{{Short description|English office-holder, landowner and politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}} {{Use British English|date=August 2013}} '''Sir Henry Spiller''' (c. 1570 – 16 April 1649) was an English office-holder, landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1614 and 1629. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.

==Biography== Spiller was born in about 1570, fifth son of John Spiller of Shaftesbury, Dorset. His only known education was as a law student at Lincoln's Inn in 1606, but he was already employed in government service as clerk to the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer by 1594.<ref name=hop>[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/spiller-henry-1570-1649] History of Parliament, article by Alan Davidson and Rosemary Sgroi.</ref> He was later responsible for deriving income from recusants and his policies led to the sale of baronetcies from 1611.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7QGuVwbcmaMC&pg=PA280 Peter Lake ''Conformity and orthodoxy in the English church, c. 1560-1660'']</ref> In 1612 James I granted him the manor of Laleham.<ref name=VCH>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22215 'Spelthorne Hundred: Laleham', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2: General; Ashford, East Bedfont with Hatton, Feltham, Hampton with Hampton Wick, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton (1911), pp. 396-401. Date accessed: 4 January 2012]</ref>

In 1614, Spiller was elected member of parliament for Arundel.<ref name=hop /> He was knighted at Whitehall on 20 July 1618.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/knightsofengland02shawuoft#page/n177/mode/2up Knights of England]</ref> He obtained the manor of Colquire in Cornwall in 1618<ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=021-ph&#0 Cornwall Record Office]</ref> and was one of those granted the advowson of Esher in 1620.<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43005 'Parishes: Esher', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 447-451. Date accessed: 5 January 2012]</ref>

He was re-elected MP for Arundel in 1621, 1624 and 1625. In 1628 he was elected MP for Thetford and Middlesex and chose to sit for Middlesex until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.<ref name=Willis>{{Cite Notitia Parliamentaria|converted=1|part=2|pages=183, 195, 205, 223}}</ref>

He sought re-election, to the Short Parliament of 1640, at Tewkesbury but was defeated by Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (who was then a minor but was backed by the influence of Lord Coventry). Ashley Cooper called Spiller "a crafty, perverse, rich man" and "a great enemy to the town and the puritans".<ref name=hop />

In 1623 he had made a map of his estate at Laleham which has survived to this day.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.lalehamonthames.com/13.html |title=Laleham Residents association |access-date=5 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209165426/http://www.lalehamonthames.com/13.html |archive-date=9 February 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Family== Spiller was twice married. Firstly, by 1592, to Dorothy Dicons, by whom he had two sons and two daughters, who died in 1624. His subsequent second marriage was to a woman named Anne, of unknown family, but they had no children. Both wives were reported to be Roman Catholics.<ref name=hop />

In 1640 Spiller's wife, Lady Anne Spiller, was charged with recusancy and she was pronounced guilty on 5 May. Spiller supported the King in the Civil War as a commissioner. He was taken prisoner at Hereford where he had gone to convalesce,<ref name=hop /> and incarcerated in the Tower of London{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}. In 1646 he proposed to compound for his estates for £8,611 but the fine was unpaid when he died.<ref name=VCH/>

Spiller was the father of Robert Spiller, MP for Thetford; and Katherine who married Sir Thomas Reynell of Weybridge.<ref name=VCH/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_368600/(after)-Johnson,-Cornelius-I/Portrait-Of-Sir-Henry-Spiller-Of-Laleham Portrait of Sir Henry Spiller by Cornelis Johnson]

{{s-start}} {{s-par|en}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Arundel | before= Thomas Preston | before2= John Tye | with= Edward Morley 1614 | with2=Lionel Cranfield 1621–1622 | with3=Sir Richard Weston 1622 | with4=Sir George Chaworth 1624 | with5=William Mill 1625 | years=1614–1625 | after= Nicholas Jordain | after2= William Mill }} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Midhurst | before= Richard Lewknor | before2= Samuel Owfield | with= Richard Lewknor | years=1626–1628 | after= Christopher Lewknor | after2=Edward Savage }} {{s-bef | before= Sir Gilbert Gerard, Bt | before2= Sir Edward Spencer }} {{s-ttl | title=Member of Parliament for Middlesex | with= Sir Francis Darcy | years=1628–1629 }} {{s-non| reason= Parliament suspended until 1640}} {{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Spiller, Henry}} Category:1649 deaths Category:English MPs 1614 Category:English MPs 1621–1622 Category:English MPs 1624–1625 Category:English MPs 1625 Category:English MPs 1628–1629 Category:Year of birth uncertain