Henry Bertie

Henry Bertie, JP (ca. 1656 – 4 December 1734), of Chesterton, Oxfordshire was an English soldier and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1678 and 1715.

Early life Bertie was a younger son of Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey by his second wife, Lady Norreys, daughter of Edward Wray, of Rycote, Oxfordshire and widow of Hon. Edward Sackville.

Bertie was one of the commissioners of assessment for Oxfordshire from 1677 to 1680. When Lord Gerard raised a troop of horse in 1678 in anticipation of a war with France, Bertie was commissioned a captain; the troop was disbanded in the following year. In 1678, after Thomas Wancklyn was expelled from the House of Commons, he was nominated for the vacant Parliamentary seat at Westbury on the interest of his elder brother, Lord Norreys, whose wife was a part owner of the manor of Westbury. The Berties, representing the court party, were opposed by a local squire, William Trenchard, a Presbyterian. Henry was returned by 21 votes to 13; two election petitions by Trenchard and the opposition to overturn the result were defeated. It is not clear that he was active in the Cavalier Parliament, and in December, he was sent for in custody for non-attendance. later that year, Henry served on the foreman of the grand jury of Oxfordshire during Norreys' successful proceedings against Stephen College on the court's behalf. He was commissioned a captain of Oxfordshire militia horse before 1681, and after the discovery of the Rye House Plot in 1683, he was employed in searching for arms secreted by the conspirators. Abingdon celebrated the event with a splendid celebration for the members of the corporation at his seat in Rycote, from which most returned "drunk and fell off their horses", according to Anthony Wood. He showed more activity in this Parliament, serving on the elections committee and the committee for taking accounts of the commissioners for disbanding the army. On 21 June, Henry led the troop of Oxfordshire Militia Horse out of Oxford toward Dorchester and Abingdon to act against the rebels in Somerset, The troop was disbanded in December; Like his brothers, Bertie belonged to the High Tories who were alienated from the court by the pro-Catholic policies of King James. In 1687, he lost his militia commission, his deputy lieutenancy, and was removed from the commission of the peace in Oxfordshire.

In February 1688, Bertie was removed from the Buckinghamshire bench as well. He was admitted a freeman of Devizes in March, but was removed from the Oxford corporation in June when it was purged and remodelled. Bertie returned to Oxford on 5 December with the troops under Lord Lovelace, who came to hold Oxford for the Prince. He and Norreys were returned for Oxford in the abortive December elections. James Bertie (died 7 May 1728), married Elizabeth Harris (d. 1720) and had a son, Norreys Bertie, and a daughter, Philadelphia (d. 1720) Rev. Charles Montagu Bertie (died 17 October 1744), rector of Uffington, died unmarried Eleanora Bertie, died unmarried Anne Bertie, died unmarried Catherine Bertie, married Francis Carr Clerke

After Philadelphia's death, Bertie married Catherine Fetherston (died 8 February 1736), daughter of Sir Heneage Fetherston, 1st Baronet, but had no children by her. His brother-in-law James Norreys died in 1718 and left the Norreys estates to Bertie's eldest son James.

Bertie died at Chesterton, Oxfordshire in 1734.