LEMAN (LEAMAN), William (1594-1667), of Northaw, Herts. and St Bartholomew the Great, London.

Heir to the Leman fortune

The Lemans were descended from John de la Mans who had fled from the Netherlands in the fifteenth century.45Clutterbuck, Herts. ii. 414. Subsequent generations had settled on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, particularly in and around Beccles. This MP’s father, William, served as the town’s fenreeve in 1580 and as its portreeve in 1590.46Suckling, Suff. ii. 184. The fortunes of some members of the family, including the future MP, were transformed by the career of William senior’s bachelor brother, Sir John Leman, a London Fishmonger who became lord mayor in 1616.47Oxford DNB, ‘Sir John Leman’. His nephew, William junior, a younger son, followed in his uncle’s footsteps. He was presumably apprenticed in London before 1614, when the apprenticeship records of the Fishmongers’ Company commence. His master was Edward Allen (d. 1626) who in 1621 would serve as one of the sheriffs of London and as the prime warden of the Fishmongers’ Company. To mark Allen’s time as warden, the Fishmongers admitted Leman as one of his former apprentices as a freeman.48GL, MS 5576/1, p. 93. Leman himself was soon recruiting his own apprentices.49London Livery Co. Apprenticeship Regs. xlix, 54, 73, 133, 138, 141. It need not follow that he traded only – or even primarily – in fish. He was not, as has sometimes been said, one of the feoffees for impropriations or their clerk; that was ‘William Levans’, who was ‘but a servant and weareth their livery’.50Harl. 832, ff. 1, 5v-6, 8, 26, 48v.

Leman began accumulating estates outside London as early as 1622. When that year financial difficulties forced Sir Oliver Cromwell† to sell his lands at Warboys in Huntingdonshire, Leman and his uncle, Sir John, bought them from him.51VCH Hunts. ii. 243. Four years later Sir John bought the manor of Rampton Lisles at Rampton in Cambridgeshire.52VCH Cambs. ix. 213. When, soon afterwards, William married Rebecca Prescott, Sir John settled the lands at Warboys and Rampton to their use.53PROB11/161/375. When Sir John died in 1632, William inherited those lands, together with an estate in Whitechapel in the east end of London – the largest share of his uncle’s extensive estates. He also received £1,000 in cash.54PROB11/161/375; Leeman, ‘Leman baronetcy’, 229; VCH Hunts. ii. 243; VCH Cambs. ix. 213. Newly wealthy, he was also able that same year to purchase Northaw, seven miles from Hertford, from the 4th earl of Bedford (Sir Francis Russell†).55Coventry Docquets, 625; Clutterbuck, Herts. ii. 413; Leeman, ‘Leman baronetcy’, 229; VCH Herts. ii. 358.

Leman now settled permanently in Hertfordshire: in 1649 he claimed that he had been living outside of London for the past 17 years.56Whitelocke, Mems. (1853), iii. 76. He retained a house in the City in Portsoken ward, but in 1640 it was noted that he lived there only during the winter months.57Principal Inhabitants, 1640, 16. As sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1636, he was responsible for collecting the £4,000 demanded from the county by the 1635 Ship Money writ. Money trickled in long after he had ceased to be sheriff; in the end only £16 15s 10d remained uncollected.58CSP Dom. 1636-7, p. 432; 1637, p. 481; Gordon, ‘Collection of ship-money’, 158. In 1639 he told collectors in Hertfordshire that he would not contribute to the king’s expedition against the Scots because he had already done so elsewhere.59Rushworth, Hist. Collns. iii. 912. That may well have been true, but he is unlikely to have approved of the war against the Scottish Covenanters. Perhaps as a punishment, he was appointed in 1640 as sheriff a second time, this time for Huntingdonshire.60List of Sheriffs, 66. In September 1641 he paid in £1,300 which he had raised there as poll money.61SP28/2a, f. 18.

