Samuel Backhouse
The next sum came after marrying Elizabeth Borlase, member of the Buckinghamshire gentry, as he purchased the manor of Swallowfield in order to reside closer to his new affinial relatives.
Here Backhouse lived the life of a country gentleman, fulfilling several minor municipal duties and, in 1600, entertaining the Queen as Sheriff of Berkshire.
It is known that he became a shareholder of the New River Company in 1619 and engaged in a minor familial dispute regarding the parish church; he perhaps also cultivated associates interested in esotericism.
Nicholas Backhouse was granted a confirmation of arms on 27 March 1574, which stated the family "lange tyme past did come out of Lancashere where they were of worshippful degree".
[2] Backhouse grew into "a man of considerable wealth" who, alongside his property in Swallowfield, held over 70 acres in Clerkenwell and Islington.
His university peer John Chamberlain reported wryly that in 1600-01 Backhouse, as the county's newly made sheriff, was "almost out of heart" after being informed Queen Elizabeth I was visiting.
[5] Parliamentary historians Alan Davidson and Andrew Thrush suggest he was emboldened to try for this position by his successes in the royal visit a few years earlier, and his many relatives in parliament, including brothers-in-law Sir William Borlase and Nicholas Fuller.
Late the same month, Backhouse joined his brothers-in-law in considering MP Robert Johnson's bill in opposition to the abuse of purveyance.
Near the session's close, a group of five purveyors—Masters Grave and Brennan alongside their three servants—surreptitiously took wood from Backhouse's Berkshire estate early on a Sunday morning.
They were brought before the Star Chamber the following month, who found this action in violation of Magna Carta and considered it a further affront as it occurred on the sabbath, "an offence muche increasinge th'offenders punishmte".
From November 1606 to June 1607, during this session of parliament, he was named to several committees concerning new bills: concerning the ecclesiastical courts; concerning legitimacy; (with Myddleton) the 1606 New River Act; assuring the lands of the City of London's livery companies; and, finally, on 13 June, enabling Berkshire gentleman William Essex to sell off his lands in order to repay his creditors.
[2] In the following parliament, Backhouse sat for Aylesbury alongside Buckinghamshire gentleman Sir John Dormer of Dorton.
This constituency was under the influence of the local favourite Sir John Pakington, who had entertained Elizabeth extravagantly in 1603; he presumably gave his approval to the election of these two candidates.
He was also named among those to discuss repealing various "obsolete, unprofitable and pernicious statutes"; assess bills to boost Sabbath observance; confirm the Charterhouse hospital; revoke an act on fish-packing from Elizabeth's reign; and prevent customs extortions.
[2] Backhouse was among the "Adventurers" (shareholders) named in the incorporation charter, alongside his son John, several other kinsmen, and Sir Hugh Myddelton (with whom he had worked in parliament).
[2][10] Prior to this, in early 1614 and while attending parliament, Backhouse and three others investors had paid a small fee to acquire a portion of land in Ware, at the source of the New River.
[2] In 1618, Backhouse and his family became involved in a quarrel over the ownership of some pews in Swallowfield church, which was ultimately brought in front of the Star Chamber.
[18][19] Samuel's son, William, became a "most renown'd chymist, Rosicrucian, and a great encourager of those that studied chymistry and astrology", as Anthony à Wood put it,[20] later working as the tutor of Elias Ashmole.
If this "S. Backus" can be identified with Samuel Backhouse, this document puts him as an acquaintance of two prominent English mysticists, suggesting his own interests in that area.
