The Verneys and the Sequestrators in the Civil Wars 1642-56. John Broad

THE VERNEYS AND THE SEQUESTRATORS IN THE CIVIL WARS 1642-56 J. P. F. BROAD Sir Ralph Verney's estates were in grave danger of sequestration throughout the Civil War, not because he supported the King, but because he found that he could not in conscience sign the Covenant—the instrument by which Parliament forced presbyterianism on the English. In 1643 he went into exile, leaving his lands in the hands of trustees; but a defect in one of the trust deeds led to valuable lands being nevertheless sequestered after the war was over. In this paper Dr Broad describes the acute financial difficulties this brought to a family already burdened by debt, and their ultimately successful- efforts to lift the sequestration. The success was a tribute both to the courage of Lady Verney (already suffering from the cancer that was to kill her) and to the fact that obligations of kinship and friendship were still felt to overide the demands of politics. During the English Civil War both sides used sequestration on the Verney family's lands and sequestration (the confiscation of income from income provides an excellent case study of the property) to coerce and penalize their complexities of land and finance.1 opponents, particularly the local gentry. On the parliamentary side income from sequestrated When Sir Edmund Verney was killed while property was collected by the local County carrying King Charles' personal standard at the Committees who were the effective rulers of the battle of Edgehill in October 1642, he was English shires during the wars. Wives and succeeded as head of the family by his eldest dependents of those sequestrated were allowed son, Sir Ralph, who was twenty eight at the small percentages of the income for their time. Sir Ralph had lost his mother and maintainence, but that was all. The grandmother in the previous two years, and had parliamentary victors later allowed owners to to rely on relatives and friends for advice to regain their lands on payment of a fine of twice supplement his own experience of running the the assessed yearly value of the property, estates. He discovered that he had succeeded to provided they swore allegiance to parliament's estates worth £2000 a year, but that crippling religious settlement—the Covenant. This family debts amounted to around £11,000, and process was called Composition, and went on interest payments on them accounted for more during and after the first Civil War. Thousands than half of the family income. His own of gentry, professional, and yeoman families political position was equivocal, He had went through the process and the records of opposed royal policy in 1640, like most of the their compositions have been summarized in parliamentary class, and remained on the the five thick volumes of the Calendar of the parliamentary side when his father joined the Committee for Compounding. However, as King in 1642. He sat on several parliamentary often happens, the realities of power did not Committees, and his name was added to one in always follow the smooth paths of October 1642, but he probably withdrew from administrative convenience. The effect of active participation in the Long Parliament in 1 the summer after writing the final notes of his occasionally one side or another set up strong parliamentary diary on 27th June. He withdrew points such as the Royalist outpost at Hillesden from Parliament not to change sides, but House. Both sides tried to assert their authority because of his principled refusal to subscribe to by taxing the villages of the northern hundreds. the Covenant, a religious oath which cemented Simultaneous tax demands from both survive Parliament's alliance with the Scots by making for East Claydon in 1645-6. Military action concessions to presbyterian forms of Church meant impoverished farmers unable to pay their government. It was this that kept him away rent, and landlords whose income was therefore from Parliament and eventually drove him into cut. It also meant the billeting of large numbers exile in France. He retained links with many of troops in the county, who were paid for only parliamentarians throughout the forties, long after their departure. Much of north particularly with the group around the Earl of Buckinghamshire was thus in no man's land for Warwick.2 much of the war and lacked firm administrative control.4 Sir Ralph had strong connections with the socially conservative and aristocratic section of Sequestration first threatened the Verneys in the parliamentary alliance which had most May 1643, when some of Sir Ralph's goods importance in the early years of conflict. His were seized in the London home of a Royalist, religious views and exile, coupled with his Sir Edmund Sydenham, who was an old family father's Court connections, made him friend. He was able to regain them only