Sir John Maynard | |
|---|---|
 Maynard's portrait.[1] | |
| Born | (1604-07-16)16 July 1604 prob.Tavistock |
| Died | 1690(1690-00-00) (aged 85–86) Gunnersbury Park |
| Resting place | Ealing Church |
| Education | Exeter College, Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | lawyer and politician |
| Known for | Revising theYear Books[2] |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | one son and four daughters |
| Parent(s) | Alexander and Honora Maynard |
Sir John MaynardKS (1604 – 9 October 1690)[5] was an English lawyer and politician, prominent under the reigns ofCharles I, theCommonwealth,Charles II,James II andWilliam III.[6]
Maynard was born in 1604 at the Abbey House, Tavistock, in Devon, the eldest son and heir of Alexander Maynard ofTavistock (4th son of John Maynard of Sherford in the parish ofBrixton in Devon[7]), abarrister of theMiddle Temple, by his wife Honora Arscott, daughter of Arthur Arscott ofTetcott inDevon. The senior line of the Maynard family was seated at Sherford in the parish ofBrixton in Devon.[7] His name appears in thematriculation register ofExeter College, Oxford, under date 26 April 1621, which clashes unaccountably with the date of his admission to the degree of BA on 25 April 1621, given in theUniversity Register of Degrees.[6]
In 1619 he entered theMiddle Temple; he wascalled to the Bar in November 1626, and was elected abencher in 1648. A pupil ofWilliam Noy, afterwardsattorney-general, a Devonian, and born in the law, he rapidly acquired a large practice, both on theWestern circuit and at Westminster; he argued a reported case in theKing's Bench in 1628 and was appointedRecorder ofPlymouth in August 1640.[6]
He representedTotnes in both theShort Parliament of 1640 and theLong Parliament, and from the first took an active part in the business of the house. In December 1640 he was placed on the committee of scrutiny into the conduct oflords-lieutenant of counties, and on that for the discovery of the "prime promoters" of the new "canons ecclesiastical" passed in the recent irregular session ofconvocation. He was also one of the framers of the articles upon whichStrafford wasimpeached, and one of the principal speakers at the trial. He threw himself with great zeal into the affair, and on the passing of thebill of attainder said joyfully toSir John Bramston, "Now we have done our work. If we could not have effected this we could have done nothing".[8] A strongPresbyterian, he subscribed and administered to the house theprotestation of 3 May 1641 in defence of the Protestant religion, and drafted the bill making subscription thereto obligatory on all subjects.[6]
In the committee, which sat atGuildhall after the adjournment of theHouse of Commons which followed theking's attempt to arrest the five members (4 January 1641/2), he made an eloquent speech in defence ofparliamentary privilege. In the following May he accepted a deputy-lieutenancy of militia under the parliament, and on 12 June 1643 was nominated a member of theWestminster Assembly of Divines.[9] He took thecovenant on 25 September following, and was one of the managers of the impeachment ofWilliam Laud in January–March 1643/4. With his friendBulstrode Whitelocke, Maynard attended, byEssex's invitation, a meeting of theanti-Cromwellian faction, held atEssex House in December 1644, to discuss the expediency of taking public action against Cromwell as an 'incendiary.' The idea, which seems to have originated with theLord Chancellor of ScotlandLoudon, met with no favour from the English lawyers, and was in consequence abandoned.[6]
A curious testimony to Maynard's reputation at this time is afforded by a grant made in his favour by parliament in October 1645 of the books and manuscripts of the late Lord Chief JusticeBankes, with liberty to seize them wherever he might find them. In the House of Commons he was heard with the profoundest respect, while he advocated the abolition of feudalwardships and other salutary legal reforms. He also prospered mightily in his profession, making in the course of the summer circuit of 1647 the unprecedentedly large sum of £700. As a politician he was a strict constitutionalist, protested against the first steps taken towards the deposition of theking, and on the adoption of that policy withdrew from the house as no longer a lawful assembly (November 1648).[6]
Nevertheless, on the establishment of theCommonwealth he did not scruple to take the engagement, and held a government brief at the trial of Major Faulconer for perjury in May 1653. Assigned by order of court to adviseJohn Lilburne on his second trial in July 1653, Maynard at first feigned sickness. A repetition of the order, however, elicited from him some exceptions to the indictment which confounded the court and secured Lilburne's acquittal by the jury. The jury were afterwards interrogated by thecouncil of state as to the grounds of their verdict, but refused to disclose them, and Maynard thus escaped censure, and on 9 February 1653/4 was called to the degree ofserjeant-at-law.[6]
