TRENCHARD, John (c.1586-1662), of Warmwell, Dorset and Covent Garden, Westminster

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
Available from Cambridge University Press

Constituency

Dates

1640 (Apr.)
1640 (Nov.)
1654
1656

Family and Education

b. c.1586, 4th but 2nd surv. s. of Sir George Trenchard† sen. (d.1630) of Wolveton, Charminster, Dorset and his 1st w. Anne, da. of Sir George Speke† of Whitelackington, Som.; bro. of Sir George† jun. and Sir Thomas*.1 educ. St. Alban Hall, Oxf. 1602, aged 16, BA 1605; M. Temple 1607.2 m. settlement 1612 (with £1,200), Jane, da. of Sir John Rodney* of Rodney Stoke, Som., 1s. d.v.p. 5da. (2 d.v.p.).3 d. 11 Oct. 1662.4

Offices Held

Agent to 4th earl of Bedford (Sir Francis Russell*) by 1635, recvr.-gen. to 5th earl 1641.5

Commr. assessment, Westminster 1641-2, 1645, 1647-52,6 Dorset 1642-4, 1647-52, 1657, 1660,7 Mdx. 1644-5, 1647-52,8 Cambs. 1657, 1660, Suff. 1657, Surr. 1660,9 sequestration, Dorset and Westminster 1643,10 levying money, Dorset and Mdx. 1643,11 execution of ordinances, Dorset 1644, New Model Ordinance, Mdx. 1645,12 sewers, Westminster, 1645, Gt. Fens 1646, 1654, 1657-8,13 Mdx. 1655-7;14 gov. Covent Garden par., Westminster 1646;15 commr. militia, Westminster 1647-9,16 Dorset 1648, 1659-60,17 Southwark, Surr. 1649, 1659, Surr. 1659, Ely, Cambs. 1660;18 j.p. Westminster by 1649-53, Dorset by 1650-60, Mdx. by 1650-3;19 commr. drainage, Bedford Level, Fens 1649,20 relief of poor prisoners, Dorset 1653,21 piracy 1653-4,22 scandalous ministers 1654,23 oyer and terminer, Western circ. 1654-9,24 gaol delivery, Ely 1654-8,25 Poole, Dorset 1655, 1659.26

Commr. regulating excise 1645;27 trustee for Elector Palatine 1645;28 commr. exclusion from sacrament 1646,29 compounding 1647-53,30 scandalous offences 1648, sale of bps.’ lands 1648;31 member, High Ct. of Justice 1649;32 commr. army 1649, 1652,33 obstructions to sale of forfeited estates 1651.34

Biography

Trenchard’s marriage settlement provided him with a seat at Warmwell, which he rebuilt on an unconventional Y-plan, and the Dorset manor of Bestwall, just outside Wareham.35 He was first returned for the borough in 1620, but left no trace on the records of the third Jacobean Parliament. Re-elected in 1624, when the prominent Dorset lawyer Sir Francis Ashley* canvassed on his behalf,36 he was personally named to legislative committees concerned with poor relief and the estates of Sir Reginald Mohun* (16 Mar. and 8 May). He also attended one meeting of the committee for the bill to confirm the customs of Beaminster Secunda, Dorset.37 Although again returned for Wareham to the 1625 Parliament, he played no known part in its proceedings, and is not known to have stood in the next two parliamentary elections. However, in 1628 he may have influenced the return at Wareham of his cousin, Sir John Meller.38

Trenchard compounded for knighthood in Dorset in 1631, but as a servant of the 4th earl of Bedford he was chiefly employed during this decade in the development of the Covent Garden estate, where he was resident by 1635.39 Twice more elected at Wareham in 1640, he was active both in the Long Parliament and in the parliamentarian cause at local level. Though a commissioner for compounding, he refused to act as one of the king’s judges in 1649.40 Trenchard sat in three more Parliaments during the Interregnum. He died in London in October 1662, and was buried at Warmwell. No will or grant of administration has been found. The Warmwell estate passed to his son-in-law John Sadler†.41

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

  • 1. Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 326.
  • 2. Al. Ox.; M. Temple Admiss.
  • 3. Hutchins, i. 415-16; iii. 326; The Gen. n.s. xvii. 102.
  • 4. E178/6204.
  • 5. St. Paul, Covent Garden (LCC Survey of London, xxxvi), 33; G.S. Thomson, Life in a Noble Household, 44.
  • 6. SR, v. 64, 86, 153; A. and O. i. 637, 970, 1087; ii. 39, 303, 472, 669
  • 7. SR, v. 150; A. and O. i. 90, 544, 964, 1081; ii. 33, 296, 464, 661, 1066, 1367.
  • 8. A. and O. i. 536, 637, 970, 1087; ii. 38, 303, 471, 668.
  • 9. Ibid. ii. 1063, 1248, 1365, 1379.
  • 10. Ibid. i. 111, 114.
  • 11. Ibid. 147, 229, 232.
  • 12. Ibid. 460, 623.
  • 13. C181/5, f. 255, 269v; 181/6, pp. 27, 247, 333.
  • 14. C181/6, pp. 69, 176, 245.
  • 15. A. and O. i. 815.
  • 16. Ibid. 1011, 1246; ii. 20.
  • 17. Ibid. i. 1236; ii. 1323, 1430.
  • 18. Ibid. ii. 195, 1312, 1333, 1428.
  • 19. CSP Dom. 1648-9, p. 47; C193/13/3, ff. 15v, 42; 193/13/4, f. 61, 128v; Perfect List of JPs (1660), p. 13.
  • 20. A. and O. ii. 139.
  • 21. Ibid. 758.
  • 22. CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 257; C181/6, p. 33.
  • 23. A. and O. ii. 970.
  • 24. C181/6, pp. 9, 377.
  • 25. Ibid. 20, 284.
  • 26. Ibid. 95, 357.
  • 27. A. and O. i. 691.
  • 28. Ibid. 785.
  • 29. Ibid. 854.
  • 30. Ibid. 914.
  • 31. Ibid. 1209, 1227.
  • 32. Ibid. 1254.
  • 33. Ibid. ii. 64, 562, 689.
  • 34. Ibid. 523.
  • 35. Hutchins, i. 415-16; J. Newman and N. Pevsner, Dorset (Buildings of Eng.), 440.
  • 36. Add. 29974, f. 76.
  • 37. CJ, i. 687a, 701a; C.R. Kyle, ‘Attendance Lists’, PPE 1604-48 ed. Kyle, 201.
  • 38. Hutchins, iii. 326; Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 10.
  • 39. Som. and Dorset N and Q, iv. 18; St. Paul, Covent Garden, 33; M.F. Keeler, Long Parl. 364.
  • 40. Keeler, 364.
  • 41. E178/6204; Soc. Gen., Warmwell par. reg.