Charles Sergison

Cuckfield Park, Sergison's home in later life

Charles Sergison (11 January 1655 – 26 November 1732) was an English Royal Navy administrator and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1698 to 1702.

Sergison became a clerk in one of the Royal Naval dockyards in 1671 and by 1685 was a principal officer and commissioner of the Royal Navy.[1] In 1693 he occupied Cuckfield Place House (now Cuckfield Park) in Sussex which he later purchased from the Bowyer family. He lived at Cuckfield Place until his death[2]

In 1698, Sergison was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for New Shoreham. He held the seat until 1702.[3]

Sergison continued to work in the Admiralty as Clerk of the Accounts until his retirement in 1719. He built a large collection of papers relating to Admiralty orders to the Navy Board between 1603 and 1717.[4] These papers have subsequently been published.[5]

Thomas Warden's Name Act 1732
Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Long titleAn Act to enable Thomas Warden Esquire and the Heirs of his Body, and the several other Persons therein named, and the Heirs of their respective Bodies, to take and use the Surname of Sergison, as therein mentioned.
Citation6 Geo. 2. c. 18
Dates
Royal assent17 May 1733

Sergison died without issue at Cuckfield aged 77 and was buried at Holy Trinity Church.[1] The bulk of his estate passed to his great-nephew Thomas Warden, who had married one of his nieces,[6] and who assumed the surname of Sergison thereafter by a private Act of Parliament (6 Geo. 2. c. 18).[7] His house, Cuckfield Park, stayed within the Sergison family until the early 1970s.

  1. ^ a b Public sculptures of Sussex - Monument to Charles Sergison
  2. ^ Parishes: Cuckfield, A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7: The rape of Lewes (1940), pp. 147–163. Date accessed: 4 November 2010
  3. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 2)
  4. ^ Wellcome Library Survey - National Maritime Museum
  5. ^ Open Library
  6. ^ The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
  7. ^ Deed Poll Office: Private Act of Parliament 1732 (6 Geo. 2). c. 18