BENCE, Squier (1597-1648), of Aldeburgh, Suff.

Squier Bence was a sailor by upbringing and profession, and it was as an expert in these matters that he made his impact as an MP in the 1640s. His distinctive first name was a reminder that his maternal grandfather was Thomas Squier, who, like his own father, had been a merchant operating from Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. Although a younger son, the bequest which followed his father’s death in 1612 gave him a useful start. Then aged only 15, he immediately received £50. At 21, he inherited his father’s house in Aldeburgh, some land at Sibton near Dunwich and a third share in the ship, the Greyhound (the other shares having gone to his younger brother, Robert, and his sister, Rose Johnson). He also received bequests totalling £40 from his late mother and grandmother.21PROB11/121/224. However, these lands were evidently still below the threshold of £40 for payment of a knighthood fine in 1626.22E178/7198. His first wife, Elizabeth Pett, whom he married at Stepney in 1617, may well have been distantly related to the famous dynasty of shipwrights, who included Peter Pett*.23St Dunstan, Stepney par. reg.

By the mid-1620s Squier was active in a shipping operation in partnership with his brothers.24Trinity House Transactions, 1603-35, ed. Harris, 63-4. One ship in which he had a share, the Friendship, took part in the expedition to attack Cadiz in October 1625 and was reported to have come close to being captured. When in early 1626 preparations began to send a fleet to relieve La Rochelle, there were complaints about the Friendship’s unsuitability, for she was said to be ‘a strong timbered ship, but a slug in sailing’. That March, Bence (who seems also to have been the ship’s captain) and the other owners asked George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham to excuse the vessel from service that year to allow for repairs, a request which was probably granted.25CSP Dom. 1625-6, pp. 216, 269, 278, 290, 304; 1628-9, pp. 293, 296; SP16/137, ff. 3v-4. By July 1626, Bence was master of one of the ships which assembled at Portsmouth for an expedition to renew the attack on Spanish shipping and, being among those who pressed for payment of the money still owing from the previous expedition, contributed to circumstances which led it to be called off.26CSP Dom. 1625-6, pp. 380, 386. In 1628, as captain of the Friendship, he was granted letters of marque to capture pirates.27CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 305. The survey of Thames shipping conducted in February 1629 shows that he was one of the younger brethren of Trinity House and was living at Radcliffe, the location of the main Thames docks.28SP16/135, f. 120. Later that year, the 2nd earl of Warwick (Sir Robert Rich†) and a contingent of merchants complained to the privy council that Bence, as master of the Assurance, had removed some slaves from an Algerian ship, in contravention of treaty arrangements, and that the Algerians had retaliated by seizing ships belonging to Warwick and the merchants. The case was referred to the court of admiralty.29APC 1629-30, pp. 47-8; Docs. relating to Law and Custom of the Sea I ed. R.G. Marsden (Navy Rec. Soc., 1915), 454-5. In 1634 Bence and his eldest brother, Alexander, together with Robert Wheatley (the husband of one of their cousins), Richard Davis and Henry Lambe invested in a new ship, built at Aldeburgh and named the Sq[u]yer. He had shares in a number of other ships. With Lambe (again) and Alexander, he owned the Samuel, while, with Alexander and their nephew, Bence Johnson, he had a share in the Sea Dolphin. Another ship, the Elizabeth, with John Hayward as their partner and master, was built for Johnson and the Bences in 1636.30SP16/17, ff. 85, 110, 135; CSP Dom. 1634-5, p. 167; 1635, pp. 329, 384; Harris, Trinity House, 271. Neither of the Bence brothers ever quite lost the stigma of being in trade. In 1643 Sir Simonds D’Ewes* lumped them together with several other MPs whom, having been ‘mechanics’, were no more than ‘mean or beggarly fellows’.31Harl. 164, f. 345v.

Meanwhile, Bence retained strong links with Aldeburgh. During the course of one year, 1630, he was appointed first as a freeman, then as a capital burgess, and then to the highest office in the borough, that of bailiff. He served a second term as one of the bailiffs in 1637.32Suff. RO (Ipswich), EE1/C1/1, ff. 3v, 5, 6, 7v; EE1/O2/1, f. 62. As such, he represented the corporation at the meeting, held in the White Horse Inn at Ipswich on 23 October 1637, at which the Suffolk boroughs agreed on how to allocate that year’s Ship Money demand.33Suff. RO (Ipswich), EE1/O2/1, f. 82v.

