Thomas Trenchard (1582 - 1657)

Born 1582 in Charminster, Dorset, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1657 at about age 75 in Charminster, Dorset, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Susan Scarcella [send private message]

Biography

Sir Thomas Trenchard (1582 – 1657) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1648.(1)

Birth and Parentage

Trenchard was the son of Sir George Trenchard of Warmwell and his wife Ann Speke daughter of Sir George Speke of Whitelackington. He was knighted at Theobalds on 15 December 1613. He was appointed High Sheriff of Dorset in 1634. (1)

Sir Thomas TRENCHARD Bapt 11 Oct 1582 Charminster DOR d. bur 1657 Charminster, Sheriff of Dorset Per Alumni Oxonienses Of Dorset, equitis fil. St Alban Hall, matric 13 Jul 1599, aged 16, BA 16 Apr 1602; of Wolverton, student of Middle Temple 1604 (2nd son of George, of Wolfeton, Knight), knighted 15 Dec 1613, MP Dorset 1621-22, Nov 1645-1653 (LP), a rumper 1659; brother of John 1602 . (1)

Marriages

Trenchard married Elizabeth Morgan, (1) b c 1592 (sister/coheir of Christopher Morgan, widow of _ Motford m c 1612 (2)

Children

He had a son Thomas who was the father of John Trenchard Secretary of State. (1)

Life and Death

Born 11 Oct. 1582, 3rd but 1st surv. s. of Sir George Trenchard† sen. of Wolveton and his 1st w. Anne, da. of Sir George Speke† of Whitelackington, Som.; bro. of Sir George† jun. and John*. educ. St. Alban Hall, Oxf. 1599, BA 1602; M. Temple 1604. m. by 1615, Elizabeth, da. of Christopher Morgan of Mapperton, Dorset, coh. to her bro. Christopher, and wid. of John Molford (d.1610) of South Moulton, Devon, 3s. 8da. kntd. 15 Dec. 1613; suc. fa. 1630. d. c.1652. (1) He was knighted at Theobalds on 15 December 1613.(1)

In 1621, Trenchard was elected Member of Parliament for Dorset. In April 1640, he was elected MP for Bridport in the Short Parliament. In 1645, he was re-elected MP for Dorset for the Long Parliament and sat until 1648 when he was excluded under Pride's Purge. (1)

He was appointed High Sheriff of Dorset in 1634. (1)

Participated in the unsuccessful seige of Corfe Castle in May 1643.(1)

Trenchard’s ancestors held manorial property in Hampshire from the twelfth century. One of the family represented that county in the 1449 Parliament, but subsequently settled in Dorset after marrying the heiress to the Wolveton estate. Trenchard’s father, Sir George senior, was one of the county’s most prominent gentlemen during the final decades of Elizabeth’s reign, and the first of the family to sit regularly in Parliament. One of Trenchard’s elder brothers died young; the other, Sir George junior, was a wastrel who died heavily in debt in 1610. Nevertheless, Sir George senior remained a highly influential local figure, and Trenchard was returned unopposed to the third Jacobean Parliament as a Dorset shire knight, along with his brother-in-law Sir John Strangways. Trenchard is not known to have spoken in the Commons, and his only appointment was to attend a conference with the Lords on the joint petition about recusancy (15 Feb. 1621). He did not stand again until after his father’s death in 1630.

According to the 1st earl of Shaftesbury (Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper), Trenchard was ‘a very honest, well-natured, worthy man, a favourer of the puritans’. His term as sheriff of Dorset coincided with the introduction of Ship Money, which he was broadly successful in collecting. A supporter of Parliament during the Civil War, he returned to the Commons in 1645 as a recruiter, but was secluded at Pride’s Purge. Trenchard died in about 1652, intestate and heavily indebted. His son Thomas sat for Bridport in the Short Parliament, and his grandson Thomas was elected for Poole in 1670.(2)

Offices Held

J.p. Dorset by 1614-42, by 1650-?d.,8 commr. inquiry, earl of Somerset’s lands, Dorset and Som. 1616-17;9 freeman, Lyme Regis, Dorset 1617;10 commr. sewers, Dorset 1617, 1638,11 subsidy 1621-2, 1624,12 piracy 1622, 1631, 1639, 1642,13 oyer and terminer, 1626, Western circ. 1632-42,14 swans, W. Country 1629,15 sheriff, Dorset 1634-c. Feb. 1636,16 commr. hard soap, W. Country 1638,17 assessment, Dorset 1641-4, 1647-9,18 array 1642,19 sequestration 1643, levying money 1643, execution of ordinances 1644, militia 1648.20

Commr. exclusion from sacrament 1646, scandalous offences 1648.21(2)

Sources

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Trenchard_(Dorset_MP)

(2) History of Parliament Online http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/trenchard-sir-thomas-1582-1652