WILLS, Henry (d.?1664), of Saltash, Cornw.

Henry Wills’s origins are unclear. He may have been a distant relative of the various branches of the Wills family seated at Botusfleming, Morval and Wivelscombe in eastern Cornwall, but no-one of his name appears in the visitation records.9Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 557-62. His later career shows that he was a resident of the borough of Saltash, and his associations with the town went back at least as far as 1618, when he was one of those named in a duchy of Cornwall grant allowing the burgesses of Saltash to enjoy the profits of the ferry across the Tamar. He may have held this privilege down to 1649.10Parl. Surv. Duchy Cornw. i. 129. There were 18 adult males with the surname who signed the Protestation in St Stephen by Saltash parish in 1641, but again Henry is not named.11Cornw. Protestation Returns, 250-2. It is probable that he was the son of the William Wills who held at least eight burgages in Saltash from the duchy of Cornwall.12Parl. Surv. Duchy Cornw. i. 127-8. According to a later legal case brought by his brother, William Wills, Henry was his ‘eldest brother and his father’s heir’, and their father, also William, had died in 1643. It was stated in the same document that the family owned lands in Saltash town, including the ‘castle borough’ (which was bequeathed to William junior), but that the father had moved before his death to Hyde in Devon (possibly Hyde Park in Plymouth).13C10/4/207.

Soon after the outbreak of the civil war, Henry Wills sided with Parliament, and in 1643 he was one of the tenants of Trematon manor (which included the borough of Saltash) sequestered by the royalists for rebellion against the king.14Coate, Cornw. 107n. Wills was included in the parliamentarian county committee appointed on 1 July 1644, and he was named to the assessment commission in October of the same year.15A. and O. When Cornwall fell to Parliament in the spring of 1646, Wills became an active member of the county committee, and in August he was one of the committeemen who summoned Dr Peterson of St Breock and accused him of malignancy. In the debate that followed, Wills supported the prominent local Presbyterian, Thomas Gewen*, who took a hard line, insisting that Peterson be suspended from the living despite having the backing of his parishioners.16Coate, Cornw. 334-5. Wills was elected as MP for Saltash on 14 December 1646, by which time he was an alderman of the borough.17C219/43/58. It is likely that as well as his own interest in the borough he also enjoyed the support of local landowners, especially the pro-Presbyterian Bullers, seated at nearby Shillingham. Wills made his first appearance in the Commons on 24 February 1647, when he took the Covenant, but his later activity was very limited.18CJ v. 97a. He was absent without permission at the call of the House on 9 October, but a month later his excuse was accepted and the £20 fine reimbursed.19CJ v. 330a, 348a. On 30 November he was allowed leave to go into the country for six weeks, and he may not have attended at Westminster at all during 1648, as he was excused at the call of the House on 24 April and recorded as being absent without excuse on 26 September.20CJ v. 373a, 543b; vi. 34a. Wills’s continual absence from Parliament in 1647-8 may have been influenced by the Independent ascendancy in the Commons. In June 1647 Wills was appointed to the assessment commission, and he was re-appointed in February 1648.21A. and O. In May he was one of the committeemen who reported to Francis Buller I* and the other Cornish MPs that Penzance had been seized by royalists. Perhaps because of this Buller connection, Wills was considered to be an opponent of the army in December 1648, and he was secluded from the Commons at Pride’s Purge on the 6th of that month.22Antony House, Carew-Pole BC/24/2/166; A List of the Imprisoned and Secluded Members (1648, 669.f.13.62).

Wills’s career after the purge is obscure, and it may be significant that he reappears in the sources only in the last months of the protectorate, as the Presbyterian interest reasserted itself. He signed the Saltash election indenture which returned John Buller* in January 1659, and shortly afterwards he was witness to the marriage settlement of the daughter of another Presbyterian gentleman, John Eliot* of Port Eliot.23C219/46/28. He returned to the Commons when the secluded members were readmitted on 21 February 1660, but again played no part in parliamentary affairs.24Coate, Cornw. 310. Wills was still alive in September 1663, when he acted as trustee for the dowry lands of the daughter of Thomas Wills of Wivelscombe.25Cornw. RO, WW/473. He may have died shortly afterwards, as the Hearth Tax returns, drawn up in 1664, specified that his house in Saltash was now in the possession of Mrs Dorothy Wills, presumably his widow.26Cornw. Hearth Tax, 4. In 1650 Wills was recorded as having ‘no child of his own’, with his brother William being ‘his next heir apparent’, but it is not known whether this situation changed in the years before his death.27C10/4/207.