A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



At the Restoration six Bedfordshire families were represented in the 

 House of Lords, the Russells, Greys, Mordaunts, St. Johns, Wentworths, 

 and Bruces. The Earl of Peterborough, who afterwards became a Roman 

 Catholic, was as strong a supporter of Charles II and James as he 

 had been of Charles I. His brother John, an even more fervent 

 Royalist, took a leading part in negotiating the Restoration, and was. 

 raised to the peerage as Viscount Mordaunt of Avalon/" The Earl of 

 Cleveland outlived his only son and died in 1667,'" leaving his granddaughter 

 Henrietta Baroness Wentworth mistress of Toddington ; ''^ and Anthony Earl 

 of Kent enjoyed the title from 1651 to 1702. But none of these three 

 families appears to have taken a very active part in the affairs of the county 

 during the latter part of the 17th century ; with the other three it was quite 

 otherwise. Robert Lord Bruce sat for the county in the first Parliament of 

 Charles II, until he succeeded his father as Lord Bruce, 21 December 1663 ; 

 next year he was advanced to be Earl of Ailesbury and Viscount Bruce of 

 Ampthill. He was appointed lord-lieutenant of the county jointly with 

 the Earl of Cleveland in 1660, and became sole lord-lieutenant in 1667.'^ 

 Of his active royalism more will be said below. After his death the Earls of 

 Ailesbury severed their connexion with the county.'" Oliver St. John, second 

 Earl of Bolingbroke, the nephew of the Oliver slain at Edgehill, had 

 succeeded his grandfather in 1646, and held the title till 1687—8. His 

 brother Pawlett, the last of the Bedfordshire St. Johns to hold the earldom, 

 succeeded the ultra-Royalist Serjeant Keeling as member for the county in 

 1663,"° and sat for the borough in the three succeeding Parliaments. 



The Earl of Bedford took no very prominent part in politics, but his 

 second son William, known after his elder brother's death in 1678 as Lord 

 Russell,''^ was in his life the untiring champion, and was revered after his 

 death as one of the martyrs, of Whig and Protestant principles. He sat in 

 the Long or Pensionary Parliament as member for Tavistock, and soon 

 became a prominent member of the Country party, resisting the attacks of 

 ministers upon 'property, religion, and all that is valuable.'*'^ In 1675 

 parties in the Lower House were too evenly balanced for effective resistance 

 to that ' mischievous bill ' '" the Non-resistance Test Act ; but in the Upper 

 House the Earls of Bedford and Bolingbroke spoke strongly, though in vain, 

 against it."* Russell became a member of the Privy Council in 1679,"^ and 

 along with Sir Humphrey Monoux represented Bedfordshire in the Parlia- 

 ment which sat from March to July, while Pawlett St. John and Sir William 

 Franklyn of Maverns, Bolnhurst, sat for the borough.'^' Bedfordshire 

 returned the same four members*" to the Parliament which met in the 

 autumn of 1680, after having been prorogued for a year. Russell had with- 

 drawn from the Council when the king prorogued Parliament against its 

 advice,"* and had given up all idea of ' binding Sampson with withes,' as 



^' CoWins, Peerage, ii, 220-1,. "^ Did. Nat. Biog. '"Ibid. 



=»* Collins, op. cit. ii, 356. '*» Ibid. 398. "« Ret. e/Memi. of Pari. 



'" He has frequently been called Lord William Russell, but this is inaccurate according to modern usage. 



'" WiiFen, Hist. Mem. of House of Russell, ii, 233. 



'" Hallam, Const. Hist, (one-vol. ed. Ward, Lock & Co.), 564. "* WifFen, op. cit. ii ixb 



»»Hallam, op. cit. 589 n. r . j • 



"" Ret. of Memb. of Pari. Maverns still belongs to the Franklyns, though they only occasionally visit it. 



'" Russell was elected for both Beds, and Hants, and chose the former. Ret. of Memb. of Pari. 



*™ Hallam, op. cit. 591. 



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