In the following year his professional duty brought him into temporary collision with the government. One Cony, a city merchant, had been arrested by order of the council of state for non-payment of taxes, and Maynard, with Serjeants Thomas Twysden andWadham Wyndham, moved on his behalf in theupper bench for ahabeas corpus. Their argument on the return, 18 May 1655, amounted in effect to a direct attack on the government as a usurpation, and all three were forthwith, by order ofCromwell, committed to theTower of London; they were released on making submission (25 May).[6]
Maynard was among the commissioners appointed to collect the quota of theSpanish war tax of 1657 payable byDevon.Thomas Carlyle is in error in stating that he was a member of Cromwell'sHouse of Lords. He sat in the House of Commons forPlymouth during theSecond Protectorate Parliament, and on the debates on the designation to be given to the'other' house argued strongly for the revival of the old name (4 February 1657/8).Burnet states, and it is extremely probable, that he was also in favour of the revival of monarchy. On 1 May 1658 he was appointedProtector's serjeant, in which capacity he followed the Protector's bier on the ensuing 23 November. On the accession ofRichard Cromwell he was madesolicitor-general, and in parliament, where he sat forNewtown, Isle of Wight, lent the whole weight of his authority as a constitutional lawyer to prop up the Protector's tottering government.[6]
In 1658, Maynard was involved in the founding of two schools inExeter,The Maynard School for girls andHele's School for boys.[10] He was also involved with theGrammar school atTotnes which, like The Maynard, was endowed with funds under the will ofElizeeus Hele, who left considerable property for charitable purposes (Maynard was one of the trustees of his will).[11] The will was the subject of a court case held before SirEdward Rhodes. In this case theCaptain Edmond Lister petitioned parliament on behalf of his wife Joanne. The basis of the petition was that all the money had been left to charity although at the time the will was written Joanne was not born. Rhodes found that any monies left over from the charitable purposes should be given to Joanne Lister although the charitable purposes should continue.[12]
On Richard's abdication and the resuscitation of theRump Parliament, Maynard took no part in parliamentary business until 21 February 1659/60, when he was placed on the committee for drafting the bill to constitute the new council of state. He reported the bill the same day, and was himself voted a member of the council on the 23rd. He sat forBere Alston, Devon, in theConvention Parliament, was one of the first Serjeants called at theRestoration (22 June 1660), and soon afterwards (9 November) was advanced to the rank of king's serjeant and knighted (16 November). With his brother-serjeant,Sir John Glynne, he rode in the coronation procession, on 23 April 1661, behind the attorney and solicitor-general, much to the disgust ofSamuel Pepys, who regarded him as a turncoat.[6]
As king's serjeant, Maynard appeared for the crown at some of the state trials with which the new reign was inaugurated, among others that of SirHenry Vane in Trinity term 1662. He represented Bere Alston in thePensionary Parliament, 1661–1679, and sat for Plymouth during the rest ofCharles II's reign. He was the principal manager of the abortive impeachment ofLord Mordaunt in 1666–67, and constituted himself counsel for the defence in the proceedings againstLord Clarendon in the following October. He appeared for the House of Lords in the king's bench on the return toLord Shaftesbury's habeas corpus on 29 June 1677, and sustained its sufficiency on the ground that, though a general warrant for commitment to prison would be invalid if issued by any court but the House of Lords, the king's bench had no jurisdiction to declare it so when issued by that house. In 1678 he made a spirited but ineffectual attempt to secure the conviction ofLord Cornwallis for the brutal murder of a boy in St. James's Park. The severe censure whichLord Campbell passed upon him for his conduct of this case is based upon an entire misapprehension of the facts.[6]
In the debate onLord Danby's impeachment (December 1678) Maynard showed a regrettable disposition to strain theTreason Act 1351 (25 Edward III) to his disadvantage, maintaining that its scope might be enlarged by retrospective legislation, which causedSwift to denounce him, in a note to Burnet'sOwn Time, as 'a knave or a fool for all his law.' On constitutional questions he steered as a rule a wary and somewhat ambiguous course, professing equal solicitude for theroyal prerogative and the power and privileges of parliament, acknowledging the existence of a dispensing power, without either defining its limits or admitting that it had none (10 February 1672/3), at one time resisting the king's attempts to adjourn parliament by message from theSpeaker's chair (February 1677/8), and at another counselling acquiescence in his arbitrary rejection of a duly elected speaker (10–11 March 1678/1679).[6]
Maynard opened the case againstEdward Colman on 27 November 1678, and took part in most of the prosecutions arising out of the supposedPopish Plot, including the impeachment ofLord Stafford, in December 1680. Lord Campbell's interesting story of his slipping away to circuit without leave during the debate on the Exclusion Bill in the preceding November, 'upon which his son was instructed to inform him that if he did not return forthwith he should be sent for in custody, he being treated thus tenderly in respect of his having been long theFather of the House' is a sheer fabrication.[6]
