks' once imposing estate are a gatehouse and two Jacobean banqueting houses;[18] the latter of which were restored by the Landmark Trust.[19] Afterwards, Lady Juliana Noel, Sir Baptist's daughter, her husband Edward Noel, 2nd Viscount Campden, and family lived at the converted stables near the site in Calf Lane, now called the Court House.[20] Her descendant still lives in that Grade II listed building.[18][21]

References
  1. https://www.chippingcampdenhistory.org.uk/content/history/people-2/sir_baptist_hicks, Sir Baptist Hicks
  2. Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 229–239.
  3. "Sir Baptist Hicks | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. p. 329-349. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  4. "Penn [née Arthur; other married name Hicks], Julian (d. 1592), moneylender". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52153. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  5. "Hickes, Sir Michael (1543–1612), administrator". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13215. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  6. "Hickes, Baptist (HKS568B)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  7. https://www.chippingcampdenhistory.org.uk/content/history/people-2/sir_baptist_hicks, Sir Baptist Hicks
  8. Calendar State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth: 1601-1603 (London, 1870), p. 201: Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 150.
  9. ODNB
  10. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=59893
  11. "Sir Baptist Hicks". Cotsworld Famous People. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
  12. https://www.cotswoldlife.co.uk/out-about/places/a-warm-welcome-from-chipping-campden-1-5785653, A warm welcome from Chipping Campden
  13. W R Williams Parliamentary History of the County of Gloucester
  14. David Verey, Gloucestershire - the Cotswolds (The Buildings of England, Penguin,1970)
  15. http://www.churchmonumentssociety.org/Gloucester.html
  16. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/middx-county-records/vol4/pp329-349, Sir Baptist Hicks
  17. "Annual Report of the Campden Charities Trustee & Campden Charities" (PDF). Campden Charities. 31 March 2015. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016. The Campden Charities were founded by endowments in the wills of Baptist Viscount Campden and Elizabeth Viscountess Dowager Campden who died in 1629 and 1643 respectively. The endowments were “... for the good and benefit of the poor of the Parish forever …” and “… to put forth one poor boy or more to be apprentices …” The Charities’ area of benefit remains the old Parish of Kensington.
  18. https://www.cotswolds.info/famouspeople/baptist-hicks.shtml, Baptist Hicks (1551 - 1629)
  19. https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/Search-and-Book/landmark-groups/old-campden-house/#Search, Sir Baptist Hicks
  20. https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101342016-court-house-chipping-campden, Court House
  21. "The Times & The Sunday Times". thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
Parliament of England
Preceded by
Edward Duncombe
Sir Francis Glanville		 Member of Parliament for Tavistock
1621–1622
With: Sir Francis Glanville		 Succeeded by
John Pym
Sampson Hele
Preceded by
Giles Brydges
Sir Dudley Digges		 Member of Parliament for Tewkesbury
1624–1628
With: Sir Dudley Digges 1624–1626
Sir Thomas Colepeper 1628		 Succeeded by
Sir Thomas Colepeper
Sir William Hicks
Peerage of England
New creation Viscount Campden
1628–1629 		Succeeded by
Edward Noel
Baronetage of England
New creation Baronet
(of Campden)
1620–1629		 Extinct
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