Gabriel Pleydell

Arms of the Pleydell family of Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire

Gabriel Pleydell (fl. 1519 – c.1591) was an English landowner and politician who served as Member for the Wootton Bassett (1553, 1563–67) and Marlborough (1555) constituencies in the English Parliament.

Pleydell was born before 1519 into a large, land-owning family in Wiltshire. Coming of age by 1540, his entrance into politics in 1553 was secured by his residence at Midgehall, close to Wootton Bassett, giving him a valid claim to the market town's seat in Parliament. Similarly, his election to the Marlborough constituency two years later was perhaps made possible by his father's influential connections. He returned to the Wootton Bassett seat on the request of Sir John Thynne in 1563, whom Pleydell had supported in a dispute over the Knighthood of the Shire in 1559.

The political and personal profile of Pleydell is marked by legal controversy. Almost always a defendant in the courts, known allegations have included the forced expulsion of residents from a country manor, forcible entry and seizure of goods in a private property, unlawfully protecting convicts from justice, forging documents to his own benefit, illegal hunting and ring-leading a plot to exile Queen Mary I of England. He is perhaps best known for his contentious claim of parliamentary privilege having been found guilty of the latter offence in 1555, an action that caused severe disagreement between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Plagued by legal accusation for the near entirety of his political career and imprisoned in the likes of Fleet Prison and the Tower of London, this has helped "confirm for Gabriel Pleydell a niche in parliamentary history" according to a contemporary biographer; Gabriel died between 19 December 1590 and 3 February 1591.

Earlier life and family

File:Commemorative plaque, St Mary’s Church, Lydiard Tregoze, Swindon (crop).png

Plaque dedicated to Sir Charles Pleydell, Gabriel's grandson, in St Mary's Church, Lydiard Tregoze

Gabriel Pleydell was born by 1519 at his family's estate of Midgehall in Lydiard Tregoze. The sixth of nine children, he was the fourth son of the wealthy landowner William Pleydell of Coleshill, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) and Agnes Reason, the daughter of Robert Reason of Corfe Castle, Dorset. His younger brother was John Pleydell, later Member of Parliament for Cricklade in 1593. The Pleydell family were thought to descend from Thomas de Coleshill, a knight who was bestowed the lordship of the eponymous parish on 2 March 1275 by King Edward I.

Pleydell had come of age by 1540, holding land once owned by Sir Anthony Hungerford at Eisey, near the parish of Cricklade. Records from 1545 show that Gabriel was also managing the monetary affairs of the Midgehall estate, having been ordered to pay 26 shillings and 8 pence in benevolence to the crown under King Henry VIII. In 1549, William Pleydell bequeathed him the manor house of West Ilsley, Berkshire; Gabriel too was to inherit Midgehall according to the will of his father, who died in 1555. Such an inheritance was far from immediate, with both his mother and two older brothers, Tobias and Virgil, listed ahead to succeed ownership. With his mother and brother Virgil deceased, Gabriel received the remainder of a 95-year lease of Midgehall, 11 years after Tobias had permanently settled in Chipping Faringdon.

He married Anne, daughter of Henry Stockes of Sussex. They had two surviving children, a son and a daughter. Oliver Pleydell was husband firstly of the daughter of a Mr. Palmer from Gloucestershire. They had one son, Sir Charles Pleydell, who married Katharine, daughter of Thomas Bouchier of Barnsley, Gloucestershire, and had nine children, including John and William. Oliver married secondly to widower Jane, daughter of Sir John St. John, four times Member for Bedfordshire; they had ten children. His younger sister Agnes (1541–1623) was the wife of William Bayly, Member for Chippenham from 1572 to 1583 and undersheriff of Wiltshire from 1579 to 1580. They had two sons, including Henry Bayly, twice Member for Malmesbury (1586, 1589).