Maynard favoured the impeachment ofEdward Fitzharris, declared its rejection by the House of Lords a breach of privilege (26 March 1681), and took part in the subsequent prosecution in the king's bench. In the action for false imprisonment during hismayoralty brought bySir William Pritchard against the ex-sheriffThomas Papillon on 6 November 1684, an incident in the conflict after the court took on the liberties of the City of London, Maynard conducted the defence with eminent skill and zeal, though aJeffreys-ridden jury found a verdict for the plaintiff with £10,000 damages. Summoned to give evidence on behalf ofOates on his trial for perjury in May 1685, and questioned concerning the impeachment of Lord Stafford, Maynard pleaded total inability to swear to his memory in regard to that matter, and was dismissed by Jeffreys with a sneer at his supposed failing powers.[6]
During the reign ofJames II Maynard representedBere Alston in parliament. He opposed so much of the abortive bill for the preservation of the king's person as proposed to make it high treason to assert by word of mouth the legitimacy of theDuke of Monmouth (June), and likewise the extraordinary supply for the creation of a standing army demanded by the king after the suppression of thewestern rebellion. Though not, it would seem, aprivy councillor, he was summoned to the council held to establish the birth of thePrince of Wales on 22 October 1688, and also to the meeting of the lords spiritual and temporal held on 22 December, to confer on the emergency presented by the flight of theking, and as doyen of the bar was presented to thePrince of Orange on his arrival in London. William congratulated him on having outlived so many rivals; Maynard replied : 'And I had like to have outlived the law itself had not your highness come over.'[6]
We are at the moment out of the beaten path. If therefore we are determined to move only in that path, we cannot move at all. A man in a revolution resolving to do nothing which is not strictly according to established form resembles a man who has lost himself in the wilderness, and who stands crying "Where is the king's highway? I will walk nowhere but on the king's highway." In a wilderness a man should take the track which will carry him home. In a revolution we must have recourse to the highest law, the safety of the state. Maynard[2]
In the convention which met on 22 January 1688/9, Maynard sat for Plymouth, and in the debate of the 28th on the state of the nation, and the conference with the lords which followed on 2 February, argued that James had vacated the throne by hisRoman Catholicism, and attempted subversion of the constitution, and that as during his life he could have no heir, the choice lay between an alteration of the succession and a regency of indefinite duration. He supported thebill for declaring the convention a parliament on the very frank ground that a dissolution, owing to the ferment among the clergy, would mean the triumph of thetory party. On 5 March he was swornlord commissioner of the great seal, jointly with Sir Anthony Keck and Sir William Rawlinson. This office did not exclude him from the House of Commons, and he continued to take an active part in its proceedings. On 16 March he moved for leave to introduce a bill for disarming papists; and while professing perfect confidence in thequeen, he energetically opposed the bill for vesting the regency in her during William's absence from the realm, the passing of which into law was closely followed by his retirement or removal from office, his last appearance in court being on 14 May 1690.[6]
So brief a tenure of office at so advanced an age afforded Maynard little or no opportunity for the display of high judicial powers. As to his merits, however, all parties were agreed; the bench, asThomas Fuller quaintly wrote before the Restoration, seeming "sick with long longing for his sitting thereon".Roger North admits that he was "the best old book lawyer of his time". Clarendon speaks of his "eminent parts", "great learning", and "signal reputation".Anthony Wood praises his "great reading and knowledge in the more profound and perplexed parts of the law", and his devotion to "his mother the university of Oxon". As a politician, his moderation and consistency were generally recognised, though for his part in the impeachments of Strafford and Stafford he was savagely attacked byRoscommon in hisGhost of the late House of Commons (1680–1). Though hardly eloquent, Maynard was a singularly facile and fluent speaker (Roscommon sneers at "his accumulative hackney tongue" and could sometimes be crushing in retort. Jeffreys once taxing him in open court with having forgotten his law, he is said to have replied: "In that case I must have forgotten a great deal more than your lordship ever knew." He humorously defined advocacy asars bablativa.[6]
To Maynard we owe the unique edition of the reports of Richard de Winchedon, being theYear Books ofEdward II, covering substantially the entire reign to Trinity term 1326, together with excerpts from the records ofEdward I, London (1678–9).
