JENNINGS, Edward (c.1647-1725), of Little Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Mdx. and Duddlestone, Salop.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1713 - 1715

Family and Education

b. c.1647, 5th ch. of Philip Jennings of Duddlestone by Christian, da. of Sir Gerard Eyton of Eyton, Salop; bro. of Sir John Jennings*.  educ. I. Temple 1666, called 1673, bencher 1696, treasurer 1703.  m. lic. 9 June 1666, aged 19, Elizabeth, da. of John Horne, girdler, of Foster Lane, Cheapside, London, 1s.1

Offices Held

Attorney-gen. Caernarvon 1677–89, Denb. and Mont. 1686–9; QC 1702–d.2

Commr. building 50 new churches 1711.3

Member, SPCK; chairman, Society of Trustees for charity schools in London and Westminster 1711–25.4

Biography

Jennings, who was attorney-general for several circuits in Wales, had a grant of a house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1686, which had been forfeited by Sir Robert Peyton†, and also of lands in Wrexham and Holt in Denbighshire. Jennings remained an active lawyer after the Revolution, taking many cases before the House of Lords, and in 1695–6 he and Sir Thomas Powys* opposed grants of land in Wales to William III’s Dutch favourites, the earls of Portland and Rochford. He had a personal interest in these matters since his own salary, and those of the Welsh judges, came out of the revenue of the principality. He also assisted Powys as counsel for Sir John Fenwick†, the Jacobite conspirator. On the accession of Queen Anne, he was allowed to take silk.5

Returned for East Looe in 1713 on the Trelawny interest at the recommendation of Lord Treasurer Oxford (Robert Harley*), Jennings was classed as a Tory in the Worsley list. Between April and June 1714 he managed a bill to prevent cattle theft, and reported and carried up a bill to settle the revenues of several Welsh dioceses and to annex various prebends to Oxford and Cambridge colleges. Jennings’ advanced age no doubt explains his retirement from Parliament in 1715. A member of the SPCK, he continued to take an active interest in Church affairs and played an important role in the purge of Jacobite charity school teachers in October 1716. He died on 12 June 1725, and was buried in the Inner Temple. His son, Philip, sat for Queenborough 1715–22.6

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Cussans, Herts. i(2), p. 196; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster, 759.
  • 2. W. R. Williams, Welsh Judges, 81; Cal. Treas. Bks. xxix. 325; Luttrell, Brief Relation, v. 230.
  • 3. E. G. W. Bill, Queen Anne Churches, p. xxiii.
  • 4. Info. from Dr Craig Rose.
  • 5. CJ, xiii. 438; xviii. 339; HMC Lords, n.s. i. 29, vi. 311; Cal. Treas. Bks. x. 1014, 1408, 1413, 1445; xxix. 325.
  • 6. Info. from Dr Rose; Williams, 81.