RAINSFORDE, Sir Henry (1599-1641), of Clifford Chambers, Glos. and Combe, Hants.

The Rainsforde family lived in Lancashire until the sixteenth century, when they acquired the manor of Tew in Oxfordshire, which they held until 1610. It was a cadet branch of this family which settled at Clifford Chambers, on the Gloucestershire-Warwickshire border, and which rose to prominence during the lifetime of Rainsforde’s father and namesake.14The Gen. ii. 105; Buckland, Rainsford, 25, 39, 94; SBT, DR 33/7. Sir Henry Rainsforde senior, who was knighted in 1603, made Clifford into something of a literary household, where guests included Ben Jonson, Michael Drayton, and William Shakespeare.15VCH Glos. vi. 209; Buckland, Rainsford, 106.

While a student at Hart Hall, Oxford, Rainsforde junior contributed verse to a collection published by the university marking the occasion of the return of James I from Scotland.16F. Madan, Oxford Books (3 vols. Oxford, 1895-1931), ii. 81. In November 1616 Rainsforde was granted a special admission to the Middle Temple at the request of one of the benchers, Sir Laurence Hyde†, who was attorney-general to the queen.17MTR ii. 611. He was not called to the bar, however. Following his marriage in 1620, and the death of his father in 1622, he retired to his country estate in Gloucestershire, a small portion of which he sold in 1628 for over £2,000.18SBT, DR 33/8, 33/10, 13; C142/402/145; Maclean, ‘Clifford Chambers’, 69.

As a wealthy gentleman, during the second half of the 1620s Rainsforde received a number of local appointments. He was a member of the commission of the peace by 1625, and was nominated a loan commissioner in 1626, although his activity in the latter capacity may have been minimal.19Rymer, Foedera, viii (2), 8, 145; APC 1627-8, p. 288; SP16/44, f. 8; SP16/54, f. 54. In 1628 he was a commissioner for both oyer and terminer, and martial law.20C181/3/240; APC 1627-8, p. 288. However, his interest in politics and administration was evidently limited: unlike his father, he seems not to have been involved in the affairs of nearby Stratford-upon-Avon.21SBT, BRU15/1/2; BRU15/7/120. Rather, he pursued his literary interests, which connected him to the ‘Great Tew circle’ around Lucius Cary*, 2nd Viscount Falkland.22J. Aubrey, Brief Lives ed. A. Clark (2 vols. 1898), i. 151; K. Weber, Lucius Cary Second Viscount Falkland (1940), 60-1. In addition to writing poetry of his own, Rainsforde’s commonplace book reveals that his circle of friends included prominent writers and literary figures like Sir John Suckling*, Edmund Waller* and Ben Jonson, as well as Inigo Jones†, John Donne†, and Christopher Brook. Rainsforde probably knew these men through his father and maternal grandfather, Sir Henry Goodere†.23SBT, PR50. The only indication of engagement with national political affairs was his ownership of a copy of the famous poem on the ‘Parliament fart’ of 1628.24SBT, PR50, ff. 25-8.

In the early 1630s, Rainsforde travelled to Ireland, in preparation for which he made arrangements with his kinsman and friend Sir Francis Nethersole† (secretary to the electress palatine) regarding his estate. In 1632, for example, Rainsforde assigned to Nethersole a debt of £5,000 owed to him by another kinsman, John Goodere.25SBT, DR 33/14. He may also have drawn up a will.26CSP Dom. 1631-3, pp. 68, 376, 393; SP16/193, f. 49; SP16/220, f. 75; SP16/221, f. 111. Once he was in Ireland, it is probable that Sir John Coke†, the secretary of state, proposed him to the lord deputy, Sir Thomas Wentworth†, later 1st earl of Strafford, as a candidate for the Irish Parliament which met in July 1634. Although Rainsforde was not elected, in August Wentworth thanked Coke for his recommendation, which would ‘cause me to value [Rainsforde] much the more, he seems to be a civil gentleman’; in fact, Rainsforde was going back to England, but had ‘a resolution to return, and bestow some of his time here in Ireland, where he shall be very welcome unto me’.27Strafforde Letters, i. 282.

