Family and Education

b. Sept. 1566, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Richard Jennens, merchant, of Portsmouth and London, and his 1st w. Dorothy Day.1 educ. appr. to John Croke† of Southampton, Hants by 1585.2 m. (1) by 1593, Sara (d.1605), s.p.;3 (2) lic. 27 June 1611,4 Margaret Badd of Fareham, at least 1da.5 suc. fa. by 1588.6 d. c.1644.7

Offices Held

Freeman, Portsmouth 1594, mayor 1604-5, 1614-15, 1623-4, 1632-3, 1639-40, alderman c.1604-d.;8 dep. v.-adm. (jt.) Hants by 1613-at least 1627;9 commr. prizes, Portsmouth 1626;10 j.p. Portsmouth 1627-at least 1637.11

Biography

Jennens’ father, born in nearby Southwick, had settled in Portsmouth by 1559 and became a leading member of the corporation.12 Jennens himself was apprenticed to a Southampton merchant, but returned to Portsmouth, inheriting his father’s business interests there in around 1588. As mayor of Portsmouth in both 1604 and 1614 he was ineligible to stand for the first two Jacobean parliaments. In addition to his municipal offices, Jennens served from at least 1613 as deputy vice admiral to the 3rd earl of Southampton, and to the latter’s successor, the 1st Viscount Conway (Sir Edward Conway I*), a position of great responsibility, especially during the naval expeditions of the 1620s.13 By 1627, when Portsmouth received a new charter, Jennens’ status was confirmed as a senior alderman and magistrate. He was returned for the borough to the third Caroline Parliament, but left no trace on its records except in a note of 19 May 1628, which stated that because of illness he had not participated in the Members’ communion. He was thereupon ordered to forbear the House till he had received the sacrament.14

Appointed overseer of his brother’s will on 7 Sept. 1644, Jennens himself probably died soon afterwards, since his name does not appear on the list of Portsmouth’s aldermen in 1645.15 No will has been found. His daughter married into the Dorset gentry, and her son, Edward Meller, was elected for Dorchester in 1685.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Virginia C.D. Moseley / Rosemary Sgroi

Notes

• 1. Add. 8154, f. 58.
• 2. STAC 5/K1/25.
• 3. Portsmouth Recs. ed. R. East, 141; Add. 8154, f. 58.
• 4. Hants Mar. Lics. 1607-40 ed. A.J. Willis, 15.
• 5. Add. 8154, f. 58.
• 6. PROB 11/72, f. 261.
• 7. Portsmouth RO, CE1/3, f. 28.
• 8. Portsmouth Recs. 314, 327-8, 346, 588.
• 9. HCA 14/41, f. 248; CSP Dom. 1623-5, p. 56; 1627-8, pp. 220, 334; SP16/32/72.
• 10. APC, 1626, p. 198.
• 11. Portsmouth Recs. 595; CSP Dom. 1637, p. 511.
• 12. Portsmouth RO, L2/1, ff. 45v, 46.
• 13. SP16/32/72, 73; CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 53; 1627-8, pp. 48, 220, 334; CSP Dom. Addenda 1625-49, p. 50;
• 14. CJ, i. 900a.
• 15. PROB 11/194, f. 254v; Portsmouth Recs. 162.