Family and Education

bap. 16 Dec. 1606, 1st s. of Sir Robert Vernon^† of Hodnet by Mary, da. of Sir Robert Needham of Shavington, Salop, wid. of Thomas Onslow of Boreatton, Salop. m. 1636, Elizabeth, da. and h. of Sir Richard White of The Friars, Anglesey, 3s. 1da. suc. fa. 1625; cr. Bt. 23 July 1660.1

Offices Held

Commr. of array, Salop 1642, j.p. July 1660-d., dep. lt. c. Aug. 1660-d.; commr. for assessment, Salop Aug. 1660-74, Mdx. 1665 9; receiver-gen. Salop, Staffs., Worcs. and Herefs. Aug. 1660-2; commr. for oyer and terminer, Wales 1661, corporations, Salop 1662-3, recusants 1675.2

Commr. for excise appeals 1662-d., revenue wagons 1665-7.3

Biography

Vernon was a distant cousin of George Vernon. His branch of the family had settled in Shropshire in the 15th century and represented the county since 1553. His father had been comptroller of the Household to Elizabeth and cofferer to James I, and sat for Shropshire in 1621. Vernon entered the service of the 4th Earl of Southampton, his first cousin, whom he accompanied to France in 1634. He was returned to the Long Parliament at a by-election for Andover, voted against the attainder of Strafford, and was unseated on petition. Although he was appointed a commissioner for array by Charles I, he did not act, and does not seem to have fought in the Civil Wars.4

Returned for the county in 1660, Vernon was an inactive Member of the Convention, in which he was appointed to two committees, those to settle the revenue and to revive the dukedom of Somerset. A court supporter, he was granted a baronetcy on the usual fee of £1,095, and made receiver-general in four counties. Although classed as a friend by Lord Wharton, as patron of Hodnet he ejected the Independent minister installed in the living in 1654. In the autumn he received part of the confiscated estates of Robert Wallop as trustee for the family. In May 1661 Lord Treasurer Southampton wrote to the corporation of Lichfield recommending ‘my kinsman and friend, Sir Henry Vernon’, but Vernon was defeated, and was returned only at a by-election for West Looe on the Trelawny interest. Again inactive in the Cavalier Parliament, he was appointed to only ten committees in 14 sessions. On surrendering his receivership in 1662, he was given office in the Exchequer with a salary of £200 p.a., and listed as a court dependant in 1664. He was one of the deputation which presented the resolution against the import of French commodities in 1666, and in 1670 was among those appointed to consider the bill to prevent the import of brandy. He was also named to the committee for the loyal and indigent officers in 1671. He is not recorded as speaking in the House. Vernon was on both lists of the court party in 1669-71 ‘to be engaged by the Duke of York and his friends’, and was sent the government whip in the autumn of 1675 by Henry Coventry, to whose management he was entrusted on the working lists. Sir Richard Wiseman, however, wrote after the session that he ‘went ill in his vote. (Sir) Jonathan Trelawny [I] can give your Lordship better information concerning him than I can, or if not he some other of the honest gentlemen of this county’ (i.e. Cornwall). Vernon died shortly afterwards, and was buried at Hodnet on 11 Apr. 1676, the last of this branch of the family to enter Parliament.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 4), xii. 1; PCC 64 Harte.
• 2. Bodl. Ch. Salop 146.
• 3. CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 208; 1661-2, pp. 326, 590; 1664-5, p. 399; Cal. Treas. Bks. ii. 180; iii. 762.
• 4. Keeler, Long Parl. 373-4.
• 5. Hodnet Reg. (Salop Par. Reg. Soc.), p. x; CSP Dom. 1661-2, pp. 326, 590; 1667-8, p. 471; 1668-9, p. 111; Cal. Treas. Bks. i. 208; iv. 151; viii. 1561-2; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 4), xii. 1.