Parliamentary career

Victorian depiction of the 16th-century Palace of Westminster, place of assembly for the Parliament of England

Pleydell's initial entrance to the Parliament of England in March 1553 as a Member for the market town of Wootton Bassett was made, at least in part, possible through his status as a wealthy landowner. Although he had not yet inherited the family estate of Midgehall, his purchasing of land and property surrounding the manor in 1561 and 1562, just one mile from the constituency, suggests that his assets were of a sufficient size to warrant his occupation of the seat in the House of Commons. Established in 1447, Wootton Bassett has been retrospectively described "as a classic example of a 'Rotten Borough'", a seat in which a minute electorate voted to appoint a Member of Parliament, perhaps swayed by personal interests or bribery; on this basis, the constituency was abolished by the Reform Act 1832. Surviving Parliamentary records note the return of Pleydell to Parliament exclusively by his Christian name, sufficiently unusual to identify him outright. Succeeding Members John Seymour and Robert Huick of the 1547–52 session, Pleydell served alongside William Garrard until October 1553. They were replaced in 1554 by Henry Poole and John Throckmorton, the latter a cousin of Catherine Parr.

His election to the Marlborough constituency in 1555 was a similar affair, yet more dependent on influential connections. Gabriel's father had once held the lands of Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley in the nearby parish of Eastrop, and possibly Preshute, establishing a trusting relationship between the families. After Seymour's brother, Edward, 1st Duke of Somerset, was executed in 1552, his widower, Anne, inherited responsibility over maintaining the vast estates. The Duchess appointed Gabriel as her personal receiver general in 1554, as well as the chief ranger of Savernake Forest (before 1554), then entirely under her ownership. His rangership probably led to the acquisition of property in Chippenham and Preshute, within a permissible distance to Marlborough, thus qualifying himself for the borough's seat in Parliament. Pleydell, serving with Sir Andrew Baynton, replaced Peter Taylor alias Perce and John Broke of the 1554 session; they were succeeded by William Daniell and William Fleetwood in 1558 after a Parliamentary hiatus had concluded upon the death of Queen Mary I.

Pleydell was to return as a Member for Wootton Bassett in 1563. His appointment was made possible by the patronage of former member for Marlborough, Sir John Thynne, an eminent figure in Wiltshire politics who served as the county's custos rotulorum for at least 20 years. Pleydell had supported Thynne in a contest over the Knighthood of the Shire in 1559, no doubt assisting in his bid for Parliamentary selection. Wootton Bassett's other seat was occupied by Matthew Poyntz, with whom Gabriel governed until 1567. Having replaced Christopher Dysmars and Humphrey Moseley of the 1559 session, they were succeeded by Henry Knyvet and John Winchcombe.

Legal affairs

King Henry VII receiving clerics in the Tudor Star Chamber

Plaintiff and early defendant

Gabriel's parliamentary tenure was plagued by legal controversy. Usually a defendant in the courts, Pleydell acted as the plaintiff in at least two cases; firstly, towards the end of the reign of King Edward VI, he brought a charge against several gentlemen in the Star Chamber who forced his expulsion from the manor house of Withington, Gloucestershire, of which he was leasing. Secondly was a case brought to the Court of Chancery at an unknown date, with Gabriel accusing his brother, Tobias Pleydell (known in court documents as 'Toby'), regarding a dispute over the Midgehall estate.

The first serious allegation against Pleydell in the Star Chamber concerned the forced expulsion of an occupant of the manor house at East Grafton, Somerset in the Autumn of 1553. Then member for Wootton Bassett, Gabriel was accused of assisting John Berwick in both the original infringement and composing an amenable jury in Marlborough, as to evade certain conviction. Predictably, they were both found innocent of breaching the peace and claimed to have acted on the reasonable request of their employer, Anne, Duchess of Somerset; undue interference with judicial proceedings was also ruled out. Around the same time, Pleydell was sued for forcible entry and the illegal seizure of property at Little Bedwyn with the committal of similar offences at Collingbourne Ducis, but claimed to be acting on the failure of the plaintiff to pay rent punctually.

Involvement in the Dudley Conspiracy

Described by Hasler as "a religious and political radical" under Queen Mary I, Pleydell had voted against a government bill in 1555 while Member for Marlborough. It may have been this controversial notion, and perhaps a combination of his previous offences, that saw him interned at the notorious Fleet Prison upon the dissolution of Parliament in the same year. The Star Chamber also accused Gabriel of inciting riots abroad against the monarchy; a fervent supporter of Sir Anthony Kingston in the House of Commons, Pleydell came to be associated with the plot of Sir Henry Dudley to exile Mary and ensure the succession of Queen Elizabeth I to the throne, a foiled venture that would lead to Dudley's execution and Kingston's unexplained demise. Gabriel, "regarded as a ringleader", claimed parliamentary privilege when the Star Chamber too found him guilty in the Michaelmas term of the 1555 session. The charges were maintained by both a binding of £500 and a writ ordered by the court; possibly an action taken by the crown to intimidate future opposition in Parliament. Claiming his privilege was unduly infringed, the Commons sided with Pleydell and sent a deputation on 6 December, led by Sir Robert Rochester, expressing support for his immunity.

