GOTT, Samuel (1614-71), of Battle, Suss.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

2 Oct. 1645

Family and Education

b. 20 Jan. 1614, 1st s. of Samuel Gott, Ironmonger, of London, by Elizabeth Russell. educ. Merchant Taylors’ 1626-9; St. Catherine’s, Camb. 1630, BA 1633; G. Inn 1633, called 1640, ancient 1658. m. c.1643, Joan (d.1681), da. and coh. of Peter Farnden of Sedlescombe, Suss., 1s. 2da. suc. fa. 1641.3

Offices Held

Commr. for exclusion from sacrament 1646, bishops’ lands 1646, indemnity 1647-9, scandalous offences 1648.

Commr. for militia, Suss. 1648, Mar. 1660, scandalous ministers 1654, assessment, Suss. 1657, Jan. 1660-9, Winchelsea Aug. 1660-1; sheriff, Suss. 1658-Mar. 1659, j.p. Mar. 1660-70; commr. for sewers, Mdx. Aug. 1660.4

Biography

Gott, a Londoner by birth, moved to Sussex on his marriage, where he became an ironfounder and landowner, entering the Long Parliament as a recruiter for Winchelsea. He did not sit after Pride’s Purge, but in spite of his professed aversion to public life he was twice returned to Protectorate Parliaments and appointed to local office. He was dejected by Cromwell’s refusal of the crown. He regained his original seat at the general election of 1660.5

Gott was moderately active in the Convention, being named to 17 committees, of which the most important was for the indemnity bill, and making five speeches. In the debate on 16 July he took the Presbyterian side, though willing to accept ‘primitive episcopacy’, and he was appointed to the committee to inquire into unauthorized Anglican publications. He spoke twice in favour of sparing the lives of those regicides who had surrendered themselves, urging that banishment or imprisonment would be a more effective punishment as rendering them ‘living monuments of their own wretchedness’, and on 23 Aug. he was added to the conference managers. He also helped to manage the conference of 11 Sept. on settling ministers. Lord Wharton sent him a copy of the case for modified episcopacy with objections. After the recess he was appointed to the committees for the attainder bill and for the conference on the assessment.6

It is not known whether Gott stood at the general election of 1661, but he sought to ingratiate himself with the monarchy by reporting treasonable words to the Privy Council in June. A few months later, however, he was defeated in a by-election at Rye by his ‘noble friend’, the Anglican John Robinson I. He was omitted from the commission of the peace on the passing of the second Conventicles Act, and was buried at Battle on 18 Dec. 1671. A man of scholarly tastes, he was the author of several religious and philosophical works. His son Peter was defeated at Hastings in 1689, but became a director of the Bank of England, and sat for the port in three later Parliaments as a court Whig.7

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / Basil Duke Henning

Notes

  • 1. Did not sit after Pride’s Purge, 6 Dec. 1648, readmitted 21 Feb. 1660.
  • 2. Excluded.
  • 3. Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. lxxxix), 54; Her. and Gen. viii. 191.
  • 4. C181/7/29.
  • 5. E. Straker, Wealden Iron, 268; Fines of Manors (Suss. Rec. Soc. xix), 29, 115, 178; (xx), 422; Suss. Arch. Colls. xcii. 151; D. Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 56, 212; A. Fletcher, County Communities in Peace and War, 67.
  • 6. Bowman diary, f. 83; Old. Parl. Hist. xxii. 442, 448; CJ, viii. 226.
  • 7. Suss. Arch. Colls. v. 96; lii. 279; PC2/55/252; HMC 13th Rep. IV, 243; CSP Dom. 1663, p. 16; PCC 3 Eure; The Library (ser. 3), i. 225-38.