Family and Education

b. c.1600, 2nd s. of Edward Savage I* (d.1622), and Polyxena da. and coh. of William (le) Grice† of Great Yarmouth, Norf.1 educ. Brasenose, Oxf. 1615, aged 15; L. Inn 1633.2 m. (1) c.1629, Margaret (d.1638), da. of John Langton, merchant, of London, wid. of Robert Clarke, merchant, of London and Sir Richard Smythe* of Leeds Castle, Kent, s.p.;3 (2) aft. 31 May 1639, Alice (bur. 30 Oct. 1640), da. of William Willington of Clehonger, Herefs., wid. of Robert Cambell, Ironmonger, of Mark Lane, London and Woodford, Essex, s.p.4 kntd. 23 or 26 June 1639.5 d. aft. 9 Apr. 1672.6

Offices Held

?Servant to Prince Charles by 1623;7 gent. of the privy chamber extraordinary 1629, ordinary 1633-at least 1641, 1660-at least 1665;8 commr. brewers’ compositions 1637,9 prevention of shipping and ordnance exports 1638,10 control of wine casks 1638, amortized lands 1639.11

Gent. usher to the duke of Buckingham by 1628.12

Cttee. Fishery Soc. 1632.13

Commr. depopulation, Leics., Lincs. and Northants. 1632-at least 1636, Beds., Bucks., Rutland, Oxon., Cambs., Warws., Notts., 1636, Kent 1637;14 kpr. of Carnanton park, Cornw. 1633;15 commr. hard soap, West Country 1638,16 inquiry, rectory of Reigate, Surr. 1638,17 rebels’ estates (roy.), Lancs. and Cheshire 1644.18

Biography

The younger son of an impecunious Hampshire gentleman, Savage’s inheritance as the residuary legatee of his widowed mother, who died in 1623, was probably meagre.19 Nevertheless, it was possibly in this year that he started his Court career, as he claimed in 1665 that he had entered Charles I’s service some 42 years earlier.20 It is certain that at the end of that year, on the orders of the lord steward, Ludovic Stuart, 1st duke of Richmond, whose third wife described Savage as ‘cousin’, he and John Jacob, possibly the Member of that name, were licensed to empark lands in Essex.21

Richmond died in early 1624, but Savage found a new patron in the duke of Buckingham, becoming gentleman usher to the latter by 1628. He presumably owed his preferment to his cousin Sir Thomas Savage, subsequently 1st Viscount Savage, who had helped to arrange the favourite’s marriage.22 His kinship with Viscount Savage probably also accounted for his election for St. Ives following the decision of Benjamin Tichborne to opt for Petersfield, where Savage’s father had sat in 1614. Lord St. John (Lord John Paulet*), the son of the borough’s dominant electoral patron, William Paulet, the 4th marquess of Winchester, had married Viscount Savage’s daughter.23 The viscount was also a friend of Sir Anthony Mayney*, who was both closely connected with the Paulets and Sir Richard Weston*, who had influence at Midhurst, where Savage was elected in 1628, thanks to his kinsman, Anthony Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu. He left no trace on the records of either Parliament.24

In early 1629, following the assassination of Buckingham the previous summer, Savage was appointed a gentleman of the privy chamber. Later that same year, or thereabouts, his position at Court was strengthened by his marriage to Lady Margaret Smythe, who was not only a rich widow but also a gentlewoman of Henrietta Maria’s privy chamber.25 As a close friend of William Noye*, Savage helped arrange the latter’s funeral in 1634.26 He was later authorized by the Mines Royal to prospect for minerals in Wales and, together with Edmund Wyndham*, obtained several lucrative monopolies. They were granted flooded lands in county Limerick and the Bedford Level, but incurred substantial losses over the latter project. Savage’s brief second marriage to another wealthy widow resulted in a legacy of only £1,000.27

