STRODE, Edward (1651-1708), of Lincoln’s Inn

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

1705 - Mar. 1708

Family and Education

b. 1651, 3rd s. of James Strode of Dean, West Cranmore, Som. by his 2nd w. Amy A’Court.  educ. L. Inn 1674, called 1686, bencher 1704.  m. 25 Sept. 1679 aged 28, Martha Clayton (d. 1723) of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, s.psuc. fa. 1698.1

Offices Held

Biography

Strode was descended from a junior branch of the Strodes of Shepton Mallet. A younger son, he registered at Lincoln’s Inn and maintained himself by acting as attorney and solicitor for the inn. In 1686, however, he was called to the bar, having ‘quitted the practice of an attorney and applied himself to the study of the law and performed all his exercises’. His aspirations for a career in government were briefly evident in April 1689 when he petitioned for the office of solicitor of the customs, but he was rejected.2

Strode was returned for Ilchester in 1705 on the interest of Lord Poulett. Although his Whiggish political views were far removed from Poulett’s Toryism, their alliance is readily explained by the struggle going on at this time among the Somerset Tories between the moderates, of whom Poulett was head, and the Tackers. In such awkward circumstances, Poulett was content to promote candidates of either party whose commitment to supporting the Court was not in question. Strode was classed as ‘Low Church’ in a list published shortly after the election, and his return was counted by Lord Sunderland (Charles, Lord Spencer*) as a ‘gain’ for the Whigs. He accordingly voted for the Court candidate for Speaker on 25 Oct. 1705. During his three-year sojourn in the House his most obvious line of activity was in managing or helping to initiate a sequence of private bills on behalf of various individuals, most often in cases involving the Treasury, and which were probably an extension of his professional work as a barrister. Aside from these concerns, he was named on 28 Jan. 1707 to a three-man committee to prepare a bill to prevent delays in suits at law, of which, being in first place, he may have been the initiator; and on 22 Dec. was included on a similar committee ordered to prepare a bill to prevent bribery at elections. He died suddenly shortly before the end of the 1708 session and was buried on 5 Apr. Having no issue, he entailed his property on his nephews James and Edward Strode.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Authors: Paula Watson / Andrew A. Hanham

Notes

  • 1. Som. Arch. Soc. and Nat. Hist. Procs. xxx. 66–71; F. Brown, Som. Wills, iii. 108–9; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster, 1298.
  • 2. Ibid. 109, 114, 149, 158, 217, 228; Cal. Treas. Bks. ix. 90.
  • 3. Som. Arch. Soc. and Nat. Hist. Procs. 70; PCC 157 Barrett.