{{short description|English politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}} {{Use British English|date=February 2017}} '''Richard Cresheld''' (died 1652) was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1624 and 1648.<ref>Cresheld's name is occasionally given in historical records as '''Richard Creswell''' {{harv|Foss|2000|p=201}}.</ref><ref>Sometimes called Richard Creshald, as in ''A legacy left to the world by (that able lawyer) Richard Creshald, serjant at law : late one of the judges of the Court of Common-Pleas : addressed (in his life-time) to his foure sons in lawes, and may be very usefull for all men to read and practice.'' London?, 1658.</ref>
==Biography== Cresheld was the son of Edward Cresheld of Mattishall Norfolk. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 18 June 1608 and called to the bar on 17 October 1615. He was recorder of Evesham in 1625.<ref name=Worcs>{{harvnb|Williams|1897|p=157}}</ref>
In 1624, Cresheld was elected Member of Parliament for Evesham. He was re-elected MP for the town in 1625 and 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.<ref name=Willis>{{harvnb|Willis|1750|pp=229–239}}</ref> Cresheld spoke strongly in the wake of the Five Knights' case when King Charles had attempted to imprison five knights for refusal to pay loans. He and his fellow MPs believed that the King had broken the "fundamental laws and liberties" of England. He spoke of "the great care which the law hath ever taken of the liberty and safety of the bodies and persons of the subjects of this kingdom" and held "that the act of power in imprisoning and confining his Majesty's subjects in such manner without any declaration of the cause, is against the fundamental laws and liberties of this realm". He added that the "kings of England have a 'monarchical' state, not a 'seignoral'; the first makes freedom, the second slavery".{{sfn|Willms|2006|p=5}} This debate led on to the Petition of Right.
Cresheld was made a bencher of Lincoln's Inn in May 1633, Lent Reader in 1636 and sergeant-at-law in 1637. In March 1637, he was appointed a commissioner to compensate river proprietors for damage caused by improving navigation of the River Avon.<ref name=Worcs/> In November 1640, Cresheld was elected MP for Evesham in the Long Parliament.<ref name=Willis/> In February 1643 representatives of Parliament travelled to Oxford to treat with King Charles. Article eight of the Parliament's petition to Charles proposed Cresheld be appointed a Baron of the Exchequer, but the negotiations failed and the treaty of Oxford was still born.<ref>Cresheld was called "Sergeant Creswell" in Parliament's Proposal {{harv|Manganiello|2004|p=409}}.</ref> He was made Justice of the Common Pleas by parliament on 12 October 1648, but refused to be resworn after the execution of the King in January 1649.<ref name=Worcs/> Cresheld died in Serjeant's Inn and was buried in St Andrew's Holborn in 1652.<ref name=Worcs/>
==Family== Cresheld's daughter Mary married William Draper of Kent and was the mother of Cresheld Draper. She later married John Egioke MP for Evesham in 1660.{{sfn|Henning|1983|p=257}} His daughter Bridget married Sylvanus Wood MP for Gloucestershire in 1654.<ref name=Williams>[https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030494953#page/n67/mode/2up W R Williams ''Parliamentary History of the County of Gloucester'']</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== **{{Cite Notitia Parliamentaria|part=2|page=226}}<!-- Willis spells his name Rich. Cresheild--> *{{cite book|last=Foss |first=Edward |year=2000 |orig-date=1870 |title='Biographia Juridica: A Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England from the Conquest to the Present Time, 1066-1870 |edition=reprint |publisher=The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 99-12577 |isbn=1-886363-86-2 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w4bQ9ygex_gC&dq=%22Richard+Cresheld%22&pg=PA201 201]}}) original publishers John Murray of London, 1870. xv. *{{cite book|first=Basil Duke |last=Henning |year=1983 |title=The House of Commons, 1660-1690 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=0-436-19274-8 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=HW1_upECKUwC&dq=%22Richard+Cresheld%22&pg=RA1-PA257 257]}} *{{cite encyclopedia|last=Manganiello |first=Stephen C. |title=The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639-1660 |year=2004 |encyclopedia=The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland 1639-1660|publisher= Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-5100-8 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=an-eXXA3DBMC&pg=PA409 409]}} *{{cite book|last=Williams |first=William Retlaw |year=1897 |title=The parliamentary history of the county of Worcester |location=Hereford |publisher=Private print for the author by Jakeman and Carver|page=[https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030495141#page/n157/mode/1up 157]}} *{{cite journal|last=Willms |first=Sarah |year=2006 |title=The Five Knights' Case and Debates in the Parliament of 1628: Division and Suspicion Under King Charles I |journal=Constructing the Past|volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=1–10 |url=http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1082&context=constructing}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|en}} {{s-bef | before= Sir Thomas Biggs, Bt | before2= Anthony Langston }} {{s-ttl | title=Member of Parliament for Evesham | with=Sir Edward Conway 1624 | with2= Anthony Langston 1625–1626 | with3= Sir Robert Harley | years=1624–1629 }} {{s-non| reason= Parliament suspended until 1640}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Evesham | before= William Sandys | before2= William Morton | with=William Sandys 1640–1641 | with2=John Coventry 1641–1642 | with3= Samuel Gardner 1645–1648 | years=1640–1648 | after= Samuel Gardner }} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cresheld, Richard}} Category:Year of birth missing Category:1652 deaths Category:17th-century English judges Category:Politicians from Worcestershire Category:English MPs 1624–1625 Category:English MPs 1625 Category:English MPs 1628–1629 Category:English MPs 1640–1648 Category:People from Norfolk