The House of Lords, witnessed by Rochester, Sir William Petre and four unnamed Members, declared the opinion of all Chief Justices, Serjeants-at-Law and the present Master of the Rolls, Sir Nicholas Hare, that Pleydell's privilege had not been infringed constitutionally. The Commons, dissatisfied with the ruling, took no further action on the matter and possibly blocked further legal suits against Pleydell until the dissolution three days later. He was released from prison on 28 December 1555, having paid an additional bond of £500 to the crown; his freedom was conditional on returning to the Star Chamber to pay another £45 on the first day of its next term, to which he obliged. Speaking upon his release to the Privy Council, Pleydell stated that he was punished for "speaking his conscience ... in a bill concerning the commonwealth" (an opinion that he subsequently echoed abroad). The Star Chamber considered the distribution of these comments to be slanderous, yet took little judicial action against them.

Protection of felons

In 1557, Pleydell was returned to the chamber by former accomplice John Berwick, who accused him of protecting convicted criminals from facing punishment. The felons, one a murderer, the other a thief, were servants to Gabriel in his capacity as chief ranger and keeper of Savernake Forest. Berwick, presumed by Bindoff to be acting on jealousy, was the previous holder of the titles and was in a dispute with Pleydell over the rights to property in the forest's vicinity. In response, Gabriel enlisted the service of former or past Members of Parliament in July, including William Button, Henry Clifford, Griffith Curteys and John Hooper; their prescribed duty was to examine witnesses and evidence on both sides of the argument, eventually presenting a list of 240 articles regarding the activities of the accused servants. Alas, his efforts were seen as an attempt to undermine the integrity of the Queen's justices, perhaps even as to influence rebellion among his supporters over the issue. This, in addition to breaching a commitment to regularly meet with the Privy Council after his imprisonment, led to his indictment by attorney-general Edward Griffin in the Michaelmas term; he was incarcerated in the Tower of London and forfeited his £1,000 in bond payments. He was released from the Tower on 19 December owing to good behaviour, and left for the home of Thomas Garrard, a merchant taylor, where he entered into a renewed bond of £1,000.

Forgery

Sir William Cordell found "great and vehement suspicion" in Pleydell

Allegations of forgery were brought against Pleydell in the Court of Chancery, the circumstances of many remain undisclosed; a significant suit was initiated by Member for Chippenham, Francis Newdigate, at the start of the 1563 parliamentary session. Newdigate, second husband of the Duchess of Somerset (Pleydell's employer), accused Gabriel on a forgery charge regarding the manor of Monkton in his constituency. Though further details are unclear, Francis introduced the case to the House of Commons between 11 and 27 February 1563, probably in light of discussion surrounding the proposed Forgery Act 1563 (5 Eliz.1 c.14). The Commons assembled a committee to investigate Newdigate's suspicions on 22 March; this comprised Recorder of London, Richard Onslow, Sir Nicholas Arnold, Walter Haddon, Thomas Norton and Master of the Rolls, Sir William Cordell. Cordell's involvement as an official of the judiciary perhaps indicates that Pleydell had once again claimed parliamentary privilege when Newdigate's allegations arose, given that the case proceeded in the Court of Chancery while he was a sitting Member for Wootton Bassett. The committee complained of "great and vehement suspicion" towards Gabriel in a report which was eventually read and replied to by the accused. On 10 April, the House ordered that copies of the committee's documents should be granted to both Pleydell and Newdigate, and that the former's evidence was to be kept by the Commons; no further mention of the affair is evident.

