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RAINSFORD (RAYNSFORD), Richard II (c.1641-1703), of Dallington, Northants.
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. c.1641, 1st s. of Richard Rainsford I. educ. Queen’s, Oxf. 1657; L. Inn 1657, called 1664. m. lic. 9 Dec. 1667, aged 26, Anne, da. of Richard Neville of Billingbear, Berks., 2da. (1 d.v.p.). suc. fa. 1680.1
Offices Held
J.p. Northants. 1665-Feb. 1688, 1689-d., commr. for assessment 1673-80, 1689-90; rebuilding Northampton 1677-84; freeman, Northampton 1685.2
Biography
Rainsford qualified as a barrister, but did not follow his father’s profession, though his legal knowledge was always at his neighbours’ disposal. After the disastrous fire of 1675 he was one of five local gentlemen authorized to collect the Northampton hearth-tax for seven years and use it for rebuilding churches and other public buildings. Returned for Northampton in 1685, he was moderately active in James II’s Parliament with five committees, including that for the repeal of the Bedford Level Drainage Act so far as it affected Northamptonshire. A firm Anglican, he gave negative answers on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws, and was removed from local office. He is not known to have stood again, though he was restored to the bench after the Revolution. He died on 15 Mar. 1703 and was buried at Dallington, the last of the family to sit in Parliament. His only surviving daughter married James Griffin.3