ARUNDELL, Richard (c.1616-87), of Trerice, Newlyn, Cornw.

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

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1640
Nov. 1640 - 22 Jan. 1644
26 June 1660
29 Jan. 1662 - 23 Mar. 1665

Family and Education

b. c.1616, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of John Arundell of Trerice by Mary, da. of George Cary of Clovelly, Devon; bro. of John Arundell and Nicholas Arundell. educ. L. Inn 1633, called 1640. m. c.1645, Gertrude, da. of Sir James Bagge of Saltram, Devon, wid. of Sir Nicholas Slanning of Marystow, Devon, 2s. (1 d.v.p.) suc. fa. 1654; cr. Baron Arundell of Trerice 23 Mar. 1665.

Offices Held

Lt.-col. of ft. (royalist) by 1646; gov. Pendennis Castle Sept. 1660-d.1

J.p. Cornw. July 1660-d., col. of militia ft. Dec. 1660-d., commr. for assessment 1661-5, dep. lt. 1662-d., commr. for corporations 1662-3, loyal and indigent officers 1662; stannator of Tywarnwhaile 1663; commr. for oyer and terminer, Western circuit 1665; freeman, Plymouth 1684, Liskeard, Bodmin, Mitchell and Penryn 1685.2

Master of the horse to the queen mother by 1665-9.3

Biography

Arundell’s ancestors had been seated at Trerice since the 14th century, and first entered Parliament in 1432. Arundell himself, as a younger son, trained as a lawyer, and sat for Lostwithiel in the Short and Long Parliaments. But at the outbreak of the Civil War he took up arms for the King like the rest of his family. ‘A stout and diligent officer’, he fought at Edgehill and served under his father, known as ‘Jack for the King’, in the Pendennis garrison. They compounded jointly for their estates at the maximum of £10,000. After Charles I’s execution Arundell continued his royalist activities, which involved him in the western association in 1650 and the risings of 1655 and 1659.4

As an unreconciled Cavalier, Arundell was ineligible at the general election of 1660 under the Long Parliament ordinance. But after the Restoration he was returned for Bere Alston at a by-election when George Howard chose to sit for Tavistock. An inactive Member of the Convention, he was appointed only to the revenue committee, and those on the bills for reparation to the Earl of Bristol and for the prevention of profanity. Doubtless a court supporter, he was rewarded with the governorship of Pendennis. He again succeeded to Howard’s seat in the Cavalier Parliament, in which he was moderately active. As ‘Colonel Arundell’ he was appointed to 19 committees. He served on the deputation sent to the King on 8 Mar. 1662 to ask permission for the House to name commissioners for the loyal and indigent officers. In the following year he was named to the committees to report on defects in the law regulating the sale of offices, to devise remedies for the meetings of sectaries, and to consider the working of the Corporations Act. He continued to interest himself in measures for the relief of loyalists, and was appointed to the committee on the bill enabling veterans to exercise trades. In 1664 he was named to the committee for creating a separate parish of Falmouth. He was listed as a court dependant in that year, and may already have been appointed master of the horse to Henrietta Maria. He had been promised a peerage in 1646, but it was not until 1665 that his fortunes had recovered sufficiently to support the dignity.5

In the Upper House Arundell began to receive more substantial rewards. ‘A ‘free gift’ of £3,000 in 1670 was followed by the grant of an annual pension of £1,000 in 1674, and A Seasonable Argument alleged that he ‘hath now £2,000 p.a. pension out of the excise, and hath got in boons £20,000’. He remained a consistent supporter of the Court, with influence over various Cornish Members of the Commons, such as Jonathan Rashleigh II, John Coryton I, Richard Edgcumbe, Sir Cyril Wyche, and of course, his son John. Shaftesbury marked him ‘thrice vile’ in 1677, and in 1680 he voted against exclusion and for the acquittal of Lord Stafford. Nevertheless, he was listed by Danby among the opposition to James II. He died on 7 Sept. 1687 and was buried at St. James, Piccadilly.6

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / J. S. Crossette

Notes

  • 1. J. Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, 304; Rugge’s Diurnal (Cam. Soc. ser. 3), 11.
  • 2. Cal. Treas. Bks. i. 215; iii. 779; HMC 9th Rep. pt. 1, p. 281; HMC Var. i. 333; CSP Dom. 1677-8, p. 408; 1679-80, p. 61; Cornw. RO, Enys transcripts; AD107/22; J. Wallis, Bodmin Reg. 169.
  • 3. CSP Dom. 1664-5, p. 423.
  • 4. Keeler, Long Parl. 88; CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 467; 1650, p. 47; 1655, p. 238; Clarendon, Rebellion, iv. 215; Cal. Comm. Comp. 2238; EHR, iii. 337.
  • 5. Clarendon, Life, ii. 360-2.
  • 6. CSP Dom. 1670, p. 195; 1685, pp. 66, 74; Bodl. Carte 80, f. 823; Cal. Treas. Bks. iv. 532, 640; DNB.