JENKINS (JENKYN), John (?1626-1661), of Wells, Som.

The life of John Jenkins illustrates the geographical mobility some soldiers experienced as a result of their time in the New Model army. A Welshman by birth, Jenkins sat for a Somerset constituency before settling in the north east. He was a perennial newcomer. Where exactly in Wales he was born is uncertain. The only clue is that, when he died in 1661, he left a nephew, Humphrey Jenkins, son of his late brother, William, and that Humphrey was then living at Worthenbury, on the English-Welsh border in Flintshire.11Durham UL, DPR/1/1/1661/J3/1-2, 7; Brewster, Stockton upon Tees (1796), 135. It is therefore possible that the future MP was the son born to one William Jenkins at Worthenbury in 1626, although the Jenkins surname was so widespread that this connection cannot be certain.12Worthenbury Par. Reg. i. 11. This William Jenkins, or the aforementioned brother, may have been the man who died there in 1657 and either of them could have been married to Ermyn Jenkins, a wife who was buried at Worthenbury that same year.13Worthenbury Par. Reg. ii. second pagination, 15.

What is certain is that Jenkins’ decision to join the army raised by Parliament to fight the king shaped the rest of his life. He probably began his military career as one of the original members of the infantry regiment raised by Colonel Charles Essex, as a captain called John Jenkin received pay as a member of that regiment in late August 1642.14SP28/1a, f. 267. If so, he presumably fought at Edgehill (23 Oct. 1642), where Essex was killed in action. By August 1643 Jenkins was serving in Bartholomew Vermuyden’s cavalry regiment.15BHO, Cromwell Assoc. database; Davies, ‘Army of the Eastern Assoc.’, 90. Numerous pay warrants to Captain Jenkins date from this time, although some of them may have related instead to one of the officers in the foot regiment of John Pickering.16SP28/17, ff. 211, 355; SP28/18, f. 155, 199; SP28/19, ff. 271, 273; SP28/25, ff. 58, 61-7, 367, 434, 503; SP28/26, f. 103; Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, i. 52, 62. (That other Captain Jenkins was killed in the spring of 1645.)17Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. ii. 405; Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, i. 49. In December 1644 Jenkins was stationed at Brickhill in Bedfordshire, although by the following month some of his men may have been quartered at Cambridge.18Luke Letter Bks. 413; SP28/23, f. 204. He and his men probably remained under Vermuyden’s command under the New Model, until Vermuyden stepped down in the summer of 1645 and was replaced by Oliver Cromwell. Jenkins then served directly under Cromwell for the next four years and he is known to have been present at the siege of Basing House (Aug.-Oct. 1645).19Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 200-4; Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, i. 73, 83, 94, 107; Abbott, Writings and Speeches, i. 384. All that is known about his role in army politics during these years is that he attended the general council of the army held at Whitehall on 29 December 1648.20Clarke Pprs. ii. 277.

Cromwell’s decision to accept the command of the army in Ireland in 1649 would prove to have a number of important consequences for Jenkins’ career. First, Cromwell stood down as colonel of this cavalry regiment and was replaced by John Disbrowe and, secondly, instead of accompanying Cromwell to Ireland, the regiment was sent to garrison the West Country.21Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, ii. 52; The Moderate, no. 62 (11-18 Sept. 1649, E.574.4). Disbrowe was quickly impressed by Jenkins. In September 1650, when Jenkins was unable to travel to Scotland to see Cromwell about some unspecified piece of business, Disbrowe told Cromwell that Jenkins had been performing his regimental duties ‘exceeding well’. He added that Jenkins ‘doth truly love and honour your lordship’.22Original Letters, ed. Nickolls, 26. By now, Jenkins was stationed at Wells and this seems to have remained his principal posting for the next eight years.23Wells Convocation Acts Bks. 981. Alexander Popham* also spotted his potential and recruited him to serve as major of his regiment of horse in the Somerset militia.24CSP Dom. 1650, p. 333; Original Letters, ed. Nickolls, 26. Along with the rest of Disbrowe’s regiment, Jenkins probably fought at Worcester in 1651 and helped suppress Penruddock’s rebellion in 1655.25Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, ii. 68, 95. He also, when required, gave assistance to the local justices of the peace.26QS Recs. Som. Commonwealth, 315.

