PENRUDDOCK, John (bef.1542-1601), of Hale, Hants.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1584

Family and Education

b. bef. 1542, 1st s. of Anthony Penruddock of Arkleby, Cumb. by a da. of William English of Oughterside, Cumb. educ. Christ’s, Camb. 1560; G. Inn 1562, called 1564. m. Jane, da. of (?John) Lamplugh of Lamplugh, Cumb., 4s. inc. Thomas 5da.1

Offices Held

Recorder, Southampton from c.1571, burgess 31 May 1572; pens. G. Inn 9 May 1572, reader 29 May 1574, receiver of admission money 28 Oct. 1588, double reader 16 Nov. 1592; of counsel to Salisbury from 1587.2

J.p. Wilts from 1563, Cumb. 1569-c.74, Hants from c.1592; commr. Admiralty, Southampton 13 May 1583.3

Biography

Penruddock followed his uncles Robert and Sir George from their native Cumberland to Wiltshire and Hampshire. If his own qualities were to yield him a distinguished career at his inn, they were doubtless assisted by Sir George Penruddock’s standing with the 1st Earl of Pembroke, in procuring John’s early advancement both in Wiltshire, where he appeared on the commission of the peace before his call to the bar, and at Southampton, where he became recorder at about the age of 30. Thenceforward John Penruddock’s career alternated between his local engagements and his chambers at Gray’s Inn, with occasional excursions further afield. It was a condition of the recordership that he should reside at Southampton during vacations. From at least the late seventies he also had a house in Salisbury, and some time after the death in 1583 of his uncle Robert, who had settled at Hale, John Penruddock made this manor house, conveniently situated on the border of his two adopted counties, his principal residence for the rest of his life. He was much employed by the Privy Council for local inquiries, and was assiduous in his attendance at sessions; he also rarely missed the annual ‘pensions’ of his inn.4

For some reason Penruddock was returned to Parliament in 1584 not for Southampton but for the 2nd Earl of Pembroke’s borough of Wilton. It is likely that it was he rather than Edward Penruddock who was named to a legal committee, 19 Dec. 1584, and one concerning privilege on the following 13 Feb. At the next election, in 1586, Penruddock was returned by Southampton, leaving no mark on the surviving journals of Parliament. Neither his advancement at his inn nor service in local government was to lead, as he might have expected and hoped, to the coif or the bench. In November 1593 he asked Sir Robert Cecil to secure him priority in the call of serjeants: it was, he complained, almost too late for him to practise among ‘children’, especially those whom he had taught. As it was, he had to content himself with his municipal appointments and local standing, and with the domestic and material comforts which they had yielded. When he came to make his will, in May 1600, he thanked God that he had already been able to provide for them in some measure. Of his four sons, two, Thomas and Manwood (a name eloquent of professional pride) had followed him through Gray’s Inn, and two of his daughters were already married. The will opens with a pious preamble. His ‘sweet, true and dearly beloved’ wife was to have the house at Hale for life, while two houses in Salisbury, one by the Close Gate, the other, called the Dolphin, in New Street, were to go to his youngest son William. The second of these houses appears, however, to have been sold before the testator’s death. Among his other bequests was one to his daughter Mary of a debt owed him by the Earl of Pembroke: this consisted of one sum of upwards of £200, and another of 100 marks which he had incurred in expenses in procuring a bond for Pembroke in London, ‘whereof his Lordship has had profit ever since and I promise of recompense’. Penruddock died 8 Mar. 1601.5

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: S. T. Bindoff

Notes

  • 1. Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv, cvi), 148-9; W. Hutchinson, Hist. Cumb.. ii. 94-5.
  • 2. J. S. Davies, Hist. Soton, 184-5; G. Inn Pens. Bk. 1569-1669, pp. 54, 63, 81, 96; Salisbury corpn. ledger C. ff. 99, 167.
  • 3. Wilts. Sess. Bk. (Wilts. Arch. Soc. recs. br. iv), 20-153; Letters Patent (Soton Rec. Soc.), 126 et seq.
  • 4. Davies, 184; PCC 17 Rowe; APC, x. 157-8; xv. 217; xvii. 297, 301-2; xix. 351; xx. 126-7, 147-8; xxi. 42; xxii. 308-9; xxiv. 161; xxviii. 449-50.
  • 5. D’Ewes, 343, 349; Letters of the 15th and 16th cents. (Soton Rec. Soc.), 134, 137 n. 2; HMC Hatfield, iv. 419; PCC 26 Woodhall; C142/267/18.