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John Delbridge

English politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 26, 2024
Entity authorityQ6229117
Source-derived summary

John Delbridge (1564 – 24 June 1639) was an English merchant from Devon who was elected six times as a Member of Parliament.

Early life and education

He was the second son of Richard Delbridge (d. post 1595), a merchant of Barnstaple, by his wife Alice. He matriculated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge on 3 July 1604 and entered the Middle Temple on 10 May 1606.

Career

He was elected to Parliament to represent his home town, the borough of Barnstaple, in the years 1614, 1621, 1624, 1625, 1626 and 1628. He served three times as mayor of Barnstaple, in 1600-1, 1615–16 and 1633–34. By 1596 he had been elected a Freeman of Barnstaple, and Capital Burgess by 1596; He was Captain of the militia of foot-infantry by 1629 and clerk of the market 1633–34. In trading activities he was a member of the East India Company (1611–21), the French Company (1611), the Virginia Company (1612-post 1623), the North West Passage Company (1612) and the Somers Island Company (1615-post1622). He was a member of the Council for Virginia in 1621. His skills and influence were noted by the great Sir Robert Cecil by whom he was employed from about 1602 to after 1606.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “John Delbridge” is english politician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through John, Delbridge and English, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1564, 1639, 1595, 1604—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1564. For this dossier, John, Delbridge and English is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “english politician” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 26, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q6229117. VIAF identifies the subject as 40191051. The Library of Congress control number is n96115998. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1564, 1639, 1595 and 1604.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “John Delbridge”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John Delbridge primary sources, John Delbridge archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John Delbridge”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from John Delbridge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.