Edmund Dunch was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for
Berkshire in 1624 and was re-elected in 1625 and 1626. In 1628 he was elected MP for
Wallingford (then
Berkshire (now
Oxfordshire)). and
Sheriff of Berkshire in 1633–1634. A Royal warrant was issued for his arrest in 1639 for failure to pay
ship money in support of
King Charles I.
John Hampden represented him at his trial, and he escaped punishment. See document ACC/0447 at the London Metropolitan Archives. He was re-elected to serve for Wallingford in the
Short Parliament of 1640. He also represented Wallingford in the
Long Parliament that first sat in 1640. He supported the parliamentary cause in the Civil War, signing the Protestation in 1641. His manor and possessions at
Little Wittenham were taken from him by the king and given to
Thomas Blagge, governor of
Wallingford Castle. In 1644, Dunch directed a parliamentary committee to send military forces into areas around
Oxfordshire and
Berkshire, including Wallingford. He took the oath prescribed in the Act enforcing the
Solemn League and Covenant in 1647. He was on the Parliamentary
Committee for Compounding with Delinquents that levied fines on the estates of Royalists. In 1648, was a Protester against any agreement with the King Charles. After the capture of Charles I, Dunch survived
Pride's Purge of MPs who did not want
Charles tried and was part of the
Rump Parliament. In 1654, he was elected MP for Berkshire in the
First Protectorate Parliament) and in 1656 he was re-elected MP for Berkshire in the
Second Protectorate Parliament. After Oliver Cromwell's son
Richard resigned from power as second
Lord Protector, Dunch may have joined the
Committee of Safety in 1659. A fine was levied against Dunch for non-attendance at Parliament in 1659 but later withdrawn. After the restoration
Charles II did not recognise Dunch's baronage (the only one made by Cromwell not renewed by Charles II), but unlike the surviving
Regicides, Dunch was not exempted from the general pardon granted under
Indemnity and Oblivion Act. He was Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1667–68. ==Family==