Bence first entered Parliament in 1640. Assembling on 23 March to elect their MPs for the first Parliament since 1629, the freemen of Aldeburgh chose him and William Rainborowe*.34Suff. RO (Ipswich), EE1/P1/1/13. Bence’s selection probably reflected a recognition of his position as one of the borough’s leading citizens, although his standing in the capital enhanced his usefulness to the borough. It was probably also the family’s influence which secured Rainborowe's election. Probably at some point during the first week of the session, the government evidently consulted the experts, Bence and Rainborowe, on the logistics of fitting out a fleet to keep the king’s army in the north supplied by sea. Their conclusions, submitted on 20 April, were that a fleet of 20 ships would take between three weeks and two months to get ready, depending on whether the government or merchants supplied the victuals.35CSP Dom. 1640, p. 55. Both Bence and Rainborowe must have seen the possibility of profitable pickings.

In the autumn Bence did not seek re-election at Aldeburgh, but stood aside to allow his brother Alexander, to be returned along with Rainborowe. However, following the latter’s death, a by-election in early 1642 allowed him to join his brother in the Commons.36Suff. RO (Ipswich), EE1/P1/1/12. Throughout his time in the Long Parliament failure by the Commons clerks to distinguish the brothers makes it difficult to be sure of the full details of his career as an MP. But where they can be distinguished, it seems that Squier was not quite as active as Alexander, while they were interested in the same sort of parliamentary business, often being named together to the same committees. One or both were usually engaged whenever matters connected with shipping, the navy and ordnance came before the House. They seem to have had similar political attitudes and probably co-ordinated their activities.

During his first eight months as a re-elected MP, there are numerous references in the Journal to a ‘Mr Bence’ which may refer to Squier, but only when he came forward to offer money can he be clearly separated from his brother, Alexander. In June 1642, he offered to pay £50 for the defence of Parliament and the following September he agreed to pay a further £50.37PJ iii. 476, 477; CJ ii. 772b; Add. 18777, f. 124v. In partnership with Alexander, he also provided a combined subscription of £450 towards the Irish Adventurers on 19 July.38J.P. Prendergast, The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland (Dublin, 1875), 406; Bottigheimer, Eng. Money and Irish Land, 176; CSP Ire. Adventurers 1642-1659, p. 231; Add. 4771, f. 58v. It is in October and November 1642, however, that his activities come sharply into focus. The first committee to which he was certainly appointed was that set up on 28 October to find accommodation for soldiers expected in the capital to protect it from the royalist army approaching from the west.39CJ ii. 825b; Add. 18777, f. 45v. Six days later, folloqing a report by its lieutenant, Sir John Conyers, Bence was the first person named to the committee created to ensure that the Tower of London was properly defended.40CJ ii. 833a, 843b; Add. 18777, f. 49v. News of Prince Rupert’s victory over the parliamentarian forces at Brentford on the morning of 12 November reached Westminster later that day. The Commons’ response was to despatch Sir John Bampfylde*, Samuel Vassall* and Bence to inform the lord mayor (Isaac Penington*) and the City militia committee. In order for reinforcements and supplies to be rushed to Brentford, Bence was assigned responsibility for organizing boats to ferry the soldiers up the Thames. It was probably in connection with this operation that the Commons the next day authorized a payment to him of £200 by Sir Gilbert Gerard*, the treasurer at war, and gave to Bence’s committee for the safety of the Tower the use of over 100 mariners at Lambeth Palace. At the same time, the Commons ordered Conyers to remain with the army and handed over to Bence and Sir Peter Wentworth* (another member of the committee), the running of the Tower.41CJ ii. 846b, 847a, This was partly to allow Bence and Wentworth to purge those persons employed at the Tower who were of suspect loyalty. Arrangements were subsequently made for Bence to pay off the two gunners causing most concern.42CJ ii. 979b. Given that it seems to have been Squier who was taking the lead in matters connected with the Tower at this time (although Alexander had been named to most of these committees as well), it was probably he who headed the committee which oversaw the smooth transfer of the Tower from Conyers to Lord Mayor Penington and the sheriffs of London in August 1643.43CJ iii. 195b.

