Roger Twysden

Sir Roger Twysden, 2nd Baronet (21 August 1597 – 27 June 1672), of Roydon Hall in Kent, was an English historian and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1625 and 1640.

Twysden was the son of Sir William Twysden, 1st Baronet and his wife Anne Finch, daughter of Sir Moyle Finch, 1st Baronet. His father was a courtier and scholar who shared in some of the voyages against Spain in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and was well known at the court of King James I becoming one of the first baronets. Twysden was educated at St Paul's School and was admitted at Emmanuel College, Cambridge on 8 November 1614. He entered Gray's Inn on 2 February 1623. For some years, he remained on his estate at Roydon Hall, East Peckham, largely engaged in building and planting, but also in studying antiquities and the law of the constitution.

In 1625, Twysden was elected Member of Parliament for Winchelsea. He was re-elected MP for Winchelsea in 1626. As eldest son, he succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father on 8 January 1629. Twysden arranged for his mother's writings to be published.

Twysden showed his determination to stand on his rights by refusing to pay ship money. In April 1640 he was elected MP for Kent in the Short Parliament. However, he became disillusioned and was not a member of the Long Parliament elected later the same year. He applauded the early measures of the parliament to restrict the king's prerogative but became alarmed when it went on to assail the Church. The attainder of Lord Strafford frightened him as a tyrannical use of power, and he became a typical example of the men who formed the strength of the king's party in the English Civil War. He considered himself too old to serve in the field and therefore he did not join the king at Oxford.

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