Sir Henry Widdrington (died 1623) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1604 to 1622.
Widdrington was the son of Edward Widdrington of Swinburne Castle and Ursula Carnaby. He succeeded to the estates of his uncle Henry Widdrington of Widdrington Castle in 1592.WIDDRINGTON (WITHERINGTON, WOODRINGTON), Sir Henry (c.1567-1623), of Swinburne Castle, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010 He was deputy warden and keeper of Ridsdale under Sir Robert Carey. As Knight Marshal and depute governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed he was criticised for allowing bankrupts to shelter from the law by buying the offices of soldiers in the garrison from him.Linda Levy Peck, Court Patronage and Corruption in Early Stuart England (Routledge, 1993), 117–118.
In May 1599, Henry Widdrington described how a football match had been arranged at Bewcastle as an occasion to capture the Armstrongs of Whitehaugh. The Armstrongs heard of the ambush and made a surprise attack.Joseph Bain, Border Papers, 2 (Edinburgh, 1896), p. 605 no. 1066. Widdrington held a banquet at Berwick for the Scottish diplomats John Skene and William Stewart in June 1590. They were travelling to London and then to Denmark.David Scott Gehring, Diplomatic Intelligence (Cambridge: Camden Society, 2016), p. 151.
At the Union of the Crowns, Widdrington was knighted by James VI and I at Widdrington on 9 April 1603.Edward Arber, An English Garner, vol. 8 (Archibald Constable, 1896), p. 499. He was Captain of Tynemouth Castle until he was replaced by William Selby in 1606.M. S. Giuseppi, HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury, 18 (London, 1940), pp. 366–67.
In 1604, he was elected Member of Parliament for Northumberland. He was High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1606. He was re-elected MP for Northumberland in 1614 and 1621.C H Hunter Blair 'The Sheriffs of Northumberland', Archaeologia Aeliana: Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquities
Widdrington married Mary Curwen, daughter of Sir Nicholas Curwen. His son William was created Baron Widdrington.
After he died in 1623, the Privy Council of Scotland noted that there was now nobody taking care of justice on the borders of Scotland, then known as the "Middle Shires", particularly in Tynedale and Redesdale.Melros Papers (Edinburgh, 1837), pp. 586-7.
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