The later career of Sir Andrew Baynton, with whom Pleydell had served alongside as Member for Marlborough, was overshadowed by financial woes. In a perceived attempt to gain court favour and reduce his debts, Baynton entrusted Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley with all of his property, presumably on a temporary basis. However, when Seymour was executed for treason in 1549, the lands fell into possession of the crown. Queen Mary I negotiated the sale of these lands to several members of the Wiltshire gentry, including Nicholas Snell and Gabriel himself. It is thought Pleydell went further in the pursuit of Baynton's estates; assisted by Henry Sharington, they were to be the executors of his will upon his death in 1564. Assigning themselves his properties in Chippenham, the couple, historically described as "scoundrels", directed Baynton's money and estates towards their own bequests and personal finances; Pleydell acquired the manor houses of both the Bremhill and Bromham parishes. By this measure, Sharington has been described by Alison Wall as "corrupt", Pleydell as cumulatively "notorious"; Bindoff surmises that the action "confirm[s] for Gabriel Pleydell a niche in parliamentary history, detract[ing] still further from his reputation". Nonetheless, Pleydell released any titles inherited from the concerned estates to Edward Baynton, Andrew's son, by 1566. This was despite the Privy Council rejecting allegations of forgery, deeming Gabriel's reaction as a compromising gesture.

Pleydell, alongside patron Sir John Thynne and others, was to find himself indicted once again in 1564, this time returning to the Fleet Prison on the charge of illegal hunting in Selwood Forest. He was, however, given leave under escort, as to attend impending "great suits" against him, probably related to the litigation against his perceived forgery by the Baynton family. Gabriel was once again accused of similar deeds years later; the prosecution deemed him and his accomplices to be "persons of long time acquainted with such lewd devices and practices".

Later controversy

Other suits were brought against Pleydell in later life. In 1587 he was to appear in front of the Privy Council by ways of mediation in an unclear suit initiated by his successor to the Wootton Bassett seat, Sir Henry Knyvet. Listed as living in Towcester, Northamptonshire for the Kynvet proceedings, in July 1590 a clerk registered him as being returned as resident of the family estate in Midgehall.

Death and bequests

Gabriel, "sick in body", wrote his will on 19 December 1590; the document, proved by creditor Oliver Frye on 3 February 1591, places his exact date of death between the two. His wife received ten cows and 100 sheep (equating to the collective value of around £60) as well as half of his personal possessions and household goods at the Midgehall estate. Each of his servants, and St Mary's Church, Lydiard Tregoze, were to receive 10 shillings, the combined poor of the parish, 20. The profits of Gabriel's lands were entrusted to political associates Sir Edward Baynton, Sir John Danvers and Sir Charles Danvers, in-mind that Pleydell's grandson, Charles (then a minor), would grow to inherit a considerable fortune. The remainder was gifted to Agnes, his only daughter and sole executrix; she paid the document's overseers, Richard Danvers and Robert Wells, the sum of 20 shillings for their services.

References

Bibliography

• Baker, John Hamilton (2003). The Oxford History of the Laws of England: 1483–1558. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-825817-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bindoff, Stanley Thomas (1982a). The House of Commons 1509 – 1558. Vol. 1. Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-436-04282-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bindoff, Stanley Thomas (1982b). The House of Commons 1509 – 1558: Appendices, constituencies, Members A-C. Vol. 1. Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-436-04282-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Burke, Bernard (1863). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. 2. London: Harrison. ISBN 978-0-19-825817-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Burke, John; Burke, Bernard (1844). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland (2 ed.). London: William Clowes Ltd. OCLC 2847665. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Elton, Geoffrey Rudolph (1989). The Parliament of England 1559 – 1581. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-38988-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hasler, P.W. (1981a). The House of Commons 1558 – 1603: Members A-C. Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-11-887501-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hasler, P.W. (1981b). The House of Commons 1558 – 1603: Members M-Z. Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-11-887501-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hasler, P.W. (1981c). The House of Commons 1558 – 1603: Introductory survey, appendices, constituencies, Members A-C. Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-11-887501-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fletcher, Anthony; MacCulloch, Diarmaid (2015). Tudor Rebellions (6 ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-43737-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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• Rossiter, D.J.; Johnston, Ronald John; Pattie, C.J. (1999). The Boundary Commissions: Redrawing the UK's Map of Parliamentary Constituencies. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-5083-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Smollett, Tobias; et al. (1802). The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature. Vol. 34. London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall. OCLC 1565468. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |last2= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stone, Harry (2015). That Monstrous Regiment: The Birth of Women's Political Emancipation. Cirencester: Memoirs Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86151-315-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)