MOYLE, John I (1614-59), of Bake, St Germans, Cornw.

John Moyle I was the eldest son of the Cornish MP John Moyle II*.4Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 335. His early career was overshadowed by that of his father, and he played little or no part in the Cornish affairs. Moyle’s return for St Germans in November 1640 was probably on the electoral influence of the Eliots, who controlled the burgess vote in the borough, although there were other forces at work.5Coate, Cornw. 24. On 18 December Moyle’s father wrote to Sir Richard Buller* giving him and his sons (Francis Buller I* and George Buller*) ‘infinite thanks for the courtesy which you showed my son in answering Sir William Morson, who would have at any hour ousted [him] of the House, till he had made his election to appear lawful’. In the original contest, Moyle had defeated the court candidate, William Scawen*, who then cried foul, claiming that the election should have been restricted to the borough inhabitants paying scot and lot.6Antony House, Carew-Pole BC/24/2/60. Moyle was not out of the woods, however. On 6 January 1641 John Maynard reported the findings of the committee of privileges on the case, and the Commons resolved ‘that Mr Moyle shall not sit here as a Member of this House, till his election be decided’.7CJ ii. 63b. Moyle’s right to sit was probably settled only a few days before 3 May, when he took the Protestation.8CJ ii. 133b. Once again, Francis Buller I seems to have been instrumental in securing a decision in his favour, as Moyle’s father again wrote to him, ‘with infinite thanks unto you for your great love showed unto me and my son’, at the beginning of June.9Antony House, Carew-Pole BC/24/2/23.

Apart from the Bullers, Moyle’s contacts in the Commons included his uncle, Edmund Prideaux I*, who moved on 5 March 1642 that Moyle ‘might go into Cornwall to his mother, who had sent for him, lying very sick’.10PJ i. 515; CJ ii. 468a. Moyle also acted as agent to his father, who had helped to organise a Cornish petition in April 1642, calling for the exclusion of bishops from Parliament, religious reforms within the church and measures to secure the localities through closer controls on papists and a purge of the militia officers.11Coate, Cornw. 29. On 22 April this petition was ‘delivered in’ to the Commons by Moyle, and he ‘delivered in also a copy of a petition they were to present to the Lords and desired our approbation therein’.12PJ ii. 202. Another cause that Moyle championed in the summer of 1642 was that of one Gregory Huckmore, who had been arrested for cutting down woods against the express orders of the Commons. There is no obvious reason for Moyle’s involvement in this case, but he delivered Huckmore’s petition on 9 June and re-presented it on 7 July, complaining that Huckmore had ‘lain in the Tower about six weeks’ without redress.13PJ iii. 52, 183. On 11 July Moyle was named to the committee to consider the case, and to decide whether Huckmore should be released.14CJ ii. 664a.

From the beginning of the civil war, Moyle’s activities become sketchier. He was at Westminster on 6 June 1643, when he took the oath and covenant.15CJ iii. 118a. In the summer and autumn of 1644 he was appointed to the county committee for Cornwall and the local assessment commission, but these were only notional positions as the county was still in royalist hands.16A. and O. After an order of 24 June 1645, Moyle was one of the MPs granted an allowance of £4 per week to maintain him in London.17CJ iv. 185a. These payments continued at least until May 1646, by which time Sir Thomas Fairfax* and his forces had conquered almost all of Cornwall.18SC6/ChasI/1662, m. 10; SC6/ChasI/1663, m. 8; SC6/ChasI/1664, m. 15. Moyle was probably absent from the House during the second half of 1646, and on 11 November the Commons ordered that a new writ be issued for an election at St Germans to replace him, declaring that he was ‘deceased’.19CJ iv. 719a.

Moyle was not in fact dead, but it is unlikely that he returned to Westminster after this, and references in the Commons Journal to a John Moyle in 1648 are almost certainly to his father, who had been returned for East Looe as a recruiter in the previous year. Moyle’s absence ensured that he was not affected by Pride’s Purge in December 1648.20Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 380. Although not formally secluded he did not attempt to take his seat after the regicide. He seems to have spent the next few years in retirement in Cornwall; four of his children were baptised at St Germans between 1648 and 1657. Moyle died at the beginning of 1659, and was buried at St Germans on 4 February of that year. His only son, Roger, died in December 1660, and when John Moyle I died a year later, the estate passed to a younger brother, Walter Moyle*.21Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 335; Cornw. RO, St Germans par. regs.