During the first Bishops’ War he attended Richmond’s nephew, the 4th duke of Lennox, whom he described as his ‘best friend’, and was knighted at Berwick. In 1639 he was also entrusted with distributing the dowager duchess of Richmond’s clothes and assisting her executors.28 A dispute with James Cambell† over his second wife’s will led to a charge of breach of privilege during the Long Parliament.29 In early 1644 a parliamentarian tract described him as one of the ‘papistical and malignant’ royalists in control of Chester.30 However, he evidently subsequently left that city for the West Country, being captured by the New Model Army at the fall of Bridgwater the following year.31 In August 1651 he participated in the unsuccessful attempt of the 7th earl of Derby (James Stanley*), who had recently appointed Savage as one of his trustees, to raise Lancashire in support of Charles II, and he subsequently claimed to have been seriously wounded in the Cavalier cause, losing the use of his right hand, and suffered eight years’ imprisonment. He reckoned his losses to be £4,000.32

Savage was reappointed to the privy chamber by Charles II at the Restoration and given several ex gratia payments, but his requests for a sinecure proved fruitless, despite the support of the duke of Albemarle (George Monck†). On 9 Apr. 1672 he described himself as at death’s door. He may have survived a further fortnight; a petition from him was read and referred at a meeting of the Treasury commissioners on the 23rd, but he probably died soon after as this is the last known occasion when he was mentioned in the records of government. No will or administration has been found.33

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: Virginia C.D. Moseley

Notes

• 1. Vis. Cheshire (Harl. Soc. lix), 206; PROB 11/142, f. 483.
• 2. Brasenose Coll. Reg. ed. C.B. Heberden (Oxford Hist. Soc. lv), 128; LI Admiss.
• 3. C78/367/4; J. Stow, Survey of London, (1633), p. 788; GL, ms 4107; HMC 4th Rep. 293.
• 4. C142/580/100; G.E. Cokayne, Some Acct. of Ld. Mayors and Sheriffs of City of London, 43.
• 5. Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 206.
• 6. CSP Dom. 1671-2, p. 295.
• 7. SP29/135/22.
• 8. LC5/132, pp. 87, 335; LC3/1, unfol.; N. Carlisle, Inquiry into Place and Quality of Gentlemen of His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Chamber, 165; SP29/135/22.
• 9. CSP Dom. 1637, pp. 564-5.
• 10. T. Rymer, Foedera, ix. pt. 2, p.183.
• 11. Cal. of Docquets of Ld. Kpr. Coventry 1625-40 ed. J. Broadway, R. Cust and S.K. Roberts (L. and I. Soc. spec. ser. xxxiv-vii), 48-9.
• 12. CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 248.
• 13. SP16/221/1.
• 14. SP16/229/112; Cal. of Docquets of Ld. Kpr. Coventry, 57; C181/5, ff. 43, 57v, 86v.
• 15. C66/2618.
• 16. C181/5, f. 92.
• 17. Cal. of Docquets of Ld. Kpr. Coventry, 307.
• 18. Docquets of Letters Patent 1642-6 ed. W.H. Black, 118.
• 19. PROB 11/142, f. 483.
• 20. SP29/135/22.
• 21. CSP Dom. 1623-5, p. 135; ‘Six Wills relating to Cobham Hall’, ed. W.A. Scott Robertson, Arch. Cant. xi. 248.
• 22. R. Lockyer, Buckingham, 59.
• 23. CP, xii. pt. 2, p. 768.
• 24. PROB 11/151, f. 131v.
• 25. T. Corser, Collectanea Anglo-Poetica (Chetham Soc. lxxi), 225-8.
• 26. HEHL, EL6514.
• 27. CSP Dom. 1635-6, p. 569; 1638-9, p. 624, 1640-1, pp. 190, 463; CSP Ire. Add. 1625-60, p. 226; SP29/135/22.
• 28. CSP Dom. 1639, pp. 298, 384; ‘Six Wills relating to Cobham Hall’, 247-8.
• 29. CJ, ii. 53.
• 30. Tracts relating to Civil War in Cheshire ed. J.A. Atkinson (Chetham Soc. n.s. lxv), 90.
• 31. Sir Thomas Fairfax’s Letter to Hon. William Lenthall Esq. Speaker of House of Commons of all Particulars Concerning Taking of Bridgewater (1645), p. 6.
• 32. HMC Portland, i. 614; Stanley Pprs. ed. F.R. Raines (Chetham Soc. lxvii), p. cclxix; SP29/135/22.
• 33. CSP Dom. 1665-6, pp. 530, 598; 1668-9, p. 308; 1671-2, p. 295; CTB, iii. 1063.