Family and Education

b. 31 Aug. 1681, 1st s. of John Trevor of Trevalyn, Denb. and Glynde, Suss. by Elizabeth, da. of George Clarke, Grocer, of London and Houghton Conquest, Beds. wid. of William Morley† of Glynde.  educ. Christ Church, Oxf. 1697.  m. lic. 23 Mar. 1702, Lucy (d. 1720), da. Edward Montagu† of Horton, Northants. 3s. (2 d.v.p.) 9da.  suc. cos. William Morley 1679, fa. 1686.1

Offices Held

Biography

Trevor’s father, as the eldest son of Sir John Trevor†, secretary of state to Charles II, was the representative of the Trevalyn branch of the Trevors. His father’s ambitions appear to have been proprietorial rather than political, and on his inheritance of the remainder of his cousin William Morley’s estate at Glynde in 1679, he shrewdly ensured possession by immediately filing a suit to prevent Morley’s will being contested and by marrying Morley’s widow. On his father’s death, Trevor inherited the family estates in Plas Teg, Trevalyn and Glynde. His mother married Lord Cutts (John*) some four years later.2

As a substantial landowner in Sussex, and with the support of prominent Whigs such as his wife’s uncle, Sir Thomas Pelham, 4th Bt.*, and the 6th Duke of Somerset, Trevor was able to enter Parliament for the county in 1705, when he was classed as a ‘Churchman’. He voted for the Court candidate as Speaker on 25 Oct. 1705, and on 18 Feb. 1706 supported the Court in the proceedings on the ‘place clause’ in the regency bill. However, these votes make it difficult to account for his classification as a Tory in a list of early 1708. He was otherwise an inactive Member.3

Trevor does not seem to have stood in either 1708 or 1710, but in 1712 he came in at a by-election for Lewes, close to his estate at Glynde, replacing the Whig Peter Gott. Though not listed as voting on 18 June 1713 on the French commerce bill, he did vote on 18 Mar. 1714 against the expulsion of Richard Steele. He was also classed as a Whig in the Worsley list and in two other lists of the 1713 and 1715 Parliaments. He continued to sit after 1715, and died on 7 Apr. 1719. His son John sat for Lewes some 20 years later.4

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Sonya Wynne

Notes

• 1. Glynde Place Arch. ed. Dell, pp. xix–xxiv; Glynde Par. Reg. (Suss. Rec. Soc. xxx), 9–20, 29, 32–33, 38; Suss. Arch. Colls. xx. 87.
• 2. Glynde Place Arch. pp. xix–xx.
• 3. Egerton 929, f. 72.
• 4. Suss. Arch. Colls. 87.