Lewis Watson, 1st Baron Rockingham

Who was Lewis Watson, 1st Baron Rockingham?

Lewis Watson, 1st Baron Rockingham was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1624. From 1621 to 1645 when he received his peerage he was known as Sir Lewis Watson, 1st Baronet. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War and as a result was created Baron Rockingham.

Watson was the son of Sir Edward Watson of Rockingham Castle and his wife Anne Digby daughter of Kenelm Digby of Stoke Dry, Rutland. He was baptised at Rockingham on 14 July 1584. He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford on 24 May 1590. On 19 August 1608, he was knighted at Grafton. He succeeded to Rockingham Castle, which was leased from the crown, on the death of his father on 4 March 1616 and later acquired the fee of the castle and its lands from the crown .

In 1621, Watson was elected Member of Parliament for Lincoln. He was created a baronet on 23 June 1621. In 1624 he was re-elected MP for Lincoln. He was Sheriff of Northamptonshire from 1632 to 1633. In 1633 he acquired from the Brocas family the title of "hereditary" Master of the Buckhounds which was a serjeanty associated with the Manor of Little Weldon.