SMALMAN, Francis I (c.1565-1633), of Kinnersley Castle, Herefs.; formerly of St. John Street, Clerkenwell, Mdx.

Smalman’s father rented the farm and stock of Ivington Bury, two miles south of Leominster, from his uncle Thomas for £113 p.a.13 PROB 11/77, f. 151v. Smalman himself went up to London and established himself in the inner suburbs as a merchant, money-lender, and property developer.14 HMC Hatfield, x. 84; APC, 1598-9, p. 37. However, he never lost touch with Leominster; his first wife was buried in the priory, and his stepmother was the mother of John Powle*. On her death in 1615 he succeeded to a messuage, garden and orchard that his father had purchased in the town.15 PROB 11/114, f. 372v; 11/126, f. 52. His own property purchases were on a far greater scale. By 1617 he had bought for ‘a very great sum of money’ Kinnersley castle and the manors of Kinnersley and Letton, situated about 12 miles north-west of Hereford, from the son of Roger Vaughan†.16 E112/85/219, 222; RCHM Herefs. iii. 98. He seems to have experienced no difficulty in gaining acceptance by the local gentry. By 1616 Sir Thomas Coningsby† could express his confidence in Smalman’s ‘integrity and endeavour’, and was prepared to lay down £2,000 for a match between their children.17 PROB 11/148, f. 292r-v.

Smalman was returned for Leominster in 1621, presumably with Coningsby’s support. He left no trace on the records of the third Jacobean Parliament, although he was certainly in London during the resumed session in November, when the opponents of the weirs on the Wye looked both to him and Coningsby’s son Fitzwilliam* to obtain satisfaction in Parliament. In January 1622 he was warned to attend the Privy Council for failing to contribute towards the benevolence for the Palatinate.18 SP14/127/48. On 7 Apr. 1624 he signed a letter addressed to the county Members asking them to seek the removal of the weirs on the Wye.19 Herefs. RO, W15/2, Henry Vaughan to Fitzwilliam Coningsby, 14 Nov. 1621; Add. 70086/2, Sir Richard Hopton et al. to Sir John Scudamore and Sir Robert Harley, 7 Apr. 1624. He was noted as being absent from the meeting of the Herefordshire Forced Loan commission on 13 Feb. 1627.20 SP16/54/2.I.

Smalman died aged 68, and was buried at Kinnersley on 9 Sept. 1633.21 Robinson, 164; Herefs. RO, Kinnersley par. reg. In his will, made on 20 July 1633, he left his only daughter a portion of £1,000. A splendid memorial was erected by his son William, who sat for Leominster in the Short Parliament.22 PROB 11/164, f. 274; RCHM Herefs. iii. 98.