CARENT, William (1607-66), of Toomer, Henstridge, Som.

Although described by a contemporary as ‘a right ancient and worshipful family in these parts’, the Carents were in political and financial decline by the early seventeenth century.11Gerard’s Description of Somerset, ed. E.H. Bates (Som. Rec. Soc. xv), 165. Originally from Monmouthshire, the family had reached the height of its influence in the west country in the fifteenth century, when William Carent†, who owned land in Somerset and Dorset, sat as knight of the shire for both counties between 1420 and 1450.12J. Collinson, Hist. and Antiquities of Som. (Bath, 1791), i. p. xxxi; ii. 366-7. But by the late sixteenth century, Leonard Carent, the great-grandfather of our MP, had been forced to sell off many of the family’s estates in Somerset to rising men such as the Pouletts, although he managed to retain the principal family seat at Toomer, on the Dorset border.13VCH Som. iv. 44; Gerard’s Description, ed. Bates, 175; Som. RO, DD/MDL, box c.934, unfol.: conveyance, 29 Aug. 1578. His grandson, Maurice Carent, who succeeded to the family estates in 1605, enjoyed a slight revival of fortunes as a result of his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of the earl of Marlborough, lord treasurer of England.14Som. RO, DD/MDL, box c.934: general livery, 14 Aug. 1605; Harington’s Diary, 28. Through the Leys, the Carents became related to the Haringtons of Kelston, and a network of other local families.15Harington’s Diary, 28. Marlborough proved to be a good patron to the Carents. In 1627, Maurice’s son, William, was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn ‘nepos ex filia’ (as Marlborough’s grandson), with John Harington* and William Lenthall* acting as sponsors.16L. Inn Admiss.; LIL, Admiss. Bk. 6, f. 1. In the following year the earl supported Maurice Carent in his efforts to raise money for his children from the Toomer estate.17Som. RO, DD/MDL, box c.934: indenture, 20 June 1628. Yet, even the support of the lord treasurer could do little to disguise the financial embarrassment of the Carents in the early years of Charles I’s reign.

The career of William Carent was restricted by the financial plight of his family. In 1634 he married the daughter of Gifford Long of Rood Ashton in Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire, but the terms of the settlement show the financial weakness of the Carents: in return for a portion of £2,000, William could only offer a reversionary interest in the Toomer lands, and the right to grant jointure lands to his bride from this interest.18Som. RO, DD/MDL, box c.934: marriage settlement, 20 Sept. 1634. Carent’s father seems to have died before 1641, but by then the remaining estate had been further sub-divided between William, who retained the Toomer lands, and his brother James, who owned the estate at Kingsbury Regis.19Somerset Protestation Returns, 224, 227. After the outbreak of the civil war (in which he probably supported the parliamentarian cause), and the decline in local influence of the royalist Ley family, Carent’s political influence was largely dependent on his position as one of the nine ‘bailiffs’ of the borough of Milborne Port, which bordered on his estates in the parish of Henstridge.20Som. RO, DD/TB, box 20, F.T. 1, unfol.: account of Milborne Port, n.d. It was on his own local interest, as much as on the support of his kinsman, John Harington, or through the influence of the leader of the county committee, John Pyne*, that Carent was elected as a ‘recruiter’ MP for the borough late in 1645.21Supra, ‘Milborne Port’.

Carent was inactive as an MP. He travelled to London to take the Covenant in February 1646, but in April received leave to return to the country.22CJ iv. 454a, 507b. Over the next three years he repeatedly gained leave to remain in Somerset, and probably did not return to London until 1649.23CJ v. 107b, 330b, 442a, 543b. Although reluctant to serve at Westminster, Carent was politically active at a local level, supporting the Independent interest in Somerset headed by John Pyne, who controlled the county committee. Carent was also close to John Harington, who brokered the marriage of Carent’s sister to the pro-Independent London merchant, Thomas Juxon, in March 1647.24Harington’s Diary, 28, 31, 34; Juxon Jnl. 3, 190. After the second civil war of 1648, and the decline in influence of Harington and more moderate counsels among the Independents, Carent supported Pyne’s faction in Somerset, securing appointment as an assessment commissioner alongside the radical Independents, Alexander and Edward Popham* in November 1648.25CJ vi. 88a. Although he had been added to the Somerset bench in 1646, it was not until mid-December 1648 that order was given for him to be tendered the oaths of office.26C231/6, pp. 51, 130.

Yet Carent may have been a reluctant republican. He was absent from the Commons after Pride’s Purge and the trial of the king, and only returned in March 1649, when he registered his dissent to the 5th December vote (that the king’s answers to the propositions from both Houses were sufficient grounds for a settlement).27CJ vi. 155b. Despite his wariness to engage at Westminster, he seems to have been happy to serve as a magistrate and militia and assessment commissioner in the local administration of the early 1650s, which was still run by Pyne and his friends.28A. and O.; QS Recs. Som. Commonwealth, p. xxi; SP28/242, unfol. The collapse of Pyne’s local autonomy after the foundation of the protectorate in late 1653 also affected Carent. Carent and Pyne were both rejected for the Somerset county elections in August 1656.29Som. Assize Orders ed. Cockburn, 77. Carent was also among a group of Pyne’s allies finally purged from the local commission of the peace in March 1657, after the abolition of the major-generals.30C231/6, p. 360. Political failure may have been matched by financial difficulties, not helped by Carent’s involvement in a series of law-suits over lands in Somerset and Wiltshire between 1653 and 1658.31C5/22/30; C5/407/2; C5/411/61.

The death of Oliver Cromwell* in September 1658 briefly revived Carent’s fortunes. In January 1659 there were fears among former Presbyterians such as John Fitzjames* and Robert Hunt*, that Pyne would gain control of the elections at Milborne Port, and it is possible that Carent owed his return for the borough in 1659 to Pyne’s influence.32Alnwick, Northumberland MS 552, ff. 70-1. Yet Carent played no part in the proceedings at Westminster, and his activities after 1659 are obscure. He was almost certainly not the royalist conspirator of the same name who was arrested and tried for treason during the protectorate, and apprehended again for suspicious behaviour in the summer of 1659: the plotter was probably Carent’s London cousin, who had connections with Lord Mordaunt and other royalist exiles.33PROB11/321/280; CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 67; 1659-60, pp. 128, 326, 362; Mordaunt Letterbk. 138, 141, 146-7; Abbott, Writings and Speeches, iv. 844. The MP seems to have led a less exciting life in retirement in Somerset, where he served as commissioner for the county sewers in September 1659.34C181/6, p. 394.

The restoration of the king brought little joy for the Carents. When William Carent drew up his will shortly before his death in 1666, he provided only token gifts to family and friends, implying a lack of ready money in the family; it is also apparent that he died without children, as his personal estate was bequeathed to the sons of his kinsman, Edmond Carent of London (brother of the royalist conspirator).35PROB11/321/280. The family’s financial position continued to worsen until 1675, when William’s brother, James Carent (who inherited the family lands on his brother’s death), settled the remaining estate on four trustees on mortgage to pay his debts.36Som. RO, DD/MDL, box 8, F.L. 14: will of James Carent, 26 Apr. 1675. After James’s death in 1676, the Toomer estate was sold by the trustees, and passed into the hands of the Hervey and Seymour families.37Som. RO, DD/MDL, box 8, F.L. 14: deed of sale, 15 Oct. 1676.