ABBOTT, George I (1601-45), of St Peter, Cornhill, London and Easton, Hants.

Abbott came from a prosperous and pious Guildford family, established as clothiers. His grandparents had been ‘remarkably distinguished by their steady zeal’ for Protestantism during the reign of Mary I, and for ‘their singular felicity’ in their children, among whom George became archbishop of Canterbury and Robert bishop of Salisbury.9Hist. Guildford (1801), 103-4; ‘George Abbott’, ‘Robert Abbott’, Oxford DNB. This MP’s father, Maurice, became a wealthy merchant, held the highest company and civic office in the City of London, sat in four Parliaments and was knighted in 1624.10HP Commons 1604-1629. He was also for many years a stalwart of the radical puritan congregation at St Stephen, Coleman Street, and a patron of preachers John Davenport (as Archbishop William Laud noted with disapproval) and John Goodwin.11D.A. Kirby, ‘The Radicals of St Stephen, Coleman Street’, Guildhall Misc. iii. 101.

In 1619 this MP was admitted to Balliol College, Oxford, where his clerical uncles had been fellows and Robert had recently been master.12Al. Ox. His election as a fellow of Merton in August 1622 was conceivably promoted by Nathaniel Brent, appointed warden there a few months earlier by the visitor, Archbishop Abbott.13Reg. Annalium Collegii Mertonensis, 140-1; ‘Nathaniel Brent’, Oxford DNB. Although the nephew discharged certain college offices, he does not seem to have been particularly active in college or university affairs, and the lack of publications to his name rendered him virtually unknown to Anthony Wood.14Reg. Annalium Collegii Mertonensis, 159, 166, 165, 172-4, 182, 190, 193, 198; Wood, Ath. Ox. ii. 564. Hopes of further preferment may have dimmed owing to the political and ecclesiastical difficulties experienced by the archbishop after the accession of Charles I. By November 1630, when Abbott was made bachelor of civil law, he may have been envisaging a career in the ecclesiastical courts alongside Brent, who in 1626 had married his cousin Martha, but if so, this came to nothing.15Al. Ox. Furthermore, when the archbishop drew up his will in July 1632, specifying many beneficiaries including Abbott’s father, surviving siblings and the Brents, Abbott himself, probably a godson, was not even mentioned.16PROB11/164/413. In August 1633, a few days before the archbishop’s death, Abbott resigned his fellowship.17Reg. Annalium Collegii Mertonensis, 217. He carried a banner at the former’s funeral.18Hist. Guildford, 107.

By this time his elder brother Bartholomew had died and he may have aspired to be a gentleman dabbling in trade, exploiting the connections of his father and younger brother Edward to compensate for having served no apprenticeship to give him direct access to a City company.19Surr. Arch. Colls. iii. 257. By a settlement dated in December 1634 he gained a handsome £4,000 portion by marrying the eldest daughter of Hugh Windham, like Edward an East India Company merchant. The bulk of the money was expended on an estate at Easton, Hampshire, although it is not clear whether the couple ever lived there.20SP23/61, ff. 5-7; Vis. London (Harl. Soc. xvii), ii. 357; CB. In January 1639 Abbott was described as of St Peter, Cornhill, when he bound himself with his father and brothers Maurice, a barrister of the Inner Temple, and Edward, a vestryman at St Stephen, Coleman Street, to guarantee proper accounting by Maurice and Edward for their recently-acquired office of collectors of customs on certain fabrics.21SP46/79, ff. 242-50; Kirby, ‘Radicals of St Stephen, Coleman Street’, 109. Such association in family business was to prove disastrous.

The good reputation of his family in Guildford and the local benefactions of the archbishop probably account for Abbott’s election in March 1640 as a burgess for the borough.22Hist. Guildford, 103 seq.; PROB11/164/413. It may be also that the conservative proclivities of his father, who in his own parish drew up a list of men best able to provide loans to the king, counted in some quarters.23‘Radicals of St Stephen, Coleman Street’, 116. Abbott made no recorded contribution to the Short Parliament, or, when he was re-elected in October, to its successor. Indeed, it is possible that a primary motive for seeking election was to gain parliamentary privilege, and thus freedom from some of the consequences of impending financial ruin.

In April 1641 Abbott’s estate at Easton, which had been conveyed the previous year to Edward Abbott and Hugh Windham, presumably in trust, was sequestered to John Crane, a creditor who may have been kin to Robert Crane of Coleman Street.24VCH Hants, iii. 318; SP23/61, ff. 5-7; ‘Radicals of St Stephen, Coleman Street’, 117. On 8 May the MP, his father and others were summoned to the House of Lords as parties interested in a petition from clothiers and clothworkers who were creditors of Edward Abbott.25LJ iv. 240a. Part of their complaint was that the latter had assigned his estate to his father and brothers to avoid payment, and accepting this the Lords ordered the placing of goods assigned to them, and any other elements of his estate, ‘into safe hands’ (13 May).26LJ iv. 248a; HMC 4th Rep. 72. On 11 June it was noted in the Commons that George Abbott ‘has absented himself these two months’ and Surrey Member Sir Richard Onslow* moved (in what was evidently intended to be a helpful rather than a hostile manner) that if he did not attend the next day, he should be ‘put forth’.27Procs. LP v. 98. The extent of his problems became public some time over the summer: while it remained unknown exactly how much Edward Abbott had ‘failed for’, it was ‘conceived to be about £150,000, whereof his father and brothers are engaged for about £80,000’.28SP46/85/1, f. 56v. On 6 July Onslowe moved that Abbott, at his own request, desired to ‘decline his election’. None the less, the Commons ‘would not meddle with it’, and noted it as ‘not fit to be granted’.29CJ ii. 201a; Procs. LP v. 516, 523-4. Whether this related to concern over the wider implications of a one-time Member forfeiting, with the loss of privilege, freedom from imprisonment for debt, or some other cause, is unclear.

There is no evidence that Abbott ever reappeared in the House, or equally, that he never did. When on 22 January 1644 the Commons reviewed the cases of absentee Members, disabling some of them, he was summoned, but given 14 days’ respite.30CJ iii. 374b. In the meantime, he perhaps attempted to rebuild family fortunes while still living in the City. He was probably the George Abbott, linen draper, paid a total of £775 in February and April 1644 for the delivery of 6,000 shirts at 2s 7d per shirt for the use of the Scottish army.31SP46/106, ff. 7, 33. On 29 September 1645 he was summoned to attend the House forthwith, but may have been abroad – in connection with textile business or otherwise.32CJ iv. 292b. He was alleged to have died at Salamanca, although he was buried at Coleman Street on 12 November.33N and Q, ser. 1, x. 384; St Stephen, Coleman Street, par. reg. That day a writ was ordered for a new election for Guildford to replace him.34CJ iv. 340a.

Abbott was apparently childless and no other immediate family members sat in Parliament. Letters of administration were granted to Mary Abbott of St Mary Aldermanbury, presumably widow of this George Abbott, on 19 February 1646, although the estate was still unsettled in 1684.35PROB6/21, f. 19; PROB6/59, f. 150. Possibly the Mistress Abbott assessed for £1,000 in December 1646 but respited in February 1647, four years later she successfully petitioned the Committee for Compounding* for discharge of the lands at Easton in order to free her jointure.36CCAM 743; CCC 1571.