Peter Sainthill (MP for Tiverton)
Peter Sainthill (8 July 1593 – 12 August 1648) of Bradninch in Devon, England, was twice elected a Member of Parliament for Tiverton in Devon, in the Short Parliament 1640 and in the Long Parliament in November 1640. He was a strong supporter of the Royalist side in the Civil War. He was "a man of culture and unaffected simplicity of character, (who) represents the Cavalier cause at its best".[1]
Origins
Sainthill was born on 8 July 1593 at Bradninch, the son of Peter II Sainthill (1561-1618) of Bradninch House[2] (eldest son and heir of Peter I Sainthill (c.1524-1571) of Bradninch, MP) by his wife Elizabeth Martin (d.1613), a daughter of Thomas Martin (1520/1–1592/3) of Steeple Morden in Cambridgeshire,[3] Doctor of Civil Law and Member of Parliament. The Sainthill family originated at the manor of Saint Hill,[4] Devon, 6 miles north-east of Bradninch.
Career
He was educated at the Free Grammar School (now Blundell's School) at Tiverton, 6 miles south-east of Bradninch, founded by the wealthy clothier Peter Blundell (c.1520-1601). As one of the earliest pupils of that school his biography is included in the Worthies of Blundell's by M.L. Banks (1904).[5] He served as Recorder of Tiverton.[6]
In April 1640 Sainthill was elected a Member of Parliament for Tiverton in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected in November 1640 for the Long Parliament but supported the king and was thus disabled from sitting in January 1644.[7] In July 1644 Sainthill entertained King Charles I at Bradninch and lent him money for his military campaigns.[8] He eventually fled the Parliamentarian army and in the early autumn of 1645 sought refuge with his wife and children in the walled City of Exeter. Following the surrender of Exeter to the Parliamentarian forces on 9 April 1646, he received a pass from General Fairfax, which allowed him to leave with "freedom from molestation for himself, with his servants, horses, arms, and necessaries",[9] and in early in May 1646 arrived in Leghorn in Italy to stay with his younger brother Robert Sainthill (d.post-1665)[10] a merchant, who was agent for Ferdinando II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany,[11] where he died soon afterwards from an illness on 12 August 1648, aged 54.
Marriage & progeny
At Bradninch on 12 May 1614 Sainthill married Dorothy Parker, daughter and heiress of Robert Parker of Zeal Monachorum in Devon,[12] by his wife Mary. His progeny included:
- Peter IV Sainthill (born 1618), eldest son and heir apparent, died in infancy.[13]
- Samuel Sainthill (1626-1708), 2nd[14] and eldest surviving son and heir, who recovered much of his father's property sequestrated during the Civil War.[15]
Monument at Bradninch
His mural monument in St Disen's Church, Bradninch, includes the following inscription:[16][17]
- He had withdrawn to reserve himself for more successful service to his King and country to Italy, where, having spent the remainder of his life in the exercise of virtue and devotion, and lamenting the miseries a civil war had brought upon his country, he resigned his spirit to God who gave it in the year of grace 1648, and the fifty-fourth of his age.
Satirical Puritan verse
He was the subject of a lengthy Puritan verse satire, known as Peter's Banquet or The Cavalier in the Dumps, written circa 1645, which includes the following lines:[18][19]
- Now when the king was in the West,
- And not a little in distress,
- He honoured Peter with a call
- By night, incog., but that 's not all,
- He wanted money for to spend
- In waging war, that was the end,
- And he knew those that had to lend.
- To make the pledge more firm and sure,
- Etched his sign manual on the door.
And:
- In Peter's great and lofty hall,
- Seated in order for to dine,
- Swig cyder, beer, and meady wine.
Further reading
- Sainthill, Ammabel, History of the Sainthill Family, London, 1938. (The author was Ammabel Wilson (d.1949), a daughter of Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson, 10th Baronet, and wife of Lt. Col. Collis George Herbert St. Hill (1865-1917), Royal North Devon Hussars, a grandson of Henry Charles St Hill, lord of the manor of Bradninch[20]).
- Croslegh, Rev. Charles, Bradninch: Being a Short Historical Sketch of the Honor, the Manor, the Borough and Liberties and the Parish, Sainthill of Bradninch, London, 1911
- Sainthill, Richard, An Olla Podrida: or, Scraps, Numismatic, Antiquarian, and Literary, London, 1844, pp.292-339, Biographical Memoir of Captain Richard Sainthill, RN, of Topsham[5].
References
- ^ Worthies of Blundell's, p.21
- ^ the Peerage.com
- ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.663, pedigree of Sainthill
- ^ Vivian, p.663
- ^ Banks, M.L., Worthies of Blundell's, London & Exeter, 1904, pp.14-22, Peter Sainthill[1]
- ^ The Gentleman's magazine, Volume 138 By John Nichols
- ^ Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 229–239.
- ^ The Gentleman's Magazine Volume 90
- ^ Worthies of Blundell's, p.21
- ^ Vivian, p.663
- ^ The gentleman's magazine, and historical chronicle, Volume 95, Part 2
- ^ Vivian, p.663
- ^ Vivian, p.663
- ^ Vivian, p.663
- ^ Worthies of Blundell's, p.21
- ^ Worthies of Blundell's, p.21
- ^ Full transcript in Sainthill, Richard, Olla Podrida, pp.294-5[2]
- ^ Worthies of Blundell's, p.21
- ^ Quoted in full in Sainthill, Richard, Olla Podrida, pp.300-306[3]
- ^ De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour 1914-1918 Volume 4, Page 176[4]