ROUS, Anthony (c.1605-77), of Wotton, Landrake, Cornw.

Rous’s father was a younger son, and he himself was said to have been ‘of such low fortune in the world that he lived in a barn at Landrake and lodged on straw till he got a commission to be captain in the parliament army under the Earl of Sussex, which brought him money and credit’. A leading member of the county committee, and heir to his uncle, Speaker of the Barebones Parliament, the Cornish gentry found him ‘very proud, grand, severe, and magisterial’ in the days of his power. He signed the Truro declaration for a free Parliament on 27 Dec. 1659, but in accordance with the wishes of George Monck the custody of Pendennis Castle was transferred to Sir Peter Killigrew. Nevertheless he retained sufficient interest in West Cornwall to stand for Helston at the general election of 1660. There was a double return, but Rous was allowed to take his seat, and marked as a friend on Lord Wharton’s list. During his few weeks in the Convention he was probably appointed to the committee of elections and privileges, and to that for continuing Parliament, and he certainly helped to consider the assessment bill. But his election was declared void on 27 June 1660 and it is unlikely that he stood again. He was buried at Landrake on 1 May 1677. His son Robert, a Presbyterian, was proposed as court candidate for Penryn or Saltash in 1688, but no later member of this branch of the family sat in Parliament.1Gilbert, Paroch. Hist. Cornw. ii. 277-8; Add. 22546, f. 97; Coate, 308; Misc. Gen. et Her. n.s. iii. 347.