Rainsforde’s activity in Ireland is unclear, although his absence there appears to have resulted in his removal from the Gloucestershire commission of the peace some time between 1632 and 1636.28SP16/212, f. 26v; C193/13/2, f. 29. He was back in England before early October 1640: on the 18th Francis Reade informed his cousin Robert Reade* of his attendance the previous week at the funeral of Rainsforde’s wife and of the great grief of husband and neighbours.29SP16/470, f. 33. On the 26th Reade reported that Rainsforde had been ‘most unexpectedly’ returned to Parliament as one of the Members for Andover, ‘without any thought or suit of his, or (for aught I know) any of his friends’. Reade was ‘very glad of it, both because it comes as a healing plaster to divert his grief, and by this means I have one more friend of the House than I thought of’.30SP16/470, f. 124. Despite Reade’s professed surprise, Rainsforde’s return can probably be explained by his property interest at nearby Faccombe through his mother-in-law, Frances Boswell.31C142/615/105. Whether Rainsforde’s success had anything to do with his friend Viscount Falkland is unclear.

Rainsforde’s association with the Tew Circle may indicate that, in the early months of the Long Parliament, he shared its members’ support for limited political reform as well as their belief in ‘constitutional royalism’. The committees to which he was appointed certainly concerned issues on which there were grievances, and on which reform was proposed. He was named to committees to consider the petitions of William Prynne*, Henry Burton and John Bastwick (3 Dec. 1640), victims of the court of high commission, and the future of the court of wards (16 Feb. 1641).32CJ ii. 44b, 54b, 87a. His willingness to support a reforming Parliament may also be indicated by his offer on 4 March to loan £500.33Procs. LP ii. 628, 629.

However, Rainsforde’s most important committee nomination was to consider the crucial bill for disabling the clergy from exercising temporal authority (8 Mar.), and on this issue his opposition to radical change is apparent.34CJ ii. 99a. His only recorded speech took place during the lengthy debate on the London Petition and the remonstrance against episcopacy (8 Feb. 1641); his opposition to its committal indicates his commitment to the maintenance of episcopacy in some form, and his opposition to ‘root and branch’ reform of the kind proposed by men such as Nathaniel Fiennes I* and John Pym*.35Procs. LP ii. 391. Rainsforde’s career in Parliament was brought to an abrupt close, however, by his death from smallpox at a date over which there is some uncertainty. A report of his demise – which was just possibly premature – led to an order on 31 March for a new writ to replace him at Andover.36C231/5, p. 441. A by-election took place before 30 April.37Procs. LP iv. 149.

At an inquisition post mortem held on 3 May 1641, Rainsford’s death was recorded as having taken place on 10 April, while the age of his eldest son and heir was put at 8, or nearly 9.38Abstracts Glos. IPM, ii. 163-4. But it looks as though scribal error pertaining to the latter also pertained to the former: young Henry had been ‘aged 13’ when in January 1636 he was admitted to Trinity College, Oxford, and on this reckoning was now about 18.39Al. Ox. Administration of Sir Henry’s estate was granted to his mother-in-law, Frances Boswell, with John Whistler* as one of the trustees, while the guardianship of the younger children went to Nethersole, and that of young Henry was entrusted to Job Dighton, a Middle Temple lawyer who lived in Clifford Chambers, and who was town clerk of Stratford-upon-Avon.40C78/486/6; C142/615/105; PROB6/18, f. 33v; SBT, DR 33/17; DR 140/8. The young man was old enough to fight for the king and to compound as a delinquent in April 1646; his fine was set at £900 that December.41CCC 1202; SP23/194, p. 190. He later fled abroad, and died in the East Indies in 1659.42Maclean, ‘Clifford Chambers’, 70. His distant cousins Richard Rainsford I† and Richard Rainsford II† of Northamptonshire sat in Parliament after the Restoration.