Leman had been in contention for a third shrieval appointment. An entry from May 1640 in the court minutes of the Fishmongers’ Company notes that he had declined to serve as one of the two sheriffs of London. Whether he had been the one nominated by the lord mayor or by the liverymen is not indicated. The Fishmongers’ concern was that Leman was being considered for such a senior civic office when he had not yet served as their prime warden.62GL, MS 5570/3, p. 423. Probably his colleagues were using this to put pressure on him to serve as the company’s senior officeholder. On 20 June 1642 the Fishmongers duly elected him to that office. But two of those present pointed out that Leman already had responsibilities as a Hertfordshire justice of the peace, which meant that he was ‘constantly resident with his family in those parts’. Leman therefore wished, so they claimed

to be spared and freed from the said place of warden, also as an assistant to this company, and that he will acknowledge the same a great favour to him and show his thankfulness to this company as it befitteth him to do.63GL, MS 5570/3, pp. 595-6.

The other members of the company accepted this. In asking to be excused this appointment, Leman had offered them £200 towards the contribution they intended to make towards the Irish Adventure. He later also paid £25 to the man who did serve as the prime warden.64GL, MS 5570/3, pp. 595-6, 643.

A list of the inhabitants of the Portsoken ward compiled for the Committee for Advance of Money in December 1642 showed that Leman had been assessed for £500, a very substantial sum, but also that he had moved out of the ward to Coleman Street.65CCAM, 5. It is possible that the royalists hoped for his support, for he was added to the Suffolk commission of the peace at Oxford the following year.66Docquets of Letters Patent ed. Black, 93. But any such expectations proved to be deluded. Leman’s efforts on behalf of Parliament would be clear, unstinting and always practical.

Treasurer of the Eastern Association, 1643-5

In the early months of 1643 Leman emerged as a leading supporter of Parliament in Hertfordshire. In February he was confirmed by Parliament as an assessment commissioner for the county.67A. and O. Then, the 1st Baron Grey of Warke (Sir William Grey†), major-general of the newly formed Eastern Association, named him as one of the association’s commissioners in Hertfordshire.68Suff. ed. Everitt, 52. Finally, Parliament appointed him as a sequestration commissioner. Soon he and his colleagues had embarked on the challenging task of sequestering the estates of the county’s most high-profile royalist, Lord Capell (Arthur Capell*).69HMC Var. vii. 345.

But for Leman all these offices soon proved to be of only secondary importance. By the autumn of 1643, he was making a more important contribution to Parliament’s fight against the king as a treasurer of the Eastern Association, appointed with Gregory Gawsell and John Weaver* by its new major-general, the 2nd earl of Manchester (Edward Montagu†).70SP28/10, ff. 75, 88, 324, 326, 331, 332; Suff. ed. Everitt, 67. While Gawsell and Weaver travelled with the association’s army, Leman remained at Cambridge, the base of its central committee.71Holmes, Eastern Assoc. 119, 134. Leman held this position until the spring of 1645.72SP28/13, ff. 57, 60, 191, 195, 200, 221, 227, 230, 231; SP28/14, ff. 86, 147, 148, 167, 168, 174, 175, 179; SP28/15, ff. 253-289; SP28/17, ff. 149-221, 326-418, 472; SP28/18, ff. 136-201, 213-332, 391; SP28/19, ff. 216-393, 405-464; SP28/20, ff. 105-406; SP28/21, ff. 1-128; SP 28/22, ff. 28, 29, 52, 287, 293, 310, 312, 320, 324, 325, 352-365, 370, 371, 386-393; SP28/23, ff. 136, 137, 201, 453, 454; SP28/25, ff. 4-325, 427, 443, 446, 466-510, 536; SP28/26, ff. 3-127; CSP Dom. 1644, p. 519; CSP Dom. 1644-5, pp. 362, 367, 368. After Manchester was granted powers to re-organise the association’s finances in January 1644, most of assessment revenues raised in the eastern counties passed through Leman’s hands.73Holmes, Eastern Assoc. 136, 141. Moreover, in March 1644 he and Gawsell were granted powers to receive the accounts of all the tax collectors working under them.74CSP Dom. 1644, p. 58. Leman combined his duties as treasurer with membership of the committee at Cambridge.75Suff. ed. Everitt, 69, 81; Luke Letter Bks. 400, 408. Thus, in early 1644 he and Gawsell joined with the other members of the committee to write to the Commons to complain that the revenues they were able to raise were insufficient to cover the military expenditure they were being expected to undertake.76Suff. ed. Everitt, 80-1.

