Family and Education

b. c.1616, o.s. of Allen Urren alias Corrance, Merchant Taylor, of London and Wimbish Hall, Essex by Catherine, sis. of Richard Bell of York. educ. Christ Church, Oxf. matric. 15 Feb. 1633, aged 16; I. Temple 1636; Padua 1640. m. Margaret, da. of Sir John Hare^† of Stow Bardolph, Norf., 1s. 2da. suc. fa. 1649.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Bucks. 1661-2, Suff. 1686-7; commr. for sewers, Bedford level 1662-3; j.p. Westminster by 1680-9; commr. for assessment, Suff. 1689-90.2

Biography

Corrance’s father, of Warwickshire origin, was granted arms in 1620, while serving as sheriff of Radnorshire, and acquired a small estate in Essex. Neither Corrance nor his father seems to have taken any part in the Civil War. As mortgagee of the Lucy property of Haversham he was pricked as sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1661, but he sold the manor shortly afterwards to the father of Sir John Thompson, and acquired from his own brother-in-law two manors in Rendlesham, about seven miles from Aldeburgh. Although he lived chiefly in Westminster and held no office in Suffolk at the time, he was ‘esteemed by the country gentlemen’, and was returned for Aldeburgh at the second general election of 1679, probably as an opponent of exclusion, for he remained a Westminster magistrate. In the second Exclusion Parliament he was appointed only to the committee for repealing the Corporations Act. He was re-elected in 1681, but left no trace on the records of the Oxford Parliament, and there is no evidence that he stood in 1685.3

Corrance improved his interest by the purchase of Parham Hall in 1687 and was immediately selected as sheriff. In 1688 James II’s electoral agents reported that the Aldeburgh electorate proposed to choose him again, adding that they ‘could give no good account’ of his attitude to the King’s religious policy. Another prospective candidate was told:

I could not learn how Mr Corrance had been beneficial to them any other way than by showing them common respects, and having gained an opinion amongst them of being firm to the Church of England.

But Corrance refused to stand ‘upon pretence of age and the gout’, and took no further part in public life. His will was dated 17 Nov. 1693 and proved on 7 May 1694. His grandson sat for Orford as a Tory from 1708 to 1722.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

• 1. Vis. London (Harl. Soc. xv), 211; Burke, Commoners, iii. 370-1; PCC 120 Fairfax, 95 Box.
• 2. S. Wells, Drainage of the Bedford Level, i. 350; Mdx. RO/WJP/CP1, 2.
• 3. Grantees of Arms (Harl. Soc. lxvi), 260; Morant, Essex, ii. 558; Lipscomb, Bucks. iv. 188; Copinger, Suff. Manors, iv. 322; E. Suss. RO, Winterton mss, Godfrey to Turnor, 5 Dec. 1688.
• 4. Copinger, v. 156; Winterton mss, Godfrey to Turnor, 3 Dec. 1688; PCC 95 Box.