Gabriel Pleydell
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Gabriel Pleydell (fl. 1519 – c.1591) of Midg Hall[2] in the parish of Lydiard St John (later Lydiard Tregoze) in Wiltshire, was an English landowner and politician who served as Member of Parliament for the Wootton Bassett and Marlborough constituencies in the Parliament of England. Pleydell was born before 1519 into a large, affluent family. He entered politics in March 1553 as a member for Wootton Bassett, close to his family estate at Midgehall in Wiltshire. Pleydell's election to the Marlborough constituency two years later may have been made possible by his father's influential connections. He returned to the Wootton Bassett seat at the request of Sir John Thynne in 1563; he had supported Thynne in a dispute over the Knighthood of the Shire in 1559.
Pleydell's political and personal life is marked by legal controversy. Almost always a defendant in court, known allegations include the forced expulsion of residents from a country manor, forcible entry into and seizure of goods from a private property, unlawfully protecting convicts from justice, forging documents for his own benefit, and illegal hunting. He was alleged to be one of the ringleaders of a plot to exile Queen Mary of England, and is perhaps best known for his contentious claim of parliamentary privilege after he was found guilty of this offence in 1555, an action which caused serious disagreement between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Legal accusations for most of his political career and imprisonment in Fleet Prison and the Tower of London helped "confirm for Gabriel Pleydell a niche in parliamentary history", according to a modern historian. He died between 19 December 1590 and 3 February 1591.
Pleydell was born by 1519.[3][4] The sixth of nine children, he was the fourth son of wealthy tenant farmer William Pleydell of Coleshill, Berkshire—now Oxfordshire—and Agnes Reason (daughter of Robert Reason of Corfe Castle, Dorset).[3][5][b] His younger brother was John Pleydell, Member for Cricklade in 1593.[6] The Pleydell family were thought to descend from Thomas de Coleshill, a knight who was awarded lordship of the eponymous parish on 2 March 1275 by King Edward I.[5] Gabriel came of age by 1540, holding land once owned by Sir Anthony Hungerford at Eysey (near the parish of Cricklade).[3]
Pleydell's father, William, had been given a 95-year lease of the Midgehall estate in Lydiard Tregoze by the Abbot of Stanley Abbey in 1534.[7][c] A 1545 record, ordering Gabriel to pay 26 shillings and 8 pence in benevolence[d] to the crown under King Henry VIII, indicates that he was soon managing Midgehall's financial affairs. His father entrusted him in 1549 with tenancy of the manor house at West Ilsley, Berkshire and in September 1553 a sublease of the Midgehall estate.[6][3] William died in 1555,[5] leaving Midgehall's full lease to his wife, Agnes. When she died in 1567,[7] Gabriel unsuccessfully challenged his mother's will (an action which estranged his younger brother, John)[6] despite inheriting tenancy of the estate. Pleydell's father originally intended two of his elder sons—Virgil and Tobias—to succeed ownership before Gabriel. Virgil died around 1559[9] and by 1567 Tobias had been resident in Chipping Faringdon for 11 years, prompting him to relinquish his inheritance.[3]
Marriage and children
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He married Anne Stockes, a daughter of Henry Stockes of Sussex,[e] by whom he had two surviving children:
- Oliver Pleydell, who married firstly a daughter of a certain "Palmer Esq." from Gloucestershire, by whom he had one son: Sir Charles Pleydell, who married Katharine Bouchier, a daughter of Thomas Bouchier of Barnsley, Gloucestershire, by whom he had nine children, including John Pleydell and William Pleydell.[11] Oliver Pleydell married secondly to Jane St. John, a daughter of Sir John St. John, four-times a Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire,[12] by whom he had a further ten children;[10]
- Agnes Pleydell, the wife of William Bayly a barrister and a Member of Parliament for Chippenham from 1572 until 1583 and Undersheriff of Wiltshire from 1579 to 1580,[13][f] whom she bore seven children, including Henry Bayly a Member of Parliament for Malmesbury in 1586 and 1589,[13] and John Bayly a Member of Parliament for Chippenham from 1621 to 1622.[14][15]
Other descendants
Gabriel is the principal ancestor of the Pleydells of Milborne St Andrew, later removed to Whatcombe, both in Dorset.[16] Contained within this lineage was Edmund Morton Pleydell,[10] a Member of Parliament for Dorchester from 1722 to 1723 and for Dorset from 1727 until 1747.[17] His own father, Edmund Pleydell,[10] similarly served as a Member of Parliament for Wootton Bassett from December 1710 until 1715.[18]
Parliamentary career
Pleydell's initial entrance to the Parliament of England in March 1553 as a member for the market town of Wootton Bassett was, at least in part, made possible by his status as a wealthy landholder. Although he had not yet inherited the lease on the family estate of Midgehall, his purchases of land and property surrounding the manor (one mile from the constituency)[g] in 1561 and 1562 suggest that his assets facilitated a seat in the House of Commons.[4] The constituency was eventually abolished by the Reform Act 1832.[h] Surviving records note Pleydell's returning to Parliament solely by his Christian name, deemed sufficiently unusual to identify him outright.[3] Succeeding members John Seymour and Robert Huick from the 1547–52 session,[i] Pleydell served with William Garrard for just 30 days in March until a dissolution of Parliament. They were replaced in October by Henry Poole and John Throckmorton.[22]
His 1555 election for Marlborough was similar, but more dependent on influential connections. Pleydell's father had once leased the lands of Thomas Seymour in the nearby parish of Eastrop (and possibly Preshute), establishing a relationship of trust between the families.[3] After Seymour's brother Edward was executed in 1552, his widow Anne inherited the responsibility of maintaining the vast estates.[23] The Duchess appointed Pleydell as chief ranger of Savernake Forest (then under her ownership)[24] before 1554 and as her receiver general that year.[3] His position as ranger probably led to the acquisition of property in Chippenham and Preshute, and his status as a Preshute landholder assisted him in becoming Member for Marlborough.[4][j] Pleydell, serving with Sir Andrew Baynton, replaced Peter Taylor alias Perce and John Broke of the 1554 session; they were succeeded by William Daniell and William Fleetwood in 1558 after a parliamentary hiatus following the death of Queen Mary.[27]
Pleydell returned as a Member for Wootton Bassett in 1563. His appointment was made possible by the patronage of former Member for Marlborough Sir John Thynne, an eminent figure in Wiltshire politics who was the county's custos rotulorum for at least 20 years.[28][29] Pleydell had supported Thynne in a contest over the Knighthood of the Shire in 1559, which doubtless assisted his bid for parliamentary selection.[4] Wootton Bassett's other seat was occupied by Matthew Poyntz, with whom Pleydell served until 1567.[k] Replacing Christopher Dysmars and Humphrey Moseley from the 1559 session, they were succeeded in 1571 by Henry Knyvet and John Winchcombe.[31]
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