When the Commons took steps a fortnight later to safeguard another strategic fortress, Landguard Fort (about 20 miles from Aldeburgh, at the southern tip of Suffolk), they again turned to Bence, who was trusted by its governor, the earl of Warwick. Among other concerns, Camock, the captain of the garrison, had failed to spend all the money supplied to him for the improvement of the fort’s defences. Bence was dispatched on 28 November 1642 to investigate and to put the garrison in order.44CJ ii. 867a. In the meantime, the long-running matter of the arrears owed to this garrison came before the Commons again and on 21 December (by which time Bence was probably back in London), Warwick was asked to reveal how much of the money remained unspent.45CJ ii. 623a, 625b, 645a, 879a, 898b, 949b. The fort continued to cause concern: the bailiffs of Ipswich had been refused entry to inspect it. On 8 April 1643 the Commons sent Bence and the MP for Harwich, Sir Harbottle Grimston*, to deal with Camock.46CJ iii. 35b; Add. 31116, pp. 82-3. Bence, who was instructed to inform Warwick, first travelled to Chatham where he, the earl and Sir Henry Vane II* also discussed the state of the defences there.47Bodl. Rawl. A.221, ff. 26, 29v.

Their extensive involvement in parliamentarian naval administration from 1642 necessarily brought the Bences into close association with Warwick, as commander of the fleet. On 19 August 1642 Squier joined Alexander on the Committee of Navy and Customs (CNC) and the brothers were appointed commissioners for the navy the following month.48Supra, ‘Committee of Navy and Customs’; CJ ii. 728a; A. and O. Early in December the Commons attempted (unsuccessfully) to add them and Samuel Vassall to the Committee for the Admiralty and Cinque Ports*, which had been created the previous October to exercise the power of the admiralty following the dismissal of the 4th earl of Northumberland (Algernon Percy†).49CJ ii. 872b.

During the year that Bence was a navy commissioner, he and his brother allowed one of their ships, the Samuel, to be used for the 1643 summer and winter fleets.50Bodl. Rawl. A.220, ff. 81v, 82, 84; Rawl. A.221, ff. 33v, 142, 143v, 148v; Rawl. A.222, ff. 13v, 54v-55; CJ iii. 76a; Civil War Docs., 1642-1648, 83, 245, 252, 275, 407. In May 1643 he was among those seeking to raise money for a fleet to take back Newcastle-upon-Tyne so that coal supplies to London could be re-established.51Harl. 164, f. 209v. In June he reported to the CNC complaints of disloyalty against a captain whose ship was then impounded in the Thames.52Bodl. Rawl. A.221, f. 71. In July, he and Alexander were deputed by the Commons to search a Danish ship docked at London which was suspected of carrying weapons. When weapons were found, the Bences were entrusted with the job of supervising the unloading of the seized cargo; the CNC subsequently granted Squier £50 to cover his costs.53CJ iii. 186a, 188a, 193a; Add. 31116, p. 134; Bodl. Rawl. A.221, f. 111v. In August the CNC used the Bences to order the committee for reducing Newcastle to pay to Capt. Edward Hall the money he had used to win over the garrison on Holy Island and eight weeks later that Committee referred to Bence a private dispute among a group of shipowners.54Bodl. Rawl. A.221, ff. 111v, 130.

Bence’s position as one of the Trinity House brethren explains why it was thought appropriate by the Commons to appoint him to take a petition to the Committee for Advance of Money querying the Trinity House assessments (10 Oct. 1643).55CJ iii. 272a; CCAM 252. In early June 1643 he was included on the additional committee in Aldeburgh.56A. and O. On some other matters, Squier Bence’s role is less certain. Both he and his brother were named in August 1643 to the committee to negotiate with the customs commissioners and the Merchant Adventurers about anticipating the customs revenues to pay the navy; thus either could have been the ‘Mr Bence’ included on the committees early that year addressing the customs commissioners’ refusal to lend the money Parliament wanted.57CJ ii. 919a, iii. 29b, 41a, 222a; Add. 18777, f. 121. In late 1643 an unidentified English merchant at Livorno wrote to Bence encouraging him to take up the cause of the English captives at Algiers, although what, if anything, Bence was able to do to assist is unclear.58Longleat, Whitelocke pprs. IX, f. 8. On Warwick’s appointment as lord high admiral in December 1643, Bence and his fellow naval commissioners were superseded.

