FLACKETT, John (d. 1657), of Buckenhill, Bromyard, Herefs.

According to the most distinguished antiquarian study of Herefordshire, the Flackett family was settled at Buckenhill, an estate to the north of Bromyard, from at least 1600.14Duncumb, Collections, ii. 73. This is difficult to substantiate from documentary evidence. No vital events of the family are recorded in the Bromyard parish register until 1637, nor can the unusual surname be discovered in the surviving court rolls of the manor which included Buckenhill. The baptism of a John Flackett in Bromyard in 1637 provides at least a terminus ad quem for the arrival of the family to the area. After the first civil war, in 1647 and 1648, two men called John Flackett, evidently father and son, were being named to the parliamentarian committees for the county. Neither could be the infant baptised in 1637, so there were probably three generations bearing the same name alive in 1640. The unusual surname helps the search for their origins; a family consisting of John Flackett, his wife Agnes, and John their son, are known to have sold a modest property in Derbyshire in 1635.15Coventry Docquets, 680. It seems quite possible that this was the family which sold out of the latter county, and moved south west, arriving at Buckenhill in time for another generation to be baptised there two years later. Even if this hypothesis remains impossible to prove beyond peradventure, it can be asserted with confidence that the Flacketts were not of ancient Herefordshire stock. The MP was well connected with that county’s gentry by marriage, however. In 1646, he reminded William Scudamore of Ballingham how his wife had known Scudamore for over 30 years, this acquaintanceship providing the basis for Flackett’s promise that the county committee would deal fairly with him.16Hereford City Lib. Webbs collection, vol. ‘County of Hereford civil war’, 71.

Flackett’s first noted public employment in Herefordshire was as captain of a militia troop in 1640. It was the troop of the bishop of Hereford, and it was probably Flackett’s standing as a leading tenant of the bishop at Buckenhill that recommended him as its leader.17Duncumb, Collections, ii. 67. It was noted in a muster of the militia that many of the company were absent, and that the bishop was discussing the defects with Flackett.18Add. 70109, misc. 63. Nothing can be assumed from this commission about Flackett’s religious outlook, as he was also an associate of John Tombes, the Baptist-inclining minister of Leominster. Tombes, in turn, was a correspondent of Stanley Gower, another puritan minister who enjoyed the patronage of Sir Robert Harley*. In June 1642, Tombes and Flackett provided Gower with assurances as to the godly standing of Miles Hill, a Leominster mercer, who later became among the most radical of the Herefordshire county committee.19Add 70106, f. 162. At the start of the civil war, it seems likely that two generations bearing the name John Flackett were active in the parliamentarian cause. ‘John Flackett junior’ was named earlier and to more committees than his father, and the compilers of the committee lists did not need to distinguish between them after 1648, in any case, as one was removed: almost certainly by death.20Bodl. Tanner 60, f. 588; A. and O. The member of the third generation to bear the name John disappears from view, in Herefordshire at any rate, and very probably died before his father, the MP. From the start of the civil war, Flackett was named regularly to local committees, but did not serve as a soldier, and until 1645 his appointments must have been nominal only, while Herefordshire lay under the control of the king.21A. and O.

From December 1645, when Colonel John Birch* successfully took Hereford for Parliament, Flackett occupied a prominent place in the Herefordshire sequestration committee. It set about mulcting the property of royalists with enthusiasm, and Flackett was a direct beneficiary of his committee’s zeal. He acquired a prebendal house in Hereford cathedral close in April 1646, and two months later took a one year’s rent of Colwall park, another property of the bishop. He faced down some rent-refusing tenants at Colwall in October, and in March 1647 renounced his interest in Colwall, and had his rent to the committee restored to him. Presumably he was unhappy at the terms of annual leasing, because his renunciation was a case of reculer pour mieux sauter – a temporary strategic withdrawal. In 1648, he bought Colwall and the manors of Bromyard and Bromyard Foreign, which included Buckenhill, when the episcopal properties were marketed. 22Add. 16178, ff. 34, 48v, 50v, 112v, 146v, 148, 149; Bodl. Rawl. B.293, p. 16. He was among the best rewarded of the committeemen, regularly claiming and receiving his 4s. per day for attendance.23Add. 16178, ff. 95v, 149.

Flackett shared the suspicions of his colleagues towards the ambitions of John Birch. They pronounced themselves unwilling to fund an augmentation of his regiment in June 1646, and a few months later were bold enough to declare that Birch had no authority over them. Flackett wrote to Edward Harley* (6 June) to report how Birch was demanding a retraction from Sir Robert Harley of an allegation made in the House that Birch was a plunderer. Flackett interpreted Birch’s conduct as a ploy to build up a parliamentary faction of his own. He confessed himself uncertain of the truth of the plundering question, but was confident

that it is neither the desire of setting up Christ’s kingdom nor advancement of the public good (both which he hath much talked on (and but talked) only) but rather his own private interest (which it’s well known he hath extremely well improved) that hath carried him on.

Flackett went on to encourage Harley to stand in the forthcoming recruiter election as knight of the shire, regarding such an election as inevitable since a sheriff had recently been appointed. Flackett was evidently close to Edward Harley, but confessed that his relations with Sir Robert had been strained. He was alluding to relations between Sir Robert and the committee, but believed that time would vindicate him, and wished to assure the Harleys of his affection and loyalty.24Add. 70058, unbound: Flackett to Edward Harley, 6 June 1646.

