LANGDALE, Marmaduke (c. 1657-1718)

A scion of one of the leading Catholic families in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Marmaduke Langdale came into a brief moment of prominence during James II’s reign, when, in March 1688, he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of the East Riding alongside his father Marmaduke Langdale, 2nd Baron Langdale. Ibid. 172. While his father went into exile shortly after the Revolution, Marmaduke Langdale may have remained in the country, for his name appears in the list of those Jacobites suspected of treason and ordered to be apprehended during the invasion scare of summer 1690. CSP Dom. 1690-1, p. 65. Shortly thereafter he appears to have joined his father on the continent, as both were given permission to return to England in 1698. CSP Dom. 1698, p. 47.

Langdale succeeded to the barony in 1703 and as a Catholic was unable to sit in the House; he was also considered to be a Jacobite. Stowe 224, f. 330. He made his one significant intervention in the affairs of the House when he was incarcerated during the round-up of suspected papists in the northern counties during the invasion scare of March 1708. HMC Portland, ii. 202. From his cell in Beverley he addressed a letter to John Sheffield, duke of Buckingham and Normanby, in which he complained of his capture and continued,

I cannot but look upon this act as a breach of the right of peerage … by which we are exempted from all such seizures. … having the honour of being a member of your noble House, I could not think of quitting any point of its privilege without acquainting your Grace and the House of Lords with it. HMC Lords, n.s. vii. 594.

The letter was read before the House on 30 Mar. and referred to the committee for privileges, which, considering the recently passed Act for the Security of Her Majesty’s Person and Government, and invoking the precedent of 24 Feb. 1692, in which it had been decided that ‘privilege of Parliament shall not extend to Lords that have not first qualified themselves to sit in Parliament, by taking the Oaths and Test’, determined that there was no breach of privilege in this case. Luttrell, Brief Relation, vi. 285-6. When the report was made to the House the following day, it was further proposed that a clause be added to the decision, explaining ‘he [i.e. Langdale] not having qualified himself to sit in Parliament by taking the oaths and test, pursuant to the Statutes’. On a division the proposal to add these words was defeated, although six Tory peers, led by Buckingham and Normanby, entered their dissent from this decision. It is not clear why the inclusion of this clause should have been considered a Tory measure requiring a defeat by the Whigs. To further emphasize its decision against Langdale, the House ordered that John Holles, duke of Newcastle, lord lieutenant of the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire, should signify to his deputy lieutenants that they had done their duty in confining Langdale, and thank them for their care in this matter. The feared invasion having failed, on 1 Apr. 1708 the Privy Council ordered the northern lord lieutenants to release all those seized, including Langdale, after which he did not pursue the question of privilege. HMC Portland, ii. 203-4.

In 1716, after the abortive Jacobite rising, Langdale’s manor of Holme upon Spalding Moor was valued at £599 8s. 8d. by the commissioners for ‘traitors’ estates’. His marriage to Frances Draycott of Paynesley in Staffordshire appears to have helped the Langdales’ fortunes by bringing three manors in Staffordshire into their possession and these estates, valued at £960 13s. 7d., were registered in 1716 as in the possession of the 3rd Baron’s son, Marmaduke Langdale^†, who succeeded to the barony upon his father’s death in 1718 as 4th Baron Langdale. Estcourt and Payne, English Catholic Nonjurors, 243, 303; Hull History Centre. DDHA/14/13.