In the Short Parliament of 13 April to 4 May 1640 he made one of the speeches that led to its dissolution and "appeared to be the most leading man" according to Clarendon.
When attacked on the subject in a letter in the Public Advertiser of 10 Aug. 1774 he excused himself chiefly on the ground of debts incurred in consequence of a lawsuit against Francis Gwyn, who had been concerned with him in the publication of an edition of Clarendon's History of the Reign of Charles II.
His sister Frances married Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon.
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However, he assured his friend Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, that he had only taken this step to allay the suspicions of the parliamentary party who contemplated depriving him of the seal, and he undertook to send this to the King.
During 1645 and 1646 he was in correspondence with Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards earl of Clarendon, on the state of the royalist cause in Cornwall.
Mews bought the manors of Christchurch and Westover from the Earl of Clarendon in 1708, having previously settled in the area with his purchase of the manor of Hinton Admiral.
Edward Villiers, 5th Earl of Clarendon (1846–1914), English political figure, son of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon (1800–1870); House of Lords (1870–1914)