Until the spring of 1645 Bence continued to be active in the Commons. Unsurprisingly, his committee appointments took in the subject of lighthouses (1 Jan. 1644), again underlining his connection with Trinity House, and perhaps also consideration of the petitions from the Levant Company (3 Jan.) and Thames shipowners whose vessels were in military service (12 Dec.). Other committees to which he may have been nominated included those to consider which officer should man the summer fleet of 1644 (19 Mar.), to call in the debts of Sir Peter Rycaut to help pay the army (9 May) and on the declaration concerning trade with enemy-held towns.59CJ iii. 356a, 357a, 431b, 487a, 501a, 722a. In early April 1644 he supported the moves to investigate accusations against the vice-admiral of the fleet, William Batten†, although he seems to have done so because he realised that Batten would be cleared.60Harl. 166, f. 42v; CJ iii. 444a. Like his brother, he was certainly appointed to the committees for the better maintenance of the army in February 1644, on the additional excise bills (11 May) and to examine the revenues and military expenditure (21 Aug.), as well as to the October 1644 committee on prioritising petitions to be considered by the House.61CJ iii. 385a, 390a, 489a, 601a, 649b. On 24 July 1644, the House ordered that both Squier and Alexander were to sit on a committee to discuss – in response to a complaint from the Dutch ambassadors about detained ships – reciprocal English complaints against the Dutch.62CJ iii. 568a. Continuing their earlier participation in the affairs of the Tower, both brothers were named on 5 August 1644 to the committee on the petition which the lieutenant of the ordnance, Sir Walter Erle*, had submitted. But Squier alone sat on the committee, created a month later and headed by Erle, to buy arms from the City merchant, William Pennoyer (7 Sept.).63CJ iii. 580b, 620b. Two days before the latter appointment, the Committee of Both Kingdoms summoned Bence and John Blakiston* to discuss the order by the Commons from 21 August that the arrears due to the garrison on Holy Island off Northumberland should be paid.64CSP Dom. 1644, pp. 350, 437, 474; CJ iii. 600b-601a.

Unlike his brother, Squier Bence can be considered to have been adversely affected by the Self-Denying Ordinance. First, he was omitted from the new Admiralty Committee established in April 1645 to take over the control of the navy after the enforced resignation of the lord high admiral, Warwick. Then, when the Commons voted on who should be appointed with Warwick to the committee of three to command the fleet, they accepted Alexander Bence but refused his brother for the other place. While John Rolle* was rejected out of hand, in a division Squier Bence secured 45 voices, with 58 against; the place went to future regicide, Peregrine Pelham*.65CJ iv. 125a. The argument that it would be inappropriate to appoint two brothers seems to have been evoked, but probably Pelham was promoted by the war party to counterbalance Warwick and Alexander Bence.66Harl. 166, f. 205v.

In May 1645, with William Cage*, Bence was consulted by the Committee for Both Kingdoms about developments at Landguard Fort.67CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 496. Thereafter Bence and his brother disappear from view at Westminster. His appointment with Alexander, John Base (their brother-in-law) and Thomas Bacon* as the elders for the Saxmundham classis (covering Aldeburgh and Orford) was a matter of course, as, no doubt, was his appointment as one of the four ruling elders in his London parish, St Andrew Hubbard.68Shaw, Hist. Eng. Church, ii. 425; Reg.-Bk. of the Fourth London Classis, 2. Something of his religious outlook is suggested by his purchase (for 6s) in 1648 of the set of altar rails which had been acquired by the parish church of Aldeburgh in the time of Laud and never installed.69Recs. of the Borough of Aldeburgh: The Church ed. A.T. Winn (Hertford, 1926), 52. He had presumably never approved of them and may well have thought that he could put them to better use elsewhere.