Flackett signed a letter to Speaker William Lenthall in August 1646, requesting a reduction of troops in the county. The committeemen took the side of Isaac Bromwich, a controversial member of the regional committee for Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and south Wales, who was imprisoned by Birch, and apparently sentenced by Birch to death at a council of war. Bromwich appealed to Sir Robert Harley for release, and later resurfaced as a candidate in the Cirencester by-election of 2 January 1647.25Add. 16178, ff. 47v, 110; Add. 70061, bdle. 1; Add. 70105, unfol.: Bromwich to Birch, 16 Oct. 1646, 20 Oct. 1646. It is clear that at this point, Flackett was still an ally of the Harleys, who worked for Bromwich’s release, and to discredit Birch.26Add. 70107, misc. 12. Flackett was also a stalwart of the committee for Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, which held meetings separately from those of the sequestration committee. This was the body on which Flackett and Bromwich were colleagues, and Flackett signed nearly all the committee's orders between October 1646 and November 1647.27SP28/229, loose: orders of cttee. for Herefs. and Glos. Oct. 1646-Nov. 1647. On this body, he received 5s. a day for his attendance, and between September 1646 and August 1647 made over £80 for his appearances at both bodies.28SP28/229, loose: orders of cttee. for Herefs. and Glos.; Add. 16178, ff. 95v, 149. In February 1647, he was able to authorise a pension to his minister friend, John Tombes.29SP28/229, loose: order of 4 Feb. 1647. His activities were largely confined to the detail of Parliament’s affairs in Herefordshire, although he made at least one trip as far as Raglan, during the closing stages of the siege of that royalist redoubt, in August 1646.30Add. 16178, f. 80v. In religion, he seems to have been inclined towards Presbyterianism. He wished to retain the services of the minister, Thomas Froysell (later to preach the funeral sermon of Sir Robert Harley) for Herefordshire.

By the advantages of travel and the experience of other Protestant churches in foreign parts [Froysell has] a better insight than many others into that form of government intended to be set up amongst us,

he wrote in March 1647.31Add. 70005, f. 37 (4th foliation).

Flackett stayed loyal to the committee through the crisis of 1648-9. This loyalty to his committeeman colleagues is probably the most convincing explanation of why he did not withdraw from politics with Birch and Sir Robert Harley, by this time both victims of the army’s purge of Parliament. Other members of the Brampton Bryan family, Edward Harley and Robert Harley*, continued on the committee after the execution of the king, suggesting that there were limits to how far the family was in fact forced out of public affairs.32SP28/229, loose: orders of cttee. for Herefs. and Glos. Flackett evinced a certain scepticism towards Parliament. In January 1649 he tried to explain the vagaries of the workings of the Committee of Plundered Ministers* to William Scudamore of Ballingham. In his judgment, members of the committee had ‘in all probability such a latitude of power conferred on them by the House, as to dispense with the rigours of the law which they give us in charge strictly to observe’.33Hereford City Lib. Webbs collection, vol. ‘County of Hereford civil war’, 109. Some time during 1649, Flackett was among the Herefordshire committeemen who requested the security of dean and chapter lands for their borrowing of £3,000 to pay off the remaining soldiers of John Birch.34Add. 70061, bdle. 3. In September 1649, Flackett was re-appointed to a new sequestration body, and became its treasurer. He was appointed to the bench of magistrates at some point soon afterwards, as an acknowledgment of his reliability in the cause of godly government.

Flackett did not sign the address to Oliver Cromwell* from the Herefordshire millenarians in May 1653, confirming that his religious views, though evidently strongly puritan, were more conservative and orthodox than those of men like Wroth Rogers*, John Herring* and Benjamin Mason*, all of whom did sign.35Milton State Pprs. 92. As a reliable but non-millenarian supporter of godly initiatives, with the status of a member of the gentry acquired through committee service, Flackett was an appropriate choice of candidate for the first election under the Cromwellian Instrument of Government. He was chosen knight of the shire for the third seat out of four on 12 July 1654 at Lugg Meadow, Hereford.36C219/44/1. Soon afterwards he was chosen as an ‘ejector’ under the new arrangements for the state church, further confirmation of his sympathies towards more orthodox varieties of puritanism.

Flackett made only a modest contribution to the work of the first Protectorate Parliament, sitting on five committees only. The most important was his first, that for Scottish affairs (29 Sept. 1654).37CJ vii. 371b. His interest in reforming debt laws and in the plight of debtors may be seen in his nomination to a committee on the topic (25 Oct.) and in his local work in Herefordshire as a commissioner for ‘poor prisoners’ during the Nominated Assembly the previous year. He was probably thinking of applications to Herefordshire towns during his work on a bill to allow towns to tax themselves to fund a local ministry (7 Dec.), and in January 1655 he was a member of a committee to consider reform of public expenditure.38CJ vii. 378b, 380a, 397b, 419b. This last was his final committee. Flackett did not stand again for Parliament, nor can he be shown to have participated as an elector in the elections of 1656. He was, however, named as a commissioner under Major-general James Berry*, confirming that he must have been considered still a reliable workhorse of the protectorate. Indeed, Berry considered him suitable to be sheriff, but nothing came of the idea.39TSP iv. 272. He died in April 1657, probably at Bromyard, where he was buried. He left no will, but administration of his estate and care of his three children under majority age were granted to James Oliver, presumably a local friend. After 1660, Flackett’s purchases from the trustees for bishops’ lands became void. His eldest surviving son and heir, Leonard, sold Buckenhill in 1661 for £800. John Flackett’s widow lived at Gredon Warren after 1660; one of his daughters was still alive in Herefordshire in 1695, living as a spinster of modest means.40Herefs. RO, Q/RD5/3,4; will 122/3/13. Nothing further is heard of the family in connexion with public affairs.