again to Downton, supporting the Tories. During this period he opposed the establishment of the Bank of England. In 1694 he bought the 40,000 acre Helmsley estate, now Duncombe Park. In 1698, Duncombe was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, and subsequently expelled from the House of Commons, for "contriving and advising the making of false Indorsements of several Bills, made forth at the Receipt of Exchequer, commonly called Exchequer-Bills", in other words a tax fraud. He was expelled from the House of Commons on 1 February 1698. However, at his trial, he was acquitted through a mistake in the information. He was knighted on 20 October 1699. He was Alderman for Bridge Within ward from 1700 until his death and was Sheriff of London in 1700. At the first general election of 1701 he was defeated at Downton but was returned to parliament as MP for Ipswich. At the second general election of 1701 he was defeated when he stood for the City of London, and having not stood at either Ipswich or Downton, was excluded from Parliament until the 1702 English general election when he was returned for Hedon and Downton, choosing to sit for the latter. He was appointed to a committee to investigate the prices of coal in London and in February 1703 he handled his constituents' petition for an extra market day at Downton. He avoided voting for the Tack in 1704. At the 1705 English general election he was returned again for Downton and voted against the Court candidate for Speaker on 25 October 1705. He was fairly inactive in Parliament but in the City of London he came under attack from Whigs who removed him as a militia colonel, and his mayoral ambitions were overlooked by the court of aldermen. At the 1708 British general election, Duncombe was returned again unopposed for Downton and in September 1708 became Lord Mayor of London to the indignation of the Whigs. He was to have had a publicly performed pageant for his, but it was stopped by the death of Prince George of Denmark (Queen Anne's husband), the day before. In May 1709, he endorsed the candidacy of Dr Henry Sacheverell for the chaplaincy of St Saviour's, Southwark and later showed Tory partisanship by reportedly giving only £50 for the relief of the Palatine refugees, and only for the sake of his office. Though