FREEMAN, William (?1598-1666), of Shermanbury and Cowfold, Suss.

Freeman’s origins are obscure owing to the difficulty in distinguishing namesakes from a Sussex family established at Shipley and at Pulborough, south and south-west of Horsham, as well as from further afield. He was a younger son of Edmund Freeman, a yeoman from Pulborough, described in 1600 and 1601 in dealings with a London shipwright as a ‘woodbroker’, and with sufficient status to marry his daughter Alice to John Beauchamp, a merchant included in the heralds’ visitation of London.23W. Suss. RO, Add. MSS 40, 254; WARD2/49/174/8A; Vis. London (Harl. Soc. xv), 59. Nothing is known of William until July 1620, when his father settled land in Pulborough on him and his wife Christian Hodsell after their marriage.24W. Suss. RO, SAS-B/578. Three years later Edmund Freeman died, leaving £200 to his widow, £300 to his youngest daughter, and more tenements in Pulborough, as well as £100, to his first son, John; John and William, his ‘two eldest sons’ were executors.25PROB11/141/674. John had died childless by May 1639, when another brother, Edmund, a London merchant, sold 38 acres in Pulborough to William, perhaps leaving him with the entire patrimony, but the latter (also described as a merchant in the indenture) promptly sold it to Francis Grove, citizen and Grocer, realising almost £800.26C54/3188/25; C54/3189/18.

Such metropolitan connections modify the parochial impression given by other aspects of Freeman’s life. He had settled first at Shermanbury, some ten miles to the east of Pulborough, and then, after his second marriage to Joan or Jane Gratwick in May 1638, at nearby Cowfold. He served as churchwarden in both places, respectively in 1635-6 and 1641, and as constable of East Grinstead (1635); other minor local offices followed.27W. Suss. RO, Ep.II/16/177A; Par. Reg. of Cowfold, 237, 246, 251; E. Suss. RO, QR/E34. Returns, 66-7. In 1641 he organised Cowfold’s subscriptions to the Protestation.28West Suss. Protestation Returns, 66-7.

Following the outbreak of hostilities Freeman supported Parliament, probably adhering to the local ‘war party’. He became a zealous activist on the committee for sequestrations, to which he was appointed on 5 April 1644, and the county committee, between 1645 and 1649.29CJ iii. 449a; SP23/169, f. 531; SP28/214, SP28/181, SP28/246, SP28/343, SP28/255 (all unfol.); S.G. Beckensall, ‘Levy for parliamentary army in 1645’, Suss. N. and Q. xv. 345-6. In this capacity Freeman was a signatory of letters to William Lenthall* regarding the Sussex Clubmen (29 Sept. 1645), the local sub-committee of the Committee of Accounts* (20 Nov. 1645), and the royalists who threatened the parliamentarian garrison at Horsham in June 1648.30Bodl. Tanner 60, f. 255v; Nalson V, f. 67; XI, f. 200. Regularly named an assessment commissioner, he examined both musters and the accounts of the army in March 1648.31A. and O.; SP28/52, f. 345; SP28/54, f. 262.

Already by that time on the commission of the peace, Freeman accepted the republic following Pride’s Purge and the execution of the king, and became active as a justice.32Suss. QSOB 1642-9, 149; E. Suss. RO, QR/EW84; QO/EW2, ff. 2-67v; QO/EW3, ff. 1-63; QR/E124. On 20 September 1650 he was appointed a captain of foot in the county militia.33CSP Dom. 1650, p. 511. Over the next few years he worked alongside prominent Sussex Rumpers like John Fagge*, although largely on matters of local interest.34CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 369.

Under the protectorate Freeman found preferment despite continuing to act as a trustee for Caryll Molyneux, 3rd Viscount Molyneux, a recusant and former royalist.35W. Suss. RO, Add. MS 2143; E113/13, unfol. His most obvious patron was the prominent Sussex regicide and soldier, William Goffe*, of whom he became a loyal ally. Their connection dated from at least 1654, when they sent reports to Oliver Cromwell* regarding the activities of rebels in Sussex, but flourished more obviously after Goffe’s appointment as major-general in the county in 1655. 36TSP iv. 213; Bodl. Rawl. A.36, f. 430. It may be no co-incidence that Freeman’s daughter Alice married a Thomas Goffe of Shermanbury, possibly a kinsman of William.37E. Suss. RO, A30, f. 372; SAS-N/394. That the latter valued Freeman is evident from the occasions on which he informed Secretary John Thurloe* that Freeman was ‘exceeding industrious and helpful’.38TSP iv. 208, 229. In August 1656 Goffe tried to secure a seat for Freeman in the forthcoming second protectorate Parliament, informing Thurloe that he had secured an agreement from the town of Arundel, that they would choose Freeman provided Anthony Shirley* were elected as a knight of the shire. Goffe’s plans were scuppered, however, by Cromwell’s most prominent opponent in Sussex, Harbert Morley*, who ensured that his kinsman Sir John Trevor* was returned at Arundel.39TSP v. 341.

Freeman continued to work alongside Goffe in county affairs and to receive pay as a captain of the militia.40SP28/246, unfol.; SP28/181, unfol.; CSP Dom. 1656-7, p. 522; 1658-9, pp. 63, 71. Such service to the government probably ensured that he once again received ‘court’ patronage in 1659 elections, when he stood for the re-enfranchised borough of Horsham. The poll again became a focal point for rival factions in the county, however, and its outcome is unclear. On 7 February it was reported to the Commons that writs had been issued without naming the bailiffs, and that as a result three men, including Freemen, had been returned by three separate indentures. Of the other candidates, Henry Chowne* was a local man, whose father-in-law, Thomas Middleton, had represented the borough in the Long Parliament, while John Fagge* was a close friend and kinsman of Harbert Morley, and doubtless represented those in the county who favoured a civilian republican regime. New writs were ordered, and the presence of Chowne in the House on 1 April suggests that the election was held.41CJ vii. 601a, 623a. Since Fagge had in the meantime opted to sit as a knight of the shire, it is possible that Freeman was returned alongside Chowne, although the evidence is inconclusive. References in the Journal to ‘Colonel Freeman’ almost certainly relate to Edward Freeman*, Member for Leominster, although there is a single reference to ‘Mr Freeman’, who was nominated to a committee to draw up the charges against Major-general William Boteler* (12 Apr.).42CJ vii. 595a, 600b, 623a, 623b, 637a, 638a.

Following the reassembly of the Rump in May, Freeman’s militia troop was put into the hands of John Fagge.43CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 61. He disappeared from county administration after the Restoration. By the terms of his will, drawn up in November 1662, Freeman left modest bequests totalling £560, suggesting that he had already settled his estate.44E. Suss. RO, A30, f. 372. Following his death in September 1666 his personal estate was valued, for the purposes of probate, at nearly £500, although £350 of this was in unpaid debt.45PROB4/21488. No other member of his family sat in Parliament.