Although Leman was still in office as treasurer during the early months of 1645, it would seem that by then his deputy, Henry Leman, was performing many of his actual duties.77SP28/23, ff. 111-135, 138-169, 174-247, 266, 280-417, 431-450, 459-474. (Presumably a kinsman, he may have been the Henry Leman of Wood Dalling, Norfolk, who had been apprenticed to William’s elder brother, Robert (d. 1637), also a London Fishmonger, in 1615.)78London Livery Co. Apprenticeship Regs. xliv, 80; J. Blatchley, ‘The Leman monument by the Christmas brothers in St. Stephen’s Church Ipswich’, Procs. Suff. Inst. Arch. xxxviii. 196-8. In any case, under the New Model ordinance, the association regiments became part of the new army, whose pay was to be administered centrally, thus rendering the role of association treasurer obsolete. In May 1645 the Committee of Both Kingdoms appointed Leman to audit the accounts of the Scottish officers who had served under the earl of Manchester before those accounts were submitted to the Army Committee.79CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 471, 480-1. But this was little more than tying up the loose ends of his previous responsibilities.

Long Parliament MP, 1645-9

However, by 1645 Leman was a figure of some consequence in Hertfordshire, combining great personal wealth and administrative experience with steadfast fidelity to the parliamentarian cause. A by-election to fill one of the Hertford seats, vacant since the expulsion of Sir Thomas Fanshawe*, now enabled him to get elected to Parliament. On 17 September 1645 he may well have been returned unopposed. He marked his victory by paying £100 to the corporation to help clear the town’s debts.80Chauncy, Herts. i. 522; Turnor, Hist. Hertford, 151. Until now the political figure with whom Leman was most closely associated was probably Manchester, but once in Parliament he travelled in a very different direction.

Leman’s earliest activities at Westminster mostly reflected his undoubted expertise in matters of military finance. He had taken his seat in the Commons by 6 October 1645, when he was named to the committee to raise a loan of £30,000 in London to pay the Scottish army.81CJ iv. 298b. The next day he was also named to the committee on the bill to raise a loan of £40,000 to pay the English army.82CJ iv. 299a. Later that same month he took the Solemn League and Covenant.83CJ iv. 329a. Quite possibly on his suggestion, the Commons agreed on 31 October that £5,000 from the £30,000 loan for the Scots should be used to pay the troops from the Eastern Association that were to be sent to assist at the siege of Newark-upon-Trent. He then headed the list of those appointed as the committee to arrange this.84CJ iv. 327b. His experience in such matters also explains why several weeks later he was included on the committee to determine the future size of the garrison at Abingdon (22 Nov.).85CJ iv. 351a. On 4 December he was a member of the large committee appointed to meet with representatives from the corporation of London to discuss the London militia.86CJ iv. 365a. Two days later he was included on the committee to investigate the preparations for a campaign against the Irish rebels.87CJ iv. 368b. Meanwhile, on 1 December, he was included on the committee to receive information about any MPs who had been receiving bribes.88CJ iv. 362a. On 13 December he was among 17 MPs added to the committee, chaired by Samuel Browne*, overseeing the Committee of Accounts.89CJ iv. 376a. This is an early sign that Leman would align himself with the Independent MPs at Westminster.

