Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sheffield, Edmund (1611?-1658)

610469Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 52 — Sheffield, Edmund (1611?-1658)1897Charles Harding Firth

SHEFFIELD, EDMUND, second Earl of Mulgrave (1611?–1658), born about 1611, was the grandson of Edmund Mulgrave, first earl of Mulgrave [q. v.] His father, Sir John Sheffield, who was drowned in 1614, married Grizel, daughter of Sir Edmund Anderson, chief justice of common pleas [q. v.] Mulgrave was appointed by the parliament vice-admiral of Yorkshire, in succession to his grandfather (13 Nov. 1646), and a year later one of the commissioners for the navy and customs (17 Dec. 1647) (Commons' Journals, iv. 721; Lords' Journals, ix. 582). In August 1647 he signed the engagement to stand by Fairfax and the army for the restoration of the freedom of parliament (Rushworth, vii. 755). On 14 Feb. 1649 he was elected a member of the council of state of the Commonwealth, but declined to accept the post from dissatisfaction at the execution of the king and the abolition of the House of Lords (Commons' Journals, vi. 140, 146). When Cromwell became Protector, Mulgrave was less scrupulous, and on 30 June 1654 took his place in Cromwell's council, at which he was for some years a regular attendant (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, p. 230). In December 1657 the Protector summoned him to his new House of Lords, but Mulgrave never took his seat (Godwin, History of the Commonwealth, iv. 470, 475). He died on 23 Aug. 1658 (Mercurius Politicus, 26 Aug.–2 Sept. 1658).

A letter from Mulgrave to Fairfax is printed in the ‘Fairfax Correspondence’ (iii. 139), and two addressed to Thurloe among the ‘Thurloe Papers’ (iv. 523, vi. 716). His suits about the alum works in Yorkshire, and his dispute with his grandfather's widow about the property of the first earl, are frequently mentioned in the ‘Journals’ of the House of Lords (viii. 630, x. 243, 347; cf. Hist. MSS. Comm., 7th Rep., pp. 24, 27, 30, 32).

Mulgrave married Elizabeth, daughter of Lionel Cranfield, first earl of Middlesex [q. v.], and was succeeded by his son John, afterwards first duke of Buckingham and Normanby [q. v.]

[Doyle's Official Baronage, vol. ii.; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 387; Notes and Queries, 9th ser. i. 162.]