Family and Education

b. c.1625, 1st s. of William Strode, and bro. of Essex Strode. educ. Emmanuel, Camb. 1639. m. (1) 1656, Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Francis Rivett of Kings Somborne, Hants, 1da.; (2) 10 July 1675, Margaret, da. of Sir John Osborne, 1st Bt., of Chicksands, Beds. 1da.; (3) Jane, da. of Sir Thomas Ellys, 1st Bt., of Wyham, Lincs., 1s. 2da. suc. fa 1666.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Som. 1647-8, 1657, Jan. 1660, 1666-80, 1689-90, militia Mar. 1660, j.p. Mar.-July 1660, 1674-80, Feb. 1688-d., capt. of militia ft. Apr. 1660, commr. for sewers Aug. 1660, sheriff 1671-2, commr. for recusants 1675, inquiry into recusancy fines Mar. 1688, dep. lt. 1689-90.2

Biography

Strode was the grandson of a Shepton Mallet clothier, who came from a cadet branch of the Dorset family. He was the first cousin of John Strode II. His father, a Presbyterian elder, fought as a colonel in the parliamentary army, and sat for Ilchester as a recruiter until Pride’s Purge, when he was imprisoned as a notorious firebrand. Restored to local office under the Protectorate, he lived in retirement after the Restoration.3

Strode assisted Presbyterian ministers ejected after Bartholomew. In the first election of 1679 he and John Speke were involved in a double return at Ilchester with the Tories Edward Phelips I and Robert Hunt, which was decided in their favour. Shaftesbury marked him ‘honest’, and he left no trace on the records of the first Exclusion Parliament, except to vote for the bill. In the autumn he was re-elected, apparently without a contest, and also returned for Stockbridge, where his first wife had brought him an interest. As one of ‘the greatest countenancers of the disaffected party in the county’, he entertained the Duke of Monmouth at Barrington. When the second Exclusion Parliament met, Strode’s return for Stockbridge was set aside, but he continued to sit for Ilchester. He helped to aggravate the charge of abhorring against Sir Robert Cann by giving evidence of his swearing. A moderately active Member, he was appointed to eight committees, including those for regulating elections and the better discovery of estates settled to superstitious uses. At the general election, he again contested Ilchester, but without success. He continued to nurse the constituency ‘with his great treats in the town and large invitations of his party to his house in Barrington’, and he came under suspicion after the Rye House Plot. He was unsuccessful at Ilchester in 1685, and his petition was never reported.4

Strode was excluded from the general pardon issued after Monmouth’s rebellion, but was granted a special pardon in June 1686, and became a Whig collaborator. He was approved as court candidate in 1688, when he was expected to be successful either for the county, Ilchester or Milborne Port. But he never sat again, although he contested Ilchester at the general election and Stockbridge at two by-elections in 1689. He was buried at Barrington on 19 Feb. 1695. His son dissipated the estate, but a distant cousin, Edward, was returned for Ilchester in 1705.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Irene Cassidy

Notes

• 1. Frag. Gen. viii. 148.
• 2. Q. Sess. Recs. (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxiv), p. xix; Merc. Pub. 26 Apr. 1660; C181/7/25; Cal. Treas. Bks. viii. 1804.
• 3. Som. Arch. Jnl. xxx. 47, 60; D. Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 195, 309.
• 4. D. R. Lacey, Dissent and Parl. Pols. 442-3; CJ, ix. 581, 727; CSP Dom. 1679-80, pp. 222, 234; 1680-1, pp. 352, 514; Jan.-June 1683, p. 363.
• 5. E. Green, March of William of Orange through Som. 44; CSP Dom. 1685, p. 178; 1686-7, p. 165; HMC Lords, ii. 306; Dalrymple, Mems. iii. 91; CJ, x. 14, 286, 327.