page_title: James Temple
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: James Temple / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Longhouse Place (now Chadwell place), the childhood home of James Temple
context_page_description: James Temple was a puritan and English Civil War soldier who was convicted of the regicide of Charles I. Born in Rochester, Kent, to a well-connected gentry family, he was the second of two sons of Sir Alexander Temple, although his elder brother died in 1627. As a child, Temple moved with his father from Rochester to Chadwell St Mary in Essex and then to Etchingham in Sussex, where he settled.
  Temple gained military experience as a member of the Duke of Buckingham's expedition to the Isle of Ré in 1627. As a puritan, he joined the Parliamentary army at the outbreak of the Civil War and fought at the Battle of Edgehill. He rose to become a colonel and commanded Tilbury Fort, an important defensive position on the approach to London by river. He was elected as a Member of Parliament for Bramber in September 1645 to replace an ejected Royalist. He sided with the army in opposing any compromise with the King, and was appointed as a judge at the trial of King Charles I of England. Temple attended most of the court sessions and was the 28th to sign the King's death warrant.
context_section_description: Temple was born to Sir Alexander Temple and Mary Sommer while his parents were living in the parish of St. Margaret's in Rochester, Kent in the house previously owned by his mother's first husband. His family was closely related to the Temple family of Stowe House. The family belonged to the gentry, having a reasonable income, without being members of the aristocracy. His father had been knighted at the Tower of London by James I following the King's accession to the English throne - one of many members of the gentry who were knighted during the first years of the King's reign.
  Temple had an older brother (John) and a sister (Susan). As a result of his mother's first marriage, he had two half-brothers (including Sir Thomas Peniston) and two half-sisters. He was born into a well connected family. His uncles included Sir Thomas Temple, 1st Baronet, of Stowe and William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele. His sister, Susan Temple, Lady Lister, was the mother of Martin Lister and the grandmother of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.
  In 1607, following his mother's death, he moved to Longhouse Place (now known as Chadwell Place) in Chadwell St Mary, Essex. Both he and his older brother John, were admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1622. In the same year, Temple was given permission by the privy council to travel abroad for up to three years. He was allowed to take a servant with him, but he was strictly forbidden to visit Rome.
  While Temple was living in Chadwell St Mary, a number of Temple family portraits were painted by Cornelius Johnson. These may have been part of a family commission. They include Temple's father (which hangs in Hagley Hall) and his sister (which is in the Tate Gallery). These family portraits may have included Temple himself, but no portrait is known to have survived.
   In the early 1620s, as a result of his father's marriage to Mary Bankworth (who was previously married to John Busbridge), he moved, this time to Haremere Hall in Etchingham, Sussex. His father's third marriage gave him step siblings, including his stepsister, Mary Busbridge to whom Temple was married in March 1627. Over the next few years, they had six children.
caption: Longhouse Place (now known as Chadwell Place), the childhood home of James Temple
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