STRADLING, Sir Edward (1600–1644), of St Donats Castle, Glam.

Stradling’s father, a notable scholar, sat three times in Parliament, including once for Glamorgan (1626).18‘Sir John Stradling’, HP Commons 1604-1629. Stradling himself was knighted at an early age and entered public life well before his father’s death.19Justices of the Peace, ed. Phillips, 296; Glam. Co. Hist. iv. 167. The privy council intervened in July 1626 to prevent a duel between him and royal favourite John Mordaunt, Lord Mordaunt (the future 1st earl of Peterborough), while in November 1627 a warrant was issued against his departure abroad without licence.20SP14/214, f. 129; PC2/36, f. 214.

An enterprising but reckless character, he was involved in a series of expensive and generally unsuccessful speculations. In 1630 he secured with Sir Kenelm Digby a licence to build a house in Drury Lane, Westminster, although two years later he sold the property on with the house incomplete.21SP16/163, f. 76; Survey of London, v. 42, 93. In February 1631 he obtained with partner John Lyde a licence to bring water to London from springs at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, by means of a stone and brick aqueduct.22Coventry Docquets, 221. Over the next decade he acquired a succession of new partners, including Carew Ralegh*, a public lottery raised £7,000 towards the project, and the participants had to enter ever-larger bonds as security against non-completion.23SP16/387, f. 166; SP16/397, f. 171; CSP Dom. 1638-9, pp. 304, 314; 1639, p. 481; Coventry Docquets, 235. Meanwhile, in December 1631 he was among investors in a soap-making monopoly, which became the Society of Soapmakers in Westminster and covenanted to make 5,000 tons of soap annually.24Rushworth, Hist. Collns. iii. 109-15; SP17/C, f. 27. Summoned before the court of star chamber in June 1637 with Sir John Strangwayes* and Sir Lewis Dyve† on charges of transporting gold and silver out of the kingdom, he (and Dyve) were pardoned in March 1639.25SP16/361, f. 176; CSP Dom. 1638–1639, p. 596; Coventry Docquets, 276.

Despite inheriting the St Donats estate from his father in 1637, by 1640 Stradling was almost certainly already facing the financial crisis which later threatened to overwhelm him.26PROB11/175/311. In November 1639, probably for a considerable sum, he acquired with his widowed sister Jane the valuable wardship of her son Edmund Thomas*, but following Jane’s remarriage, some time before July 1641, his share was transferred to her new husband, Michael Oldisworth*, close ally of Philip Herbert*, 4th earl of Pembroke.27Coventry Docquets, 486; Bodl. Add. B.109, f. 18; CJ iv. 525a. It was presumably with the support of Pembroke, as the major landowner in the county, that in March 1640 Stradling was returned to Parliament for Glamorganshire. He was included on the committee of privileges on 16 April, but was not otherwise conspicuous during the session.28CJ ii. 4a.

Stradling was abroad in October when the Long Parliament was elected.29Glam. Co. Hist. iv. 258. The fact that he was absent on the king’s service (the nature of which was unspecified), saved him from arrest for debt on his return. When in December one of his creditors, Captain John Roper, attempted to have him seized in the Strand, Westminster, Stradling claimed privilege, assisted by Sir Lewis Dyve and William Paget, Baron Paget. By the end of May 1641 Parliament had decided that Stradling’s claim was legitimate and Dyve had undertaken to satisfy the debt.30HMC 4th Rep. 44, 63, 69; LJ iv. 261b. However, in April 1642 Stradling was among those voted delinquents by the Commons for their part in the soap monopoly and in May he, Ralegh and another were ordered to repay money collected for the aqueduct project.31CJ ii. 540a, 585b.

On 23 April the serjeant-at-arms reported that Stradling ‘could not be found’.32CJ ii. 540a. He may already have joined the king at York. On 5 July Speaker William Lenthall* read a letter detailing the capture off Hull of ‘a small pinnace’ making for the Netherlands, containing Stradling and ‘army plotters’ William Ashbournham* and George Goring*, the latter in disguise.33PJ iii. 170, 172; LJ v. 183a; Clarendon, Hist., ii. 256-7; Rushworth, Hist. Collns. v. 745. After several days of debate, Parliament ordered that all three be brought up to London in custody, agreeing that Stradling should be exempt from any proceedings for debt during the time he was in the capital, but with the connivance of Hull governors Sir John Hotham* and John Hotham*, the prisoners escaped.34PJ iii. 192, 204, 215; LJ v. 205b.

Returning to Glamorgan, where he had been made a commissioner of array, Stradling joined other gentry in rallying to the king, and raised 1,000 foot.35Glam. Co. Hist. iv. 259; Newman, Royalist Officers, 359. With his brother Thomas as his lieutenant-colonel, on 23 October he commanded his regiment at the battle of Edgehill, where his hastily-mobilised and ill-equipped troops fared badly. William Herbert I* was killed and Sir Edward was among those taken prisoner, leaving the regiment to re-form under his brother and Colonel John Belasyse* and eventually participate in the 1643 siege of Bristol.36Story of St Donat’s, 47; Add. 18777, f. 43b; Newman, Royalist Officers, 359-60. Negotiations for his release were underway by at least December 1643 and he was included in the limited exchange of prisoners agreed in principle by the Commons on 6 April 1644.37Mems. of Prince Rupert, ed. Warburton, ii. 337; CJ iii. 451a. Once liberated, he went to Oxford to join the king, who had prioritised his release.38SP16/501, f. 122. Probably a victim of the fever then raging in the city, he died there on 20 June.39Wood, City of Oxford, ed. Clark, iii. 252. None of Stradling’s sons sat in Parliament, but Sir Edward Stradling, 5th baronet, was a Member for Cardiff boroughs 1698-1701 and 1710-22.40HP Commons 1690-1715; HP Commons 1715-1754.