Leman’s initial burst of activity in the Commons was followed by a discernible, if temporary, lull during the early weeks of 1646. On 3 March he was among the MPs asked to consider how to raise money for the troops under the command of Major-general Richard Browne II*.90CJ iv. 461a. That same month he sat on the committee to audit the excise accounts (11 Mar.).91CJ iv. 472b. Another committee appointment several weeks later concerned the petition from the Bedford Level Adventurers (28 Apr.).92CJ iv. 525a. That was a subject in which he had a direct interest, because his lands at Warboys lay within the area being drained by the Adventurers.

In early May 1646, as the Commons sought to consolidate its hold on the area around King’s Lynn, Leman and Gawsell were ordered to hand over any money they still held to assist Valentine Wauton* and Miles Corbett* in disarming the local royalists and Sir Francis Russell* in securing the Isle of Ely.93CJ iv. 535a-b. Meanwhile, at the Hertford sessions that July the local justices of the peace instructed one of the county’s MPs, Sir Thomas Dacres*, to lobby the commissioners of the great seal to get Leman and others promoted to the quorum.94Herts. County Recs. v. 370-1. But Leman was very much focused on his work at Westminster. On 7 May he and William Ball* were given particular care of the investigation into the revenues of St Paul’s Cathedral.95CJ iv. 538b-539a. When on 11 August a committee was created to consider how to borrow money for the Irish campaign, he and Rowland Wilson* were made chairmen.96CJ iv. 641b. Ten days later both men were also among those temporarily added to the Committee for Compounding when it needed to borrow £100,000 as part of the pay-off to the Scots.97CJ iv. 650b. That Leman was included on the committee on the bill to sell off the estates of some leading royalists (30 Oct.) was doubtless because he supported the planned re-conquest of Ireland, which it was intended to fund, but it may also have been because the estates included those of Lord Capell.98CJ iv. 710b. He may well have been equally keen on the sale of the bishops’ lands which was also being discussed at this time.99CJ iv. 712a. On 4 December he was among those sent to borrow money from the excise commissioners to help pay for charitable relief to military widows.100CJ iv. 738b. When Sir John Evelyn of Wiltshire* was accused of saying that the army should intervene to suppress disorder in London, Leman was one of those appointed to investigate (17 Dec.).101CJ v. 17b. He was again included on Samuel Browne’s committee to scrutinise the Committee of Accounts when it was revived on 25 January 1647 to address the concerns that the Accounts Committee had been showing blatant favouritism towards the Presbyterian friends of its members.102CJ v. 62b. The other committees to which he was appointed during the first half of 1647 were those on the appointment of the new commissioners of the great seal (18 Mar.), malignant ministers (22 Mar.), the petition from the Weavers’ Company (27 May), the relief of maimed soldiers (28 May) and holidays for apprentices (24 June).103CJ v. 117b, 119b, 187a, 190b.

As the army became more assertive in pressing its grievances, especially arrears of pay, on 6 July 1647 Leman was assigned to draft the letters to be sent to the Eastern Association counties to encourage tax collection to help pay those forces formerly commanded by the earl of Manchester.104CJ v. 235b. He was named to the committee against abuses in army, created on 21 July.105CJ v. 253a. On 22 July, with the threat to Parliament from the London mob increasing, Leman and others were appointed to investigate the printed manifesto issued by some of the rioters.106CJ v. 254a. On 30 July he was among Independent MPs who, fearing for their safety, withdrew from Westminster to join the army to the west of the capital.107LJ ix. 385b; HMC Egmont, i. 440. He was presumably with the army when it entered London on 6 August. Five days later he and Sir Thomas Dacres were sent by both Houses to thank the Hertfordshire militia committee for the support they had given to the army.108CJ v. 271b; LJ ix. 383b. The following November Leman would be one of the MPs appointed to probe the roles of two Presbyterian MPs, Edward Stephens* and Thomas Gewen*, in the brief coup.109CJ v. 367a.