Not until February 1646 is there a record of another committee in the Commons to which he might have been appointed, that on compensation for the heirs of those killed fighting for Parliament (23 Feb.), and that could equally be his brother.70CJ iv. 452a. The same applies to the division nine months later, on 21 November, when one of them acted with Anthony Nicoll* as teller for the yeas (against Arthur Hesilrige* and Oliver Cromwell* as the opposing tellers) on the motion that Edward Vaughan* should be appointed to the Montgomeryshire county committee (21 Nov. 1646).71CJ iv. 726b. He was in London in May 1647, because he attended a meeting of the fourth London classis on 2 May, probably to participate in the selection of the ministers and elders to attend the provincial assembly.72Reg.-Bk. of the Fourth London Classis, 36. Nine days later he was given permission by the Commons to take leave the capital.73CJ v. 167a. On 29 June, as the crisis of that summer came to a head with the flight of the Eleven Members and the collapse of the Presbyterian leadership, with which he was firmly associated, Bence and his brother sought leave to depart from the capital.74CJ v. 228a. By early December he was back, seeking permission to absent himself once more, and, with his brother, subscribing a further £150 to the cause of the Irish Adventurers.75CJ v. 379b; CSP Ire. Adventurers, 231. On 8 February 1648 the Admiralty Committee asked him to lead their investigation into two inhabitants of Aldeburgh who were suspected of having bought supplies which had been embezzled from the navy. His report, identifying naval officers thought to have colluded in these abuses, was submitted within five weeks, on 21 March.76ADM7/673, pp. 514-15; Add. 9305, f. 16. The previous day he had probably attended the Commons, for he was named (along with Alexander) to the committee appointed that day to consider the court of admiralty bill.77CJ v. 505b.

Thereafter, he features in the parliamentary records only because of his absences.78CJ v. 645b; vi. 34b, 35a. An infrequent presence at Westminster seems to lie behind his re-election as a bailiff by the Aldeburgh corporation in the autumn of 1648. The Commons usually disapproved of MPs holding civic offices that were bound to keep their holders away from the capital but Bence could apparently be dispensed with. On 28 September he was granted permission to take up this position, along with leave of absence to allow him to exercise the duties.79CJ vi. 35a. His departure was delayed by some private business. On 7 November the Commons ordered that the Samuel and three other ships be fitted out to join the winter fleet. He turned up the following day at the CNC to sign a warrant implementing this order.80CJ vi. 70b; Add. 22546, f. 17.

Nineteen days later, on 27 November 1648, Bence died. He was buried in the graveyard at Aldeburgh.81Hill, Thorington, 106. News of this reached London too late for his name to be removed from the commissions for Suffolk and Tower Hamlets appointed under the new ordinance on a national militia. The council of state also managed to name him to the commission of the peace between 1650 and 1652.82A. and O; C231/6, p. 157; C193/13/3, f. 61; Names of the Justices of Peace, 53; Stowe 577, f. 50; C193/13/4, f. 93v.

Under his will, prepared earlier in 1648, Bence made provision for his wife and, in the absence of any children, the main beneficiary was his brother’s eldest son, Alexander Bence junior. This nephew (who was knighted in 1670) was granted the reversionary interest in Bence’s house at Aldeburgh, as well as receiving immediately other properties in Aldeburgh and his lands at Sibton and Peasenhall, also in Suffolk. A house at Radcliffe which he was leasing from the Coopers’ Company, he left to his mother-in-law, Florence Osborne.83PROB11/207/284; CSP Ire. Adventurers, 231. Bence had probably always been a conscientious contributor to local charities. In 1641 and 1647, in what was no doubt a fair reflection of his status and wealth, he had been the leading subscriber to collections for a lecturer and a curate for the town.84Suff. RO (Ipswich), EE1/P1/2/2; EE1/P6/8. Continuing this practice, he bequeathed £50 to the corporation of Aldeburgh to provide each year 40s to be distributed to the poor and 20s to pay a lecturer. The corporation, in due course, appointed one of their number, Thomas Cheney, to administer this bequest.85PROB11/207/284; Suff. RO (Ipswich), EE1/M1/10.