Sir Pynsent Chernock, 3rd Baronet

Sir Pynsent Chernock, 3rd Baronet (before 1670 – 2 September 1734) was a Tory landowner and Member of Parliament from Bedfordshire. He became knight of the shire for the county in 1705 by a comfortable margin, but declined to contest it in the next election in 1708. Chernock subsequently sold one of his manors, perhaps to pay for his electioneering expenses. After a close election in 1713, his political career ended with a defeat in 1715.

Education and family Chernock was born sometime before 1670, the eldest son of Sir Villiers Chernock, 2nd Baronet, of Holcot (Hulcote), Bedfordshire and his wife Anne Pynsent. He was educated at the Inner Temple in 1684 and admitted a fellow-commoner of Queens' College, Cambridge on 30 March 1685. On 9 June 1691, he married Helen Boteler (died 1741), the daughter and coheir of William Boteler. They had three sons and five daughters, of whom one son and daughter died during Chernock's life. He became a burgess of Bedford in 1693, and succeeded his father in the baronetcy and inherited Holcot in October 1694.

In the new Parliament, he voted for William Bromley in his unsuccessful candidacy for the Speakership. He continued to be classed as a Tory, but was not active in Parliament, and stood down at the 1708 election; Lord Edward Russell regained the seat. The sale of one of Chernock's manors in 1709 may have been to offset electioneering expenses;

Second term and death Chernock did not stand again until 1713. By this time, the deaths of the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Bolingbroke had disordered the Whig nobility of the county, of which the Duke of Kent became effective leader. The increasing popularity and local organization of the Tories allowed Chernock and Harvey to triumph narrowly over the Whig candidates, John Cater and William Hillersden. Again, Chernock was relatively inactive in Parliament, managing a bill on Bedfordshire highways. His support for the Tory candidates in Bedford failed to secure them that seat in the 1715 election, and he himself was defeated in Bedfordshire by Hillersden. This marked the end of his active political involvement, although the Jacobites reported him a likely sympathizer with their cause in 1721. He died at his seat, where he was buried, on 2 September 1734. His son succeeded him in the estate and baronetcy.