GAUNTLETT, Roger (c.1573-1627), of Bulhall House, Salisbury, Wilts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
Available from Cambridge University Press

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1573,1 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Richard Gauntlett of Salisbury, and ?Margaret.2 m. 19 Feb. 1600,3 Katherine, da. of Nicholas Huttoft, merchant of Salisbury, 3s. 8da.4 suc. fa. 1610.5 d. bet. 2 Apr.-13 July 1627.6

Offices Held

Member of the Forty-Eight, Salisbury 1601-6, auditor (jt.), chamberlains’ accts. 1601, 1608, 1611, 1618, 1625; commr. distribution of alms, Salisbury 1604; chamberlain (jt.), Salisbury 1605, member of the Twenty-Four 1606-d., mayor 1607, treas. (jt.), corporation rents 1618, Poplar’s charity (London estate), 1619, brewhouse 1623; commr. to draft workhouse regulations, Salisbury 1623; auditor (jt.) brewhouse accts., Salisbury 1624; commr. subsidy, Salisbury and Wilts. 1624;7 gov. and treas. workhouse, Salisbury 1625, j.p. by 1621;8 commr. to examine lawsuits against Salisbury corporation 1626.9

Biography

Gauntlett’s father, Richard, was elected a councillor at Salisbury in 1573 and served as mayor in 1594. His property, including land and tenements in Salisbury and neighbouring Fisherton Anger, passed to Gauntlett, a merchant dealing in silk and woollen cloth, at his death in 1610.10 By then, Gauntlett was an active member of the corporation, serving as mayor in 1607. During negotiations for renewal of the city charter in 1611, he travelled to London on at least three occasions, and he continued to lobby on behalf of the corporation thereafter, being voted travel expenses in 1618.11 This doubtless explains why he represented the borough in three parliaments,12 although he left no trace on the records of any of the sessions in which he sat.

On 2 Apr. 1627 the Salisbury council minutes noted that Gauntlett was ill.13 In his will, written on the same day, Gauntlett left £730 to his three eldest daughters and his wife a life interest his lands in Bemerton, which were then to pass to his eldest son Emmanuel, on condition that his five youngest sisters received £200 apiece on coming of age. His two other sons received £250 to purchase leasehold property, while the youngest, Roger, was left land and four houses in Salisbury.14 His widow later claimed that his estate, valued at £1,911, could not cover both his debts - he owed £500 to London merchants - and the bequests stipulated in the will. In 1631, having disbursed £2,483 to creditors and various family members, she sued Emmanuel for a share in the profits of two Wiltshire properties to enable her to clear her own mounting debts.15 Gauntlett’s grandson, John represented neighbouring Wilton in several Parliaments under William III.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: Henry Lancaster

Notes

PROB 11/152, f. 91v.

  • 1. IGI Wilts.
  • 2. Wilts. RO, 1901/1.
  • 3. Vis. Wilts. (Harl. Soc. cv-cvi), 96-7.
  • 4. PROB 11/152, f. 91v.
  • 5. PROB 11/115, f. 235.
  • 6. PROB 11/152, f. 91v.
  • 7. C212/22/23.
  • 8. Wilts. RO, G23/1/3, ff. 166v, 167v, 192, 197, 197v, 203v, 215v, 262v, 267, 272v, 304, 319, 320v.
  • 9. Ibid. ff. 177, 214v, 282, 294v, 298.
  • 10. PROB 11/115, f. 235; Two Sixteenth-Cent. Taxation Lists ed. G.D. Ramsay (Wilts. Rec. Soc. x), 64, 67; Mins. of Procs. in Sessions ed. H. Johnson (Wilts. Rec. Soc. iv), 133; Wilts. RO, G23/1/3, ff. 27v, 85v; G23/1/264, f. 1.
  • 11. Wilts. RO, G23/1/3, ff. 214, 260.
  • 12. Ibid. ff. 239, 279v, 299v.
  • 13. Ibid. f. 334v.
  • 14. PROB 11/152, f. 91v.
  • 15. C2/Chas.I/G5/55; 2/Chas.I/G53/57; 2/Chas.I/G66/8; 2/Chas.I/C70/2.