Family and Education

b. c.1621, 3rd s. of John Bodurda of Bodwrda, Aberdaron, Caern. by Margaret, da. of John Griffith of Cefnamwlch, Lleyn, Caern. educ. Shrewsbury 1638; St. John’s, Camb. matric. 27 Oct. 1639, aged 18; L. Inn 1649. m. (1) 1648, Mary, da. of Arthur Squibb, Clarenceux King of Arms, of Henley Park, Ash, Surr., 1s.; (2) lic. 23 July 1664, Katherine, da. of John Sisney of Thorpe, Rutland, wid. of Richard Shaxton, merchant and Fishmonger, of Silver Street, London, s.p.1

Offices Held

Clerk, wine licences 1646-53; keeper of records, common pleas 1656-June 1660; commr. for wine duties 1668-70; dep. commr. of Treasury [I] 1671-d.2

Commr. for assessment, Caern. 1647, Anglesey, Caern. and London 1657, Anglesey and Caern. Jan. 1660, Westminster and Anglesey Aug. 1660-1, Caern. Sept. 1660-1, 1663-d., Mdx. 1664-9, militia, Caern. 1648, Westminster and North Wales Mar. 1660; j.p. Caern. Mar. 1660-d.; conservator, Bedford level 1665-6.3

Biography

Bodurda came of an old but minor North Wales family which took its name from its estate under Elizabeth. His father was arrested, with the brother of John Glynne, as ill-affected to the King at the outbreak of the Civil War, but later served on the commission of array while the Royalists had the upper hand. Bodurda himself played no known part in the war, but was appointed to office shortly after its close. He was court Member for Anglesey in 1656, but transferred to Beaumaris in 1659, no doubt with the support of the small coterie of local Puritans.4

Re-elected in 1660, Bodurda was listed by Lord Wharton as a friend. He signed the North Wales petition for justice on the regicides. He was moderately active in the Convention, serving on 25 committees, including the elections committee and those to prepare the bill abolishing the court of wards, to draft the assessment ordinance, to consider the indemnity bill, and to hear the petition from the intruded dons at Oxford. He made 14 recorded speeches, in the first of which on 4 July he opposed the proposal for obliging Cromwellian officials to refund their salaries. As an opponent of Anglicanism, he wished doctrine and discipline to be considered separately. He acted as teller for the motion to retain the duties on Irish cattle at their existing level. On 11 Sept. he reported on the defects in the poll-bill, and on the next day he was among those ordered to manage a conference on the subject.5

Bodurda was named with John Carter and William Griffith in the order for the demolition of Caernarvon Castle, but he was detained in Westminster during the recess to give evidence for the prosecution about the conduct of Cooke and Axtell at the trial of Charles I. When the House met again he seconded the motion of Richard Knightley for settling the militia. He proposed asking the King and the universities to endow vicarages out of their impropriate rectories. He supported the proposal for modified episcopacy in accordance with the Worcester House declaration:

The King by this declaration having desired an indulgence, he hoped they would not resist it, and therefore he moved the bill might pass till the first session of the next Parliament.

When William Prynne proposed that those who had been temporarily raised to the rank of esquire by holding office during the Interregnum should be rated accordingly in the poll-tax, Bodurda described it as a breach of the Act of Indemnity, and the motion was dropped. He was teller with Thomas Bampfield against the bill to oblige Colonel John Hutchinson to repay £2,000 which he had obtained from the Nottinghamshire Cavaliers. The bill for settling wine licences found him in his element. He reported it on 22 Dec., and proposed an additional clause to forbid the addition of milk. But the great importer (Sir) John Frederick assured the House that a pottle of milk would do more good than harm. However, Bodurda helped to draft a new clause prohibiting more noxious adulterations. When the bill came up for discussion again, he resisted a proposal from (Sir) Thomas Clarges for price controls and was ordered to carry it to the Lords.6

Bodurda did not stand again. His second wife brought him City property, and he helped to maintain order in Islington during the Great Fire. In 1668 he applied for appointment as one of the London excise commissioners, but despite the support of Lord Arlington (Sir Henry Bennet) he did not succeed. Instead, Lord Conway obtained for him a post in the Irish Treasury, which he was able to combine with property development in Dublin. He died intestate in Ireland in 1677, the only member of his family to sit in Parliament.7

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / A. M. Mimardière

Notes

• 1. J. E. Griffith, Peds. Anglesey and Caern. Fams. 168; J. E. Auden, Shrewsbury Sch. Reg. 11; Procs. Dorset Nat. Hist. and Arch. Soc. lxviii. 62; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster, 147; Misc. Gen. et Her. (ser. 5), vii. 66; C9/426/141.
• 2. Information from Professor G. E. Aylmer; HMC 7th Rep. 38; Cal. Treas. Bks. ii. 581; CSP Dom. 1672-3, p. 449; 1677-8, p. 481.
• 3. S. Wells, Drainage of the Bedford Level, i. 457.
• 4. A. H. Dodd, Studies in Stuart Wales, 114, 162.
• 5. Merc. Pub. 14 June 1660; Bowman diary, ff. 51v, 82v; CJ, viii. 102.
• 6. Arch. Camb. i. 150; State Trials, v. 1084-5; Old Parl. Hist. xxiii. 2, 6, 29, 47, 66, 68; CJ, viii. 205.
• 7. Fire Court ed. Jones, ii. 164, 334-5; CSP Dom. 1666-7, pp. 99-100; 1667-8, p. 314; 1673-5, pp. 56, 438-9; C9/426/141.