Family and Education

bap. 22 May 1630, 3rd s. of William Rudge, chandler (d.1635), of Evesham, Worcs. by 1st w. Anne. m. lic. 21 May 1663, Susanna, da. of Sir John Dethick, Mercer, of Tottenham, Mdx., ld. mayor of London 1656-7, 4s. (1 d.v.p.) 4da.1

Offices Held

Freeman, E.I. Co. 1671, committee 1673-5, 1676-85, 1695-d.; asst. R. Africa Co. 1673-5, 1678-80, 1690-5; j.p. Essex to 1676; commr. for assessment, Essex 1677-80, 1689-90, Worcs. 1690.2

Biography

Rudge was descended from a 16th century Evesham family of chandlers. His uncle, a London alderman, bequeathed £200 to the poor of the town and £400 to endow a lecture there under Puritan auspices. Rudge was apprenticed to a London Haberdasher in 1647 and made a fortune in the peninsular and Mediterranean trades. His marriage brought him into contact with Sir John Banks, with whom he joined in a syndicate trading to Leghorn and Cadiz. In the following year he bought the manor of Evesham for £8,000. Government pressure may have been responsible for his failure to secure re-election to the boards of the East India Company and the Royal Africa Company in 1675, and he was removed from the Essex commission of the peace in the following year for refusing to take the oaths.3

Rudge stood for Evesham in August 1679. He was defeated by Henry Parker I of the court party, and his petition was never reported. He replaced Parker without a contest at the general election of 1681, but left no trace on the records of the brief Oxford Parliament. In November he served on Shaftesbury’s ignoramus jury. At the Revolution he was registered as the holder of £4,710 East India stock. He regained his seat in 1690, and died in October 1696. His son sat for the borough, with one short interval, from 1698 to 1734.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Edward Rowlands

Notes

• 1. Vis. England and Wales Notes ed. Crisp. xii. 36-37.
• 2. Cal. Ct. Mins. E.I. Co. ed. Sainsbury, ix. 26, 225; x. 47, 302; xi. 40, 176, 268; K. G. Davies, R. Africa Co. 387; Add. 38871, ff. 7-11.
• 3. G. May, Hist. Evesham, 151, 392-3; information from H. Horwitz; HMC Dartmouth, iii. 26; D. C. Coleman, Sir John Banks, 27-28, 80-81, 160; HMC Finch, ii. 43.
• 4. VCH Worcs. ii. 377; CJ, ix. 639; Somers Tracts, viii. 409; Add. 22185, f. 14.