GEORGE, John (1594-1678), of the Middle Temple and Cirencester, Glos.

The Georges had lived at Baunton, two miles from Cirencester, since the early fourteenth century, and acquired the manor after the dissolution of Cirencester Abbey. S. Rudder, New Hist. of Glos. 267. They also held property in the borough, which one of them represented in 1601. HP Commons, 1558-1603, ii. 182. George’s father was probably by then receiver-general to Anne, countess of Warwick, J. Smyth, Berkeley Mss ed. J. Maclean, ii. 297. while his mother subsequently became a servant of Anne of Denmark. HMC Hatfield, xxiv. 67; HMC 4th Rep. 316. George himself served under Sir Henry Wotton* in Venice before returning to England to resume his legal studies. His father conveyed his property to him in late 1622, and early the following year he succeeded to the larger Baunton estate of his cousin Robert, together with his chambers in the Temple, his ‘barrister’s gown faced with velvet’ and some of his law books. Glos. RO, P86/1/CH1/4; PROB 11/141, f. 62; MTR, 683.

After unsuccessfully contesting Cirencester in 1624, George was returned for the borough in both 1626 and 1628; ‘Earle 1624’, f. 152v. he was described as being ‘of Cirencester’ in the 1626 indenture, OR. as Baunton was still then in the hands of his cousin’s widow. He left no mark on the records of the second Caroline Parliament, but during the third he brought in a bill (26 May 1628) to liberalize the cloth trade, which proceeded no further than its first reading. CD 1628, iii. 613. His only committee appointment was in the 1629 session, when he was added to those ordered to consider a trade petition (13 February). CJ, i. 929b.

During the 1630s George laid claim to the mastership of the Cirencester hospitals of St. Edmund and St. Lawrence, but with what success is not clear. C2/Chas.I/G22/56. In 1637, under a reversionary grant of 1622, he succeeded a younger brother as clerk of the wardrobe, and was on that account excused completion of his reading at New Inn, MTR, 860. but he surrendered the office after less than two years. He was re-elected for Cirencester in the spring and winter of 1640. As agent to the Thames conservancy, he narrowly escaped expulsion from the Long Parliament as a monopolist, but he nonetheless entered the Civil War on the parliamentary side. M.F. Keeler, Long Parl. 185. After his capture by Prince Rupert at Cirencester in February 1643, Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis ed. J. Washbourn, 170. however, he joined the king and sat in the Parliament at Oxford. Historical Collections ed. J. Rushworth, v. 573. He lost his Westminster seat in 1646, CJ, iv. 712. but escaped punishment as a delinquent. Re-elected for Cirencester to the Cavalier Parliament, he died intestate shortly before its dissolution, having settled his estates on a nephew, Vis. Glos. (Harl. Soc. xxi), 248. and was buried at Baunton on 6 Jan. 1679. Glos. RO, P86/1/CH1/4. No later member of the family sat in Parliament.