BOND, Samuel (1623-73), of Lutton, Isle of Purbeck, Dorset.

Samuel Bond was the third son of Denis Bond* of Lutton on the Isle of Purbeck, and his extended family had a considerable influence over his career.13Brunton and Pennington, Long Parliament, 164. At first he followed in the academic footsteps of his older half-brother, Dr John Bond*, entering his Cambridge college, St Catharine’s, in 1639, and on his admission as MA in 1646 became a fellow of Trinity Hall, presumably at the behest of his brother, who had recently been elected master.14Al. Cant.; Dorset RO, D/BOC/22, f. 52. Samuel and John also joined the same inn of court, Samuel being admitted to Inner Temple in November 1642, and becoming a barrister in May 1648.15I. Temple Admiss. database. During the later 1640s, as Denis Bond became an increasingly important figure at Westminster, his sons gained from his new-found influence. In 1648 Samuel was appointed receiver of fines on alienations in the court of exchequer, and in July 1649 he married the daughter of John Hollond, former paymaster of the navy.16E101/531/4; Hutchins, Dorset i. 602-3; K.R. Andrews, Ships, Money and Politics (Cambridge, 1991), 189, 201. The match carried political significance, as Denis Bond was an active member of the Admiralty and Navy Committees, while John Hollond survived the 1649 navy reforms to become surveyor of the navy as well as sitting on the navy commission and the merchants’ committee which assisted with the regulation of the navy and customs.17Two Discourses of the Navy by John Hollond ed. J.R. Tanner (Navy Records Society vii), pp. xviii-xxi. The marriage thus probably formed part of the attempt by Denis Bond, Sir Henry Vane II* and others to gain control of naval affairs, and it is interesting to note that in 1650 Hollond was an important figure in the attack on the merchants’ committee, which was dominated by Vane’s rival, Henry Marten*.18V.A. Rowe, Sir Henry Vane the Younger (1970), 151-3.

Despite the political importance of his marriage, Samuel Bond did not pursue a career in Whitehall, instead returning to Dorset. In April 1649 Bond had been elected as recorder of the borough in succession to his half-brother, Dr John Bond, and in September 1651 he was admitted as a freeman of the corporation.19Weymouth Min. Bks. 71, 78, 80, 88. Samuel Bond also became involved in the government of the borough of Poole. He was appointed free burgess for the borough in March 1650, became its recorder by the spring of 1655, and sat as commissioner for gaol delivery in the town in February 1655 and May 1659.20Hutchins, Dorset i. 32; C181/6, pp. 95, 357; Alnwick, Northumberland MS 552, f. 71v. Bond’s position in Poole gave him a political position independent of his family, and this proved useful after the death of his father in September 1658. On 3 January 1659 Poole elected Bond as their MP, to sit alongside the local grandee, and critic of the protectorate, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper*.21Poole Borough Archive, MS 29(7), p. 42; C219/46, unfol. Ashley Cooper chose to sit instead as knight of the shire for Wiltshire, and a second indenture, electing John Fitzjames* as well as Bond, was signed on 24 January.22CJ vii. 616b. The validity of this new election was challenged, however, and this seems to have cast doubt on Bond’s position as well as Fitzjames’s: according to the latter, Bond ‘sits upon thorns, and for ought I know he must withdraw as well as myself, if any such thing as a pretended former writ should be prosecuted’.23Alnwick, Northumberland MS 552, f. 73v. The new indenture was declared void by the Commons on 22 March and it was decided on 30 March that Bond’s election would be allowed under the original indenture, even though Fitzjames’s claim was dismissed and a new writ issued.24CJ vii. 616b, 622a; Burton’s Diary iv. 308.. Bond’s position was confirmed barely three weeks before the Parliament was dissolved, and there is no record of his involvement in the business of the Commons.

Bond was involved in a double return at Weymouth for the Convention in April 1660; the other man returned, Peter Middleton, was declared elected. After the restoration of the king Bond relinquished his civic positions and retired to his house in Dorchester. In 1662 he signified his desire to live permanently in the borough by negotiating a third life-tenancy to be added to his house in the townland.25Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/5, p. 137. This same property was listed in the hearth tax assessments of 1664.26Dorset Hearth Tax, 4. Bond continued to associate with the local gentry, assisting John Fitzjames in a land dispute in November 1665.27Alnwick, Northumberland MS 550, f. 59. He died, apparently intestate, in May 1673, and was buried at St Peter’s Church in Dorchester.28Hutchins, Dorset i. 602-3; Al. Cant. Bond and his wife had at least three daughters, the youngest of whom may have been the Lucy Bond of Deptford whose administration was passed in June 1687.29Dorset RO, D.53/1, p. 36; St Peter’s Dorchester par. regs.