Family and Education

bap. 9 July 1653, 1st’s. of Walter Vincent I, and bro. of Walter Vincent II. educ. Exeter, Oxf. 1667, I. Temple, entered 1667, called 1674. m. lic. 22 Oct. 1679, Rebecca, da. of Henry Searle of Wanstead, Essex, 3s. suc. fa. 1680.1

Offices Held

J.p. Cornw. 1680-7, ?1689-d.; alderman, Penryn, Tregony and Truro 1685-7, freeman, East Looe and Mitchell 1685; stannator, Tywarnwhaile 1686, 1703; commr. for assessment, Cornw. 1689-90, dep. lt. by 1701-?d.2

Commr. for victualling 1699-1711, land bank 1699; dep. paymaster of the army 1705-6.3

Biography

Vincent, a barrister, succeeded his father as Member for Mitchell in 1681, but there is no evidence that he attended the Oxford Parliament. As a nephew of Edward Nosworthy I, he was marked ‘doubtful’ on a list of Cornish justices in 1682, but he must have been a Tory at this stage in his career, since he was named in no less than five new charters. At the general election of 1685 he was recommended for Fowey as a candidate ‘very acceptable to the King, of great interest, and of considerable gratitude’; but in fact he was returned for Truro on his corporation interest, and continued to represent the borough in the next ten Parliaments. His only committee in James II’s Parliament was on a bill to enable a certain Isaac Savery, presumably a kinsman of his wife, to change his name to Serle. As an opponent of the King’s religious policy, he was removed from the commission of the peace and the Truro corporation. He was involved in a double return at the general election of 1689, and seated on the merits of the return. He did not vote to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant, and may have been a court Tory in the Convention. Seldom distinguished in the Journals from Thomas Vincent, he was probably moderately active. He may have served on 22 committees, including those to bring in a militia bill, to hear a petition from army creditors, and to inquire into the sale of offices. In the second session ‘Mr Vincent’ was named to the committees for restoring corporations, for indemnifying those who had participated in the Revolution, and for imposing a general oath of allegiance. He veered towards the Whigs in the latter part of William III’s reign, signing the Association in 1696 and receiving a lucrative office. He died of apoplexy on 28 Dec. 1717. His two sons represented Fowey successively from 1708 to 1726.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. Truro Par. Reg. (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc.), i. 200 (as ‘Edward’); Boase, Coll. Cornub. 1149; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster, 1389.
• 2. CSP Dom. 1685, pp. 71-72, 73-74, 80; PC2/71/390; T. Bond, Sketches of Looe, 4; Cornw. RO, AD107/22; J. Tregoning, Laws of the Stannaries, 57, 118; Add. 6713, f. 196.
• 3. CSP Dom. 1699-1700, p. 254; CJ, xii. 510; Cal. Treas. Bks. xxi. 68, 248.
• 4. Treffry mss, Trelawny to Treffry, 4 May 1685; HMC Portland, v. 551.