With the Independents now back in control at Westminster, Leman supported their efforts to keep the soldiers happy. On 1 September he and other MPs met to consider how to raise money for a new Irish campaign.110CJ v. 287a. When George Joyce, the cornet who had arrested the king at Holdenby three months earlier, applied to the Commons for his arrears on 3 September, Leman was instructed to pay him his money.111CJ v. 291a. He also began to take an active interest in the plight of injured veterans.112CJ v. 287b, 320a, 356a, 421a. But his most important appointment came on 9 September when the Commons nominated him as one of three new members of the Army Committee.113CJ v. 298b; A. and O.

Leman was not present at the call of the House on 9 October.114CJ v. 329b. However, his absence was brief. He was presumably in the Commons just three days later when he was ordered to bring in on 15 October a draft bill concerning the Hertfordshire militia. This was prompted by a petition from the Hertfordshire militia commission, probably presented by Leman himself.115CJ v. 331b. He had the draft ready in time, but the debate on it was postponed and the bill sank.116CJ v. 334b. He also sat on the committee for the Tower Hamlets militia bill, one of a number being promoted at this time.117CJ v. 363b.

As Parliament considered the contentious issue of a settlement with the king, on 21 October Leman was included on the committee to draft a proposition to be offered to Charles guaranteeing that the army’s arrears would be paid.118CJ v. 339a. Two months later he was one of the MPs asked to set out the details as to how money for those arrears was to be collected.119CJ v. 396a. He similarly sat on the committee for the arrears due to the Scottish army officers (25 Dec.).120CJ v. 405b.

Meanwhile, Leman continued to back the cause of religious reform. On 28 October 1647 he was a member of the committee on the bill to remove obstructions to the sale of bishops’ lands.121CJ v. 344a. That December he was also added to the Committee for Plundered Ministers (27 Dec.).122CJ v. 407a. Early the following year he was included on the committees on petition from the London ministers (11 Jan. 1648) and on the bill to compensate the surviving feoffees for impropriations (28 Mar.).123CJ v. 427a, 519a. On 29 March he was sent to thank his brother-in-law, the prominent Independent preacher Thomas Goodwin, for the sermon he had preached earlier that day.124CJ v. 519b.

The Commons continued to make use of his financial skills, naming him to committees to re-apportion the county assessment valuations (15 Jan. 1648), to examine the accounts of the customs commissioners (4 Mar.) and to raise a new loan from London (12 May).125CJ v. 434a, 480a, 558a. Moreover, on 12 and 22 March both Houses instructed the Committee of Accounts to return to Leman his records as the Eastern Association treasurer so that he could calculate what salaries had already been paid to the soldiers.126CJ v. 492b, 493b; LJ x. 111a, 130a, 132a. However, Leman seems never to have been especially involved in the work of the Eastern Association Committee at Westminster, although he did sign a couple of the warrants issued by it on 18 January 1648.127SP28/251, unf.

By the spring of 1648 Parliament faced outbreaks of discontent in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Surrey. On 18 May Leman was named to the delegation of MPs and peers sent to consult with the common council of London over the new militia ordinance for the City.128CJ v. 565a. Eight days later, he joined another delegation sent for further discussions on how the capital could be defended against the rising in Kent.129CJ v. 574a. On 14 June, after the rebels had crossed over to Essex, he was included on the committee to decide how order could be restored in Kent.130CJ v. 599b. By then Sir Thomas Fairfax* had the rebels surrounded at Colchester. On 1 July Leman and three other members of the Army Committee were sent to Colchester by Parliament to ensure that its army besieging the town was paid.131CJ v. 619b. To no one’s surprise, they discovered that it was seriously short of money.132HMC Portland, i. 481. However, the rebels surrendered on 28 August. Four days Leman was among MPs sent to take evidence from the members of the Essex county standing committee who had been held as hostages during the siege.133CJ v. 696b.

