Giles Mompesson
Giles Mompesson (c. 1583 – 1663) was an English office holder and courtier who sat in the House of Commons between 1614 and 1621, when he was sentenced for corruption. He was officially a "notorious criminal" whose career was based on speculation and corruption. His name came to be regarded as a synonym for official corruption, because he used nepotism to gain positions for licensing businesses by which he pocketed the fees. In the reaction against Charles I, Mompesson's name was invoked as a symbol of all that was wrong with aristocracy. Sir Giles Overreach, the anti-hero of Philip Massinger's 1625 play A New Way to Pay Old Debts, is based on Mompesson. Licensing monopoly Mompesson was born in Wiltshire. He grew up into a small, swarthy individual with black hair. He entered Hart Hall, Oxford in 1600, but left without a degree the next year for Lincoln's Inn; he later departed there without becoming a lawyer. In 1606 or 1607, he married Katherine, the daughter of the late Sir John St. John, who had been one of the most prominent men in Wiltshire. Through the influence of his brother-in-law, Sir John St John, 1st Baronet, Mompesson became a Member