JERVOISE, Richard (1615-45), of Freefolk, Hants.

Richard Jervoise was the eldest son of one of the most prominent gentlemen in Hampshire, who overshadowed his career and then outlived him. Jervoise’s early life is obscure, and it is possible that he received no formal education at university or an inn of court. However in 1631, when he was 16, his mother proposed sending him and his brother Thomas Jervoise† to Oxford.11Hants RO, 44M69/F4/1/1-2. Although it is not certain that Richard was formally admitted to the university, family papers record his expenses while receiving some form of education there.12Hants RO, 44M69/E6/115/1-4. Otherwise, limited evidence survives on his clothing, his role as a captain in the militia during the 1630s, and his marriage in May 1637 to the daughter of Sir George Croke, one of the Ship Money judges.13Hants RO, 44M69/E6/120/1, 44M69/E6/116/2, 17, 44M69/F4/5/13.

Jervoise was returned to Parliament alongside his father at both elections in 1640. Before the outbreak of civil war he made even less impression on the parliamentary record, surfacing only to subscribe the Protestation on 3 May 1641 and as a signatory to a letter from Hampshire MPs to the local justices regarding the publication of Parliament’s orders in the locality (6 Jan. 1642).14CJ ii. 133b; I.o.W. RO, OG/AA/30. Once hostilities began Jervoise spent most of his time in military service on behalf of Parliament, like his brothers Thomas and Henry, all styled captain. Richard may have been the Captain Jervoise in the Portsmouth garrison under Sir William Lewis* from August 1642 until Henry switched from sea to land service.15SP28/14, f. 56; SP28/129/8, ff. 17-19v; BHO Cromwell Assoc. database. In September 1644 he appears to have been a commander of horse under Sir William Waller* in the southern counties, and he probably remained a cavalry officer in that region until at least 17 June 1645, when, as Captain Jervoise of the Kentish horse, he was ordered by the Committee of Both Kingdoms to march under Colonel Alexander Popham* to Romsey.16CSP Dom. 1644, pp. 505, 532; 1644-5, pp. 597-8.

Such service probably ensured that Jervoise spent little time at Westminster. He was recorded as having offered to provide £50 for parliamentary use in December 1642, and he took the Covenant in June 1643.17Add. 18777, f. 109v; CJ iii. 118b. His sole committee appointment was to consider the establishment of garrisons in Hampshire (9 May 1644).18CJ iii. 486a. However, his service to the cause was recognised by the grant to him of the Commons’ weekly allowance for MPs in the first week of June 1645.19CJ iv. 161a.

In the meantime, Sir Thomas Jervoise’s second marriage in the spring of 1643 appears to have created a degree of tension between father and son.20Hants RO, 44M69/F4/5/14. Some time between mid-June and 31 October 1645, when the Commons ordered the issue of a writ for a by-election at Whitchurch, Richard died, perhaps on the battlefield.21CJ iv. 327b; C231/6, p. 30. He left a daughter, Mary, and a widow, Frances, who in 1654 married Giles Hungerford†.22Lipscomb, Bucks. i. 132; VCH Hants, iv. 283; HP Commons 1660-1690.