Family and Education

b. c.1644, 11th s. of Isaac Maudit (d. 1663) of Exeter, Devon by his 2nd w. Deborah, da. of Richard Wood of Holsworthy, Devon. m. (1) Dorothy (d. bef. 1692) da. of George Venables of Agden, Cheshire, 1s. d.v.p.; (2) Penelope (d. 1703) s.p.1

Offices Held

Common councilman, Liverpool 1693–d., mayor 1693–4, coroner 1694, alderman, by 1705–d.2

Trustee, Liverpool g.s. 1709.3

Biography

Maudit was descended from French Huguenots who, having settled in Exeter in the 16th century, became prosperous merchants and members of the corporation. Maudit himself moved to Liverpool, where he became a successful attorney-at-law before establishing a small interest in the town’s trade. Entering Liverpool’s corporation in the early 1690s, he sided with the Whig opponents of the borough charter of 1676, and was supported by this group in the Liverpool by-election of 1694. The mayor, serving as returning officer, argued that as borough coroner Maudit was ineligible to stand and instead returned the Tory Thomas Brotherton. Maudit petitioned, and the Commons found in his favour on 11 Jan. 1695, the return being amended in the House the following day. Maudit was subsequently appointed on 29 Jan. to the committee investigating precedents for, and censures upon, returning officers making false returns.4

In the autumn of 1695 Maudit acted as legal adviser to Liverpool’s Whigs in their successful attempt to replace the charter of 1676, and with the continued support of this group he was returned at the 1695 election. Maudit was named to a large number of committees in each session of the 1695 Parliament, though these appointments do not demonstrate any particular pattern of activity. The forecast that Maudit was likely to support the government in the divisions of 31 Jan. 1696 over the proposed council of trade, his signing of the Association, and his vote in March for fixing the price of guineas at 22s. all indicate that his support for the Whigs in Liverpool was mirrored in his parliamentary behaviour. Before the 1696–7 session he was added, upon the initiative of Lancashire’s leading Whig, the Earl of Macclesfield (Charles Gerard*), to the Lancashire bench, and his partisan allegiance was confirmed by his vote on 25 Nov. for the attainder of Sir John Fenwick†. Much of Maudit’s time in London during the 1696–7 session was occupied by the dispute between the Liverpool corporation and London’s cheesemongers regarding whether the latter were liable to pay local duties upon cheese landed at Liverpool. In addition, during the early weeks of the following session, he lobbied Members to support the restoration of drawback upon duties paid by refiners of rock salt, the producers of which included many Liverpool merchants. This concern for local economic interests was also evident on 18 Apr. 1698 when, following a petition from Manchester linen producers, he was nominated to draft a bill to encourage domestic linen manufacture.5

Maudit did not stand for election in 1698, when he was classed retrospectively as a member of the Court party. He continued to be employed by Liverpool corporation in legal matters until 1701, but by 1702 he was in opposition to his former Whig allies in the borough, and, though this switch of sides in Liverpool did not prevent his exclusion from the commission of the peace in 1702 by the Tory chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Sir John Leveson Gower, 5th Bt.*, Maudit remained in opposition to the Whig group until at least 1705. When attempts were made, however, in 1712 to have the 1695 charter declared illegal, Maudit again transferred his loyalties and became a prominent agent of Liverpool’s Whigs in their efforts to retain the charter. Maudit was buried at St. Nicholas churchyard, Liverpool on 21 June 1714, leaving legacies to his sisters, to the Earl of Warrington and to Thomas Le Genoe, a Huguenot refugee from Rouen, who had settled in Exeter.6

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Authors: Eveline Cruickshanks / Richard Harrison

Notes

• 1. The Gen. n.s. i. 134–6; R. Ames, Ames Fam. 73–74; H. Peet, Liverpool Vestry Bks. ii. 55.
• 2. Info. from Dr M. Power; HMC Kenyon, 281, 362.
• 3. J. Picton, Liverpool Mun. Recs. 1700–1835, p. 75.
• 4. H. Peet, Liverpool in Reign of Q. Anne, 68; HMC Kenyon, 362; Portledge Pprs. 192.
• 5. Lancs. RO, Kenyon mss DDKe/HMC/1023, Guicciardini Wentworth to Roger Kenyon*, 10 Sept. 1696; Liverpool RO, Liverpool bor. recs. 352 MIN/COU I 1/4, p. 759; Liverpool RO, Norris mss 920NOR 2/135, Thomas Johnson* to Richard Norris*, 18 Dec. 1697.
• 6. Norris Pprs. (Chetham Soc. ser. 1, ix), 46–47, 97–100, 144–5; Norris mss 920NOR 1/59, Johnson to Norris, 14 Nov. 1700; 1/61, Maudit to same, 16 Nov. 1700; Picton, 4–6; Peet, 68.