John Strangways (1584 - 1666)

Born 1584 in Dorset, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 30 Dec 1666 at about age 82 in Dorset, England

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Biography

The Melbury estate has been owned by sixteen generations of the Strangways family, since 1500 when Henry Strangway bought the estate from the Brounings family. In their time the Brounings had probably built a manor house, and had rebuilt the church of St Mary near Melbury Turbeville. Henry Strangway died in 1504 and the estate passed to Sir Giles Strangway (d.1547), an official at the court of Henry VIII. He rebuilt the manor house in the 1530s, and most likely created a formal garden with two hexagonal-shaped banqueting houses (one of which survives). He also created a deer park, as recorded by John Leland in his ‘Itinerary’ of 1534-43 following his visit to Melbury in c1540, and the small settlement of Melbury Turberville was cleared in the process. Lodge Farm, situated in the south-west part of the original deer park may have been built as the Deer Keeper’s Lodge.

In 1596 Sir John Strangways (1584-1666) succeeded to Melbury Estate. He was imprisoned in 1627 for opposing a loan demanded by Charles I to fund the Spanish War. In 1644 Melbury House, despite Sir John being a royalist, was occupied by Royalist Forces causing considerable damage. Following sequestration the Estate was put in the hands of the local Standing Committee. It was this that probably lead to a period of neglect/destruction and the deer park was temporarily dismantled. After payment of a fine, Sir John was released and returned to Melbury, where he planted three commemorative oaks in the shape of a triangle, near the Deer Keeper’s Lodge. The deer park is depicted on John Speed’s ‘Map of the County of Dorset’ published in 1662, though that does not show much detail.

Sir John died in December, 1666 at the age of 81,and was buried at Melbury Sampford, Dorset.

Sir John was a benefactor of Wadham College, University of Oxford. Sir John Strangeways (1584–1666) of Dorset, nephew of Nicholas Wadham donated the glass in the east window of Wadham College Chapel (£113.17s.5d) in 1622. An ardent royalist, he, his son, and grandson were all members of the Convention Parliament in 1660.

Family

The Visitation of Dorset, carried out in 1623, lists the children of Sir John Strangwayes and Grace Trenchard of Wolveton as: ^[1]

• Wadham Strangwais, firstborn son, died without surviving progeny before 1623
• Giles, second son and heir, 9 years old in 1623
• Jacobus, 3rd son, 7 years old in 1623
• Howard, eldest daughter, who was already married to Edward Rogers of Brianston, Dorset by 1623
• Jana, second daughter, 12 years old in 1623
• Elizabetha, 10 years old in 1623

Research

NAME: This family's names is spelt in modern times as either Strangeways or Strangways. It appears from the Visitation records that, generally speaking, the Yorkshire branch used Strangeways and, later on at least, the Dorset branch used Strangways. However, cross-references from other sources are not fully consistent with this.

Sources

1. ↑ The Visitation of the County of Dorset taken in the year 1623 by Henry St George and Sampson Lennard, Volume XX of the Publications of the Harleian Society, London, 1885.

• History of Parliament [1]
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Strangways_(died_1666)

Also

• http://fabpedigree.com/s047/f312824.htm
• https://www.geni.com/people/Col-Giles-Strangways-MP/6000000031367551304
• http://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sir-john-strangeways-15841666-benefactor-223994
• https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000531