Jenkins was elected as MP for Wells on 7 August 1656.27Som. Assize Orders ed. Cockburn, 74-5; TSP v. 302-3. He was almost certainly nominated by Disbrowe, now the local major-general, and his selection represents a particularly clear-cut example of army influence in the elections to the 1656 Parliament. There was no obvious reason, beyond Disbrowe’s backing, for the Wells voters to favour him. During the early weeks of this Parliament Jenkins was included on a number of parliamentary committees, including those on prisoners accused of treason (4 Oct.), on labourers’ wages (7 Oct.) and to investigate obstructions to the sale of church and royal lands (17 Oct.).28CJ vii. 433a, 434a, 435a, 440b, 443a. But these appointments soon tailed off.29CJ vii. 484a. His only appointment in the early 1658 session was to the committee to consider the bill against non-residence by the heads of university colleges (22 Jan. 1658).30CJ vii. 581a. He was clearly never more than a minor backbencher. Although, naturally enough, the pamphlet, A Narrative of the late Parliament, included him in its list of army officers sitting in this Parliament, it did not name him as one of the ‘kinglings’ who had offered the crown to Cromwell.31A Narrative of the late Parliament (so called) (1658), 11, 22-3.

The one other indication as to Jenkins’ views at this time comes from his subsidiary role in this Parliament’s dissolution. On the evening of 3 February 1658 two letters were anonymously delivered to him. The first expressed the hope that he would ‘do service for the army and the nation’, while the second, which was enclosed with it, was addressed to Cromwell. The implication was that Jenkins’ support was being sought for the petition which had been circulating around republican circles and within the army, and which it was intended would be presented to Parliament the following day. The sender presumably saw Jenkins as someone who was close to Cromwell, but who might nevertheless back the anti-protectoral criticisms emerging from the army and which were expressed in the petitions. Jenkins immediately handed both letters over to the secretary of state, John Thurloe*. Contemporaries assumed that Cromwell’s decision to dissolve Parliament when it met the following morning was directly prompted by the contents of these letters.32C.H. Firth, ‘Letters concerning the dissolution of Cromwell’s last Parliament’, EHR vii. 107-8.

In the months following this dissolution Jenkins acquired new military responsibilities, for, by the summer of 1658, he was commanding the garrison at Hartlepool.33CSP Dom. 1657-8, pp. 38, 89, 94. Before long, he was thinking about settling permanently in the north east. His attentions turned to the nearby town of Stockton-on-Tees. He purchased property there, including a house for himself at the north end of the High Street.34Brewster, Stockton upon Tees (1796), 134; Brewster, Stockton upon Tees (1829), 232, 345; Surtees, Co. Durham, iii. 192n. More property in the town came to him in 1659, when, as part of the agreement to divide the town’s fields between the residents, he was allocated 343 acres.35Brewster, Stockton upon Tees (1796), 162; VCH Durham, iii. 359. But this did not mean that he had ceased to serve in the army. In July 1659 the restored Rump confirmed his commission as captain in Disbrowe’s regiment.36CJ vii. 704a, 706b; Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, ii. 129. However, in October 1659 Disbrowe supported the moves to dissolve the Rump, so, when they were restored a second time later that year, the Rump had every reason to wish to purge his regiment. Jenkins was dismissed along with Disbrowe when the Rump appointed new officers on 12 January 1660.37CJ vii. 808b-809a; Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, ii. 146.

Jenkins did not survive the Restoration for long. On 21 December 1661 he drew up his will. This reveals that he had a wife, Alice, who had children of her own, doubtless by a previous marriage. (That first husband, who had probably been from the north east, seems to have had the surname of Jessopp.)38Durham UL, DPR/1/1/1673/J4/1-2. But Jenkins himself had no children. The bulk of his property, which consisted of some land in Stockton, therefore passed to his nephew, the aforementioned Humphrey Jenkins. The other main legacy was a charitable bequest to the town in which he had so recently settled. He specified that a sum of 52s a year was to be paid from the lands left to his nephew so that bread worth 1s could be distributed to the needy of Stockton each Sunday. His executors were two prominent local citizens, William Peers, the town’s current mayor, and Ralph Eden, the man who would succeed Peers in that office.39Durham UL, DPR/1/1/1661/J3/1-2; Brewster, Stockton upon Tees (1796), 134-5. Jenkins died soon after, quite possibly the same day he made his will, for he was buried in the Stockton chapelry (later the parish church) two days later.40Brewster, Stockton upon Tees (1796), 134. During the probate proceedings over his will, it was claimed that, after completing the will, he had verbally clarified that the properties he had left to his wife were to be held by her only as a life interest.41Durham UL, DPR/1/1/1661/J3/3-4, 6-7. The probate inventory valued his goods at £120 5s 10d.42Durham UL, DPR/1/1/1661/J3/5. His widow lived on until 1672.43Durham UL, DPR/1/1/1673/J4/1-2. Jenkins must be assumed to have been the only member of his family ever to sit in Parliament.