BASKERVILLE, Francis (c.1616-aft.1661), of Richardston, Winterborne Bassett, Wilts.

This MP came from an ancient family. His great-great-grandfather Sir Walter Baskerville, sheriff of Herefordshire in the later fifteenth century, had many sons. Francis’s father Thomas, descended from a younger son of Sir Walter’s second marriage, and with parents from Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, appears to have established himself in Wiltshire about the time of his marriage in 1604.6Burke Commoners, 92-3. Thomas was still acquiring property in 1617, when he bought Upper Woodhills in the parish of Clyffe Pypard, but his extensive lands, situated a few miles north west of Marlborough, were predominantly leasehold. Several were for lives including that of his eldest son Thomas, who had already died by the time he first drafted his notably pious will in July 1620. A less than secure base was thus further compromised by his generosity in giving £1,200 to each of his four unmarried daughters.7VCH Wilts. ix. 33; PROB11/137/375.

Joan Baskerville was named as her husband’s executor, assisted by Richard Digges†, the recorder of Marlborough, and Robert Drewe† of Devizes, but since Francis, her sole surviving son, was only about four years old, the estates were subject to a long wardship.8WARD7/62/127. Francis’s older sisters duly made good marriages.9Burke Commoners, 92-3. Following negotiations that had begun before July 1634, Francis was married at 19 to Margaret, 17-year-old daughter of John Glanville* of nearby Broad Hinton, who had probably obtained his guardianship. Half of the £2,000 dowry was paid before the wedding to William Herbert, 3rd earl of Pembroke, for the renewal of the lease of Stanton Barnard farm, and although Glanville covenanted to pay Joan £500, indicating that she still had a significant interest in the estate, it looks as though Glanville retained some power of direction, even after Francis was granted livery in November 1637.10Wilts RO, 799/148; 799/11; Coventry Docquets, 344. Meanwhile, the young man apparently did without formal higher education and settled down to married life, becoming a father before November 1636.11Broad Hinton par. reg.

It was also without visible experience of public office that Francis was returned to Parliament on 18 March 1640 to serve for Marlborough. Neither he nor his partner, Northumberland gentleman Sir William Carnaby*, was a preferred candidate of the freemen. The voters must have deferred at the last moment to an overriding influence, perhaps that of William Seymour, 1st marquess of Hertford, or more likely his locally-based brother Sir Francis Seymour*, or also, in Baskerville’s case, that of his father-in-law.12Wilts. RO, G22/1/21, pp. 28-9. Glanville, a rising star of the legal profession, was made Speaker but Baskerville, like Carnaby, made little impact on proceedings. His sole committee nomination was – with fellow Wiltshire Members Sir Francis Seymour and Sir Benjamin Rudyerd* – to that discussing an act controlling apparel and thus upholding social distinctions (21 Apr.).13CJ ii. 8a.

As far as is known, Baskerville filled no further public office. If he followed Granville into royalism in 1642, he escaped direct retribution from the Parliament. An assessment of £1,500 was made of one Baskerville of Wiltshire by August 1644, but no action ensued.14CCAM 444. Perhaps he had tried to remain neutral. Once Wiltshire had been secured for Parliament during the sheriffdom of Alexander Thistlethwayte*, one ‘Francis Baskervield’ (a not uncommon version of his name) turned out for an election at Wilton on 12 May 1646 which returned James Herbert* and Edmund Ludlowe II* as knights of the shire.15C219/43, pt. iii, no. 31. This suggests either some connection with Philip Herbert*, 4th earl of Pembroke, or at least a degree of comfort with the company of fellow voters who included local parliamentarian stalwarts like Edward Tooker* and John Dove*.

What is clear is that through the 1640s Baskerville engaged in litigation and lived beyond his means. A list of debts appended to a mortgage of much of his property drawn up in 1651 came to over £2,000 plus several hundred pounds in accumulated interest and three forfeited mortgages; the many creditors included: Edward Hungerford*, Thomas Kellway for legal fees incurred in a chancery case, a London tailor, a Marlborough maltster, a Bristol merchant, a Salisbury innkeeper and the builder of a ‘dwelling farm house’.16Wilts RO, 799/12. Further mortgages were needed in 1662 to secure a jointure for Francis’s prospective daughter-in-law.17Som. RO, DD/GB/149/37. That the family survived among the gentry of the area was almost certainly due to long-term financial support from the Glanvilles. While no trace of Francis has emerged after 1662, his widow was buried at Winterborne Bassett in 1696; memorials in the church described his son Thomas, who died in 1718, as lord of the manor.18MIs Wilts. 1822, 214; Wilts. RO, P1/B/657. None of his immediate descendants appear to have sat in Parliament.