Sir Christopher Calthorpe KB was an English Member of Parliament.
Background
Calthorpe was born into a rich Norfolk family which had held manorial property in East Anglia since 1376 and had first represented the county in Parliament under Henry VI. His father was a Parliamentary sympathiser in the Civil War and had held local office under the Commonwealth. His mother, Catherine, was the daughter of Sir Edward Lewkenor of Denham.
Education
Calthorpe was educated at Christ"s College, Cambridge, followed by Middle Temple in 1660.
Career
He was invested as a Knight of the Order of the Bath on 23 April 1661. Calthorpe joined the Norfolk Tory political faction headed by Robert Paston, 1st Earl of Yarmouth, which secured his election to the House of Commons in February 1679, representing Norfolk. However, the legitimacy of his election was challenged by his political rivals, and a by-election was held in May the same year.
In 1688, Calthorpe bluntly declared that he could not give his assent to the repeal of the Test Acting and Penal Laws, and he was removed from local office as a Justice of the Peace.
Hobart again had him arrested after the Jacobite assassination plot 1696. He died in 1718.
Membership
Habeas Corpus Parliament.