BOARD, Herbert (1602-48), of Paxhill, Lindfield, Suss.

The origins of the Board family are obscure prior to the enfranchisement in 1511 of Andrew Borde by George Neville, 3rd Baron Bergavenny.25Suss. Arch. Coll. vi. 199. Thereafter, however, the family’s status grew steadily. While Herbert Board’s great-grandfather, Stephen Board (d. 1567), claimed only to be a yeoman, the latter’s son, George Board, was styled gentleman at his death in 1581.26Notes IPMs Suss. 32; E. Suss. RO, Glynde 1523-6; SAS/D/50; SAS/FB/4. Further social ascent is indicated by the appointment of Sir Stephen Board, head of the senior branch of the family, as sheriff of Sussex in 1629.27Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. liii), 93.

Herbert Board’s father Ninian, a cousin of Sir Stephen, headed a cadet branch. In 1606 he bemoaned his poor estate, but his marriage had forged a union with the Morleys, one of the most important and well-connected families of mid-seventeenth century Sussex.28Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. liii), 48; (Harl. Soc. lxxxix), 15; Comber, Suss. Genealogies Ardingly, 236. Before his death that year he entrusted the majority of his lands to his brother-in-law, Robert Morley†, who as trustee received letters patent confirming his title to the manor of Lindfield in 1612.29Suss. Manors, i. 69; Notes IPMs Suss. 33; PROB11/108/414 (Ninian Boorde); E. Suss. RO, Glynde 1357. The wardship of four-year-old Herbert Board was sold to the latter’s mother, but Morley may nevertheless have played a part in his upbringing and influenced his admission to Catharine Hall, one of the great godly colleges in Cambridge.30WARD9/162, f. 4; Al. Cant.

By the time he gained control of his inheritance in 1623, Herbert Board was firmly established as part of the Sussex gentry. That year he inherited £100 from his uncle, and thereafter he appears to have enhanced his estate through prudent management.31Suss. Manors, i. 186; Notes IPMs Suss. 33; PROB11/142/523. Through his marriage to a daughter of Dr John Drury, who had been a prominent civil lawyer from Chichester, he gained a portion of £1,000 and probably the estate in Kensington and Fulham, Middlesex, where in 1631 he sold lands for £600, and where in 1632 he purchased property from Laurence Whitaker*.32PROB11/123/663; C54/2892/17; C54/2897/29. Board’s status was confirmed in 1630 by his composition for knighthood, at £13.33E407/35, f. 165v.

In October 1632 Board was appointed an executor and trustee of the estate of his uncle Robert Morley.34PROB11/162/551. Two years later he was bound with Sir Thomas Pelham* and Anthony Stapley I*, who had been designated guardians of Robert’s son Harbert Morley*, in purchasing young Morley’s wardship.35E. Suss. RO, Glynde 94, 155a; WARD9/163, f. 44v. Together they administered the estates until they were assigned over to Morley in 1638.36E. Suss. RO, Glynde 162-3. Board’s first public appointment – as a commissioner for sewers in 1637 – was doubtless through the influence of Pelham, the wealthiest and most powerful member of the godly gentry of Sussex before the civil war.37C181/5, f. 70. His second appointment was as a subsidy commissioner in 1641.38E179/191/388.

Like his associates, Board adhered to Parliament following the outbreak of war. In the spring and summer of 1643 he was named to the county committee, and to commissions for assessment and sequestration.39CJ iii. 45a, 173a; Northants. RO, FH133, unfol. Board served on the Sussex committee beside his brother, John Board, although neither appears to have been particularly active.40SP28/246, unfol.; SP28/181, unfol. On the other hand, there is evidence of Herbert’s work as a sequestrator and in January 1644 he was among advocates of subscription of the Solemn League and Covenant in every parish – a radical move never adopted.41SP23/169, p. 459; Bodl. Tanner 62, f. 493. He also appears as a signatory to a letter of 3 August 1644 to the Speaker of the Commons, William Lenthall*, seeking the association of the four southern counties, and when it was established the following November, he was one of its commissioners.42Bodl. Nalson III. 21; A. and O.

By 1644 divisions had begun to emerge among Sussex parliamentarians. While Harbert Morley, who worked through the county committee, was the most prominent member of the ‘war party’, Sir Thomas Pelham, who worked almost exclusively on the county bench, was less zealous in pursuit of the military war effort, and more inclined to seek a lenient settlement with the king. Board’s alignment with the latter was revealed on 3 May, when he was appointed by the justices of the peace as treasurer for charitable uses in Sussex. By 18 September he had joined the commission of the peace, almost certainly through the patronage of Pelham, who sought to remodel it; Board sat regularly at Lewes until his death.43Suss. QSOB 1642-1649, 61, 66, 72, 76, 119, 145; E. Suss. RO, QR/E66; ASSI35/85/1.

It seems likely that Board’s election to Parliament for Steyning in October 1645 was another manifestation of Pelham's patronage. Both borough seats had fallen vacant with the deaths of royalists Sir Thomas Farnefold* and Thomas Leedes*, and it seems likely that the electoral spoils were divided between the factions in the county, with Board's return representing a victory for Pelham’s group, and that of Edward Apsley* for Morley and the ‘war party’. The politics behind this election remain somewhat obscure, but in Parliament Board was to prove himself closer to Pelham than to Morley.

Board arrived in Parliament before 22 November, when he was named to a committee to consider the establishment of a garrison at Abingdon.44CJ iv. 351a. Apart from taking the Covenant (27 May 1646), Board then made no mark on the records of the Long Parliament until October 1646, when he was named to a committee to consider the commissions of the major-generals, after the Commons had voted to rescind their £10 per day allowance. 45CJ iv. 556a, 690a. This committee, headed by Presbyterian leaders Sir William Lewis* and Denzil Holles*, represented an attempt to ameliorate the losses of General Edward Massie*, whose forces had been disbanded. That Board was a follower of Holles and Lewes might explain his absence from the records of the Commons during the turbulent summer of 1647, and, following the failure of the Presbyterian coup, his absence at the call of the House on 9 October 1647, the last mention of his name in the Journal before his death.46CJ v. 330b.

Board’s Presbyterian politics did not affect his personal relationship with his cousin, Harbert Morley, who became a trustee of Board’s estate in December 1647, on behalf of his wife and six sons, and who was charged with providing portions of £500 for each of his five daughters.47E. Suss. RO, Glynde 1683. When he drew up his will on 7 February 1648, Board nominated Morley as one of the overseers. On 1 September Board’s name appeared on the list of justices of the peace eligible to attend the assizes, but he was already dead, having been buried at Lindfield on 16 July.48ASSI35/89/2; Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. lxxxix), 15; Comber, Suss. Genealogies Ardingly, 23. The will was proved on 30 September, ten days after the Commons ordered a new writ to be issued for an election at Steyning.49PROB 11/205/389; CJ vi. 24a; C231/6, p. 122. Board’s wife survived him, and lived until 1675, maintaining the ties with Morleys and Fagges.50E. Suss. RO, Glynde 173; W. Suss. RO, Wiston 21, 1302, 1328, 4695, 4972. Harbert Morley's own will of 1667 contained a bequest of £280 to Board's eldest son, George, in repayment of a longstanding debt.51E. Suss. RO, Glynde 193. None of Board’s sons sat in Parliament.