Richard Whitehead was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons

House of Commons of England

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

  from 1640 to 1653. He fought for the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

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Whitehead was the son of Sir Henry Whitehead

Henry Whitehead (MP)

Sir Henry Whitehead was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1625 to 1629.Whitehead was the son of Richard Whitehead. He inherited the estates of Norman Court and Shirley Hampshire in 1593. In 1609 he was High Sheriff of Hampshire.In 1625, Whitehead was elected Member of...

 of Norman Court Hampshire and his wife Constance. He inherited the family estates at Shirley and Hill on the death of his father in 1629. In 1636 he was High Sheriff of Hampshire

High Sheriff of Hampshire

This is a list of High Sheriffs of Hampshire, the title was often given as High Sheriff of the County of Southampton until 1959.-List of High Sheriffs:*1070–1096: Hugh de Port *1105: Henry de Port *1129: William de Pont de l'Arche...

 when he had the thankless task of collecting ship money for the county. He wrote to the council complaining of the backwardness of the county, and he imprisoned a constable who failed to certify the defaulters and who argued that the money "would never be gathered during his lifetime". Nevertheless, he was ordered to collect the arrears, which stood at £404.

In April 1640, Whitehead was elected Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Hampshire

Hampshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Hampshire was a county constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which returned two Knights of the Shire to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832...

 in the Short Parliament

Short Parliament

The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....

. He was re-elected MP for Hampshire for the Long Parliament

Long Parliament

The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

 in November 1640. Whitehead became a faithful adherent of Parliament during the Civil War, possibly soured against the King's cause because of his experience with collecting Ship money. He was one of the colonels of regiments in the Parliamentary army of Hampshire and Sussex, together with Richard Norton

Richard Norton of Southwick Park

Richard Norton of Southwick Park , was a colonel in the parliamentary army in the English Civil War and a member of several parliaments...

, Onslow, Jarvis, and Morley.
In 1643 he was one appointed to extract large sums of money from Royalists on pain of imprisonment at Portsmouth, and is said to have remarked that he "had been at a great charge to build a cage at Portsmouth where many Hampton birds should sing very suddenly." Under the command of General Waller

William Waller

Sir William Waller was an English soldier during the English Civil War. He received his education at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and served in the Venetian army and in the Thirty Years' War...

 he was present at siege of Basing House

Siege of Basing House

The siege of Basing House near Basingstoke in Hampshire, was a Parliamentarian victory late in the First English Civil War. Whereas the title of the event may suggest a single siege, there were in fact three major engagements...

  at the beginning of 1644. He also besieged Bishop's Waltham Palace

Bishop's Waltham Palace

Bishop's Waltham Palace is a moated Bishop's Palace ruin in Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire, England. It is a scheduled ancient monument.It was built by Henry de Blois in 1135....

, and obtained its surrender with the help of Major-General Browne's London brigade. He was given permission "to pull down the house if he chose." In June 1644 the House of Commons instructed him and others to sequestrate the estates of Papists and delinquents valued at less than £12,000 within London and Westminster in order to pay off arrears to the garrisons of Portsmouth and of Hurst Castle

Hurst Castle

Hurst Castle on the south coast of England is one of Henry VIII's Device Forts, built at the end of a long shingle barrier beach at the west end of the Solent to guard the approaches to Southampton. Hurst Castle was sited at the narrow entrance to the Solent where the ebb and flow of the tides...

, Southsea Castle

Southsea Castle

Southsea Castle is one of Henry VIII's Device Forts, also known as Henrician Castles, built in 1544 on the waterfront at the southern end of Portsea Island . The castle was built to guard the eastern entrance to the Solent and entrance to Portsmouth Harbour...

 and Calshot Castle

Calshot Castle

Calshot Castle is one of Henry VIII's device forts, built on Calshot Spit at the Solent near Fawley to guard the entrance to Southampton Water...

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Whitehead married Margery Culliford, daughter of John Culliford of Encombe, Dorset.