by politically dubious in the more radical circles of petitioning the Parliamentary Committee for parliamentary politics. In Buckinghamshire, Sequestrations.5 Sir Ralph was regarded with the Verneys were one of the upper gentry suspicion but as yet only accused of helping families who formed the Country's ruling elite. Royalists. However, by August 1643 However many of the heads of these leading Parliament had set up a Committee to carry out county families were parliamentarians much an earlier order to sequestrate the estates involved in the prosecution of the war. of "those members of the house as shall absent Goodwin was the Parliamentary Treasurer, themselves without leave". On 15th September while John Hampden, Sir Richard Grenville Sir Ralph's name was raised, but three MPs, and members of the Whitlocke, Bulstrode, including the committee chairman and the Winwood, Temple and Ingoldsby families were Speaker were able to prevent his name all deeply involved in London. Control of the appearing in the first list of sequestrated County Committee fell into the hands of a members. Pressure on the absent members to group of minor gentry, with the Theeds and affirm their loyalty to Parliament were Bekes playing a prominent part, while later the increasing, and those MPs who had not sworn Committee included artisans and tradesmen. the Covenant were now asked to do so.6 Their politics were more radical, and their deference to traditional power structures had 3 Despite his strongly Puritan beliefs, Sir markedly waned. Ralph retained an undying loyalty to the traditional episcopal religious order that was Finally, before tracing the course of incompatible with the terms of the Covenant, sequestration we need to have some idea of the and found himself in an impossible position. In effects of the Civil War on Buckinghamshire. August he made preparations for going abroad, The King's headquarters were in Oxford and obtaining a passport (from both sides), and Parliament's base was London, so for much of lining up a merchant to ship his effects to the Civil war north and west Buckinghamshire Holland. He wrote to the chairman of was in the thick of the fighting. The King's Parliament's Sequestration Committee that he outpost was Boarstall Tower, while there were was going abroad "to inform my judgement in Parliamentary garrisons at Aylesbury and high things wherein I am yet doubting". In this Newport Pagnell. In 1643 and 1644 there were and in a later letter he stressed the special numerous skirmishes and raiding parties, while nature of his exile, and denied all rumours that 2 he had joined the King.7 Before leaving he took legally belonging to Dick [Winwood] F[rancis] steps to prevent his estates being seized by D[rake] and Littleton [John Denton]". As a making a new family settlement. His lands were result "the sequestration is taken off and he put into the hands of trustees to pay his hopes that during the time of the deed it will not accumulated debts and the annuities due to his be further disturbed." The production of the nine siblings. The deeds were specially drawn deeds was minuted by the County Committee up, possibly by Sir Orlando Bridgman, and without comment.10 two sets covered consecutive two year periods. Once these precautions had been taken Sir The threat from the County Committee was Ralph set sail for France in November 1643, deflected by the deeds, and while Sir Ralph's accompanied by his wife and elder son political position was ambiguous it remained 8 Edmund. possible for him to extricate himself by returning to Westminster, swallowing his Sir Ralph remained abroad for the next ten religious scruples, and taking the Covenant. years and during that time his estates in However, his options were gradually reduced. Buckinghamshire were run by his bailiff, Sharp conflicts tend to make those who try to William Roades, with supervision by his stay neutral the butt of both sides. If King and relatives William and John Denton, and Parliament had managed to reach a negotiated occasionally by his brother Henry Verney. settlement Sir Ralph's postion might quickly Their correspondence vividly shows the have been resolved, but after the failure of the problems of landownership during the Civil Uxbridge negotiations early in 1645 it quickly War. The threat of sequestration was only one became more precarious. On 22nd September of a number of interlocking problems. The 1645 he was voted out of the House of ravages of war reduced estate income to a Commons and declared a delinquent. His quarter or less at times. This meant that there friend Sir Roger Burgoyne attended the debate was no money to pay the interest on debts. and reported that "absence was the only cause Creditors were desperate for payment as it was of it, though other things were objected often their main source of income.

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