WADDON, John (1649-95), of Moditonham, Botus Fleming, 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

Family and Education

bap. 18 Jan. 1649, 1st s. of Thomas Waddon of Plymouth, Devon by Honor, da. and h. of John Ley alias Kempthorne of Tonacombe, Morwenstow, Cornw. educ. Exeter, Oxf. 1667. m. 1674, Mary, da. of Edward Herle of Prideaux, Luxulyan, Cornw., wid. of Thomas Coke of Tregassowe, Cornw., s.p. suc. fa. 1684.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Cornw. 1677-80, 1689-90, j.p. 1686-July 1688, Oct. 1688-d.; stannator of Foymore 1686; dep. lt. Cornw. 1689-d.; v.-warden of the stannaries 1689-d.2

Dep.-gov. Pendennis Castle 1680-d.; capt. Earl of Bath’s Regt. (later 10 Ft.) 1680-d.3

Biography

Of a family resident in Plymouth since the 15th century, Waddon’s great-grandfather was a prosperous cloth-merchant who owned a fulling mill in the town. His grandfather, a Presbyterian, sat for the borough in the Long Parliament until Pride’s Purge. But his father must have been an Anglican and a court supporter, serving as an officer in Lord Bath’s regiment of Cornish militia, and he himself acted as deputy to Bath at Pendennis Castle. In 1688, like Sir John Carew, Waddon refused to answer the first and second questions on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws until they had been debated in Parliament. According to Hals, the county historian and a contemporary, Lord Bath was staying with Waddon at Moditonham when the Prince of Orange landed in the West, and there negotiated with the Prince’s commissioners the surrender of Plymouth and Pendennis, on condition that Waddon and his other subordinates retained their places. Returned unopposed for Saltash to the Convention, Waddon was appointed to no committees and made no recorded speeches. Presumably he was a court Tory. In the same year, he became Bath’s deputy as warden of the stannaries. After 1690 he was ordered to reside at Pendennis Castle, and did so until his death on 25 Aug. 1695. He was buried at Morwenstow, the last of his family to sit in Parliament.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Vis. England and Wales Notes ed. Crisp, iv. 81; Vivian, Vis.Devon, 765; Soc. of Genealogists, Exeter mar. lic.
  • 2. J. Tregoning, Laws of the Stannaries, 57; CSP Dom. 1689-90, p. 554.
  • 3. CSP Dom. 1679-80, p. 61.
  • 4. Keeler, Long Parl. 374-5; Paroch. Hist. Cornw. i. 111, 113; Cal. Treas. Bks. x. 229.