Maynard amassed a large fortune, bought the manor ofGunnersbury, and there in 1663 built from designs byInigo Jones or his pupilWebb a palace, Gunnersbury House, (afterwards the residence of thePrincess Amelia, daughter ofGeorge II). He died there on 9 October 1690, his body lying in state until the 25th, when it was interred with great pomp in Ealing Church.[6]
Maynard married, firstly, Elizabeth Henley, daughter of Andrew Henley ofTaunton, Somerset who had three sons and four daughters. She was buried in Ealing Church on 4 January 1655. He married secondly, Jane Austen, widow of Edward Austen and daughter of Cheney Selhurst ofTenterden. She was buried in Ealing Church in 1668. His third wife was Margaret, widow successively ofSir Thomas Fleming ofNorth Stoneham, Hampshire andSir Francis Prujean, physician to the king, and daughter ofEdward, Lord Gorges. He married fourthly, Mary Vermuyden, widow of Sir Charles Vermuyden, M.D. and daughter of Ambrose Upton, canon ofChrist Church Cathedral, Oxford. Mary survived Maynard and remarried toHenry Howard, 5th Earl of Suffolk.
| Maynard's Estate Act 1694 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for settling the Estate of Sir John Maynard Knight, deceased, late One of the Lords Commissioners for the Custody of the Great Seal of England. |
| Citation | 5 & 6 Will. & Mar. c.16Pr. |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 16 April 1694 |
| Commencement | 7 November 1693[a] |
Status: Current legislation | |
By his first wife Maynard had sonsJohn,Joseph, and four daughters, Elizabeth, Honora, Johanna, and Martha. His eldest daughter marriedSir Duncumbe Colchester ofWestbury, Gloucestershire; the second, Edward Nosworthy ofDevon; the third, Thomas Legh ofAdlington Hall, Cheshire; and the fourth, Sir Edward Gresham, Bt. Maynard survived all his children, except his youngest daughter, and devised his estates in trust for his granddaughters and their issuein tail by a will so obscure that to settle the disputes to which it gave rise a private act of Parliament,Maynard's Estate Act 1694 (5 & 6 Will. & Mar. c.16Pr.), notwithstanding which it was made the subject of litigation in 1709.[6]
Portraits are in theNational Portrait Gallery[1] and atExeter College, Oxford.
One of Maynard's opinions was printed inLondon's Liberty. For his speeches at Strafford's trial seeJohn Rushworth'sHistorical Collections. For other of his speeches seeWilliam Cobbett'sState Trials,Parliamentary History, andSomersTracts.
He must be carefully distinguished from his namesake,Sir John Maynard, K.B. (1592–1658), with whom he has been confounded by Lord Campbell.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: "Maynard, John (1602-1690)".Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vacant | Member of Parliament forTotnes 1640–1653 With:Oliver St John | Not represented inBarebones Parliament |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forPlymouth 1656–1658 With:Timothy Alsop | Succeeded by |
| Vacant Not represented inSecond Protectorate Parliament | Member of Parliament forNewtown 1659 With:William Laurence | Not represented inRestored Rump |
| Vacant Not represented inSecond Protectorate Parliament | Member of Parliament forBere Alston 1659 With:Elisha Crymes | Not represented inRestored Rump |
| Vacant Not represented inSecond Protectorate Parliament | Member of Parliament forCamelford 1659 With:William Bradden | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forExeter 1660–1661 With:Thomas Bampfield | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBere Alston 1661–1679 With:George Howard 1661–1662 Richard Arundell 1662–1665 Joseph Maynard 1665–1679 Sir William Bastard 1679 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forPlymouth 1679–1685 With:John Sparke 1679–1680 Sir William Jones 1680–1685 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBere Alston 1685–1689 With:Sir Benjamin Bathurst 1685–1689 John Elwill 1689 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forPlymouth 1689–1690 With:Arthur Herbert 1689 Sir William Jones 1689–1690 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
