GORGES, Edward (1631-1708), of Charlton House, Wraxall, Som.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

bap. 18 Dec. 1631, 1st s. of Samuel Gorges of Wraxall by Jane, da. of John Cottrell of Winford, wid. of George Allen of Wrington. educ. G. Inn 1648. m. 22 Sept. 1653, Grace (d. 9 Sept. 1698), da. of William Winter of Clapton-in-Gordano, 1s. d.v.p. 1da. suc. fa. 1671.1

Offices Held

Commr. for sewers, Som. Aug. 1660, j.p. 1670-Feb. 1688, Oct. 1688-d., commr. for assessment 1673-80, 1689-90, recusants 1675, dep. lt. 1680-87, 1689-91.2

Biography

Gorges’s ancestors gained possession of the manor of Wraxall and other Somerset properties by a fortunate marriage in the 13th century, and had sat in Parliament for Somerset since Henry VI’s reign. During the Civil War Gorges’s father was a Royalist who paid £582 in composition for his estates, but was still able to build himself a new house during the Interregnum. After the Restoration he was named one of the projected knights of the Royal Oak, when his income was estimated at £600 p.a. Gorges himself, presumably a court supporter, held local office throughout the exclusion crisis. In 1687 he gave the same evasive answers as John Hunt to the first two questions on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws. He signed the declaration of support for the Prince of Orange at Crewkerne on 15 Nov. 1688, and was returned as knight of the shire in 1689. In the Convention, according to Ailesbury’s list, he voted to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant. His only committee was on the bill for relief of poor prisoners, to which he was added on 30 May. He supported the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations, and is not known to have stood again. He was buried at Wraxall on 8 Sept. 1708, the last of the senior line of his family. His estates passed to a granddaughter who married John Codrington, MP for Bath (with one interval) from 1710 to 1741.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Irene Cassidy

Notes

  • 1. G. S. Master, Colls. Par. Hist. Wraxall, 26-28.
  • 2. Q. Sess. Recs. (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxiv), p. xii.
  • 3. Cal. Comm. Comp. 971; E. Green, March of Wm. of Orange through Som. 57-58; CJ, x. 160.