During October and November 1648, he was, like many of his colleagues, particularly concerned that the guards protected Parliament were well paid and trustworthy.134CJ vi. 47a, 69a. Moreover, on 21 October he was among MPs sent to discuss the army’s arrears with Fairfax.135CJ vi. 58a. His sympathies clearly with the army, he was not barred from sitting when it purged the Commons on 6 December and he was present in the House in the weeks that followed.136CJ vi. 96b, 103a; Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 378. On 18 December he was one of 11 MPs added to the Committee for Compounding to replace those who were now secluded and a couple of weeks later he was named to the committee to investigate which delinquents had not yet compounded (29 Dec.).137CJ vi. 99a, 106b; LJ x. 632b; CCC 135. Between December 1648 and February 1649, he was also included on committees addressing public revenue and potential sales of royal and ecclesiastical lands.138CJ vi. 102a, 116a, 120b, 132a, 150b. On 19 January he and others were appointed to buy gunpowder and ammunition for the army.139CJ vi. 121b.

Yet Leman’s commitment to the execution of the king is in doubt. When the bill to establish the high court of justice received its second reading on 29 December 1648, he was named to the committee to which the bill was then committed.140CJ vi. 106a. But he was not named as a commissioner in that bill and so played no part in Charles I’s trial. He also waited until 2 February 1649, after the king’s execution, before entering his dissent against the vote of 5 December 1648 which had been in favour of further negotiations.141Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 378. However, thereafter he appears to have accepted the reality of the republic, probably supporting legislation to abolish the monarchy.142CJ vi. 158a.

Rumper, 1649-53

In a reduced House of Commons, for Leman business in some way connected with compounding loomed larger than ever before. No doubt acting on behalf of the Committee for Compounding, he was probably the MP who on 19 February raised questions about the arrangements by which those who had joined the rebellion in Kent the previous summer had been allowed to compound. He headed the list of those MPs then appointed to investigate.143CJ vi. 146b. He was probably also involved when the same issue was raised with respect to the Essex rebels three months later.144CJ vi. 201a. Towards the end of the year he was also named to the committee on the bill for the leasing of delinquents’ estates (11 Dec.).145CJ vi. 330b. In March 1650 he was among those considering legislation to address the difficulties of pro-parliamentarian tenants who held lands from royalist landlords.146CJ vi. 380a. That July he supported moves to give the Committee for Compounding extra powers to search for concealed lands.147CJ vi. 436b. In January 1651 he was a member of the parliamentary committee to receive claims arising from the new bill for the sale of delinquents’ estates.148CJ vi. 528a. Towards the end of that same year he was also named to the committee on the additional bill for such sales (3 Dec.).149CJ vii. 46b. Meanwhile, he submitted a petition on his own account to the Committee for Compounding. His colleagues accepted his evidence that lands in Dorset mortgaged many years before by Sir Francis Fulford† to Leman’s late uncle, Sir John Leman, should not have been sequestered.150CCC, 1312.

On 8 March 1649 Leman was among MPs asked to re-consider the differences between how land and movables were treated for assessment valuations.151CJ vi. 159a. He was also named to the committee to review the loans raised against the expected revenues from compounding and the excise (12 Mar.).152CJ vi. 161b. He presumably supported the sale of fee farm rents.153CJ vi. 178b. On 9 April he was involved in seeking a loan of £120,000 from the corporation of London to pay for the proposed campaign to re-conquer Ireland.154CJ vi. 183a. He probably continued to back the sell-off of the royal lands as a means of paying off the existing military arrears and he was later included on the committee (30 June) to draft the legislation to grant Richmond Park to the corporation of London.155CJ vi. 205b, 247a. During March and April he attended several of the meetings of the Eastern Association Committee at Westminster.156SP28/251, unfol. On 26 May he and other MPs were appointed to inspect the accounts for the Committee for Sequestrations after some of its revenues were set aside to assist wounded veterans and the families of dead soldiers.157CJ vi. 218a.

There is little doubt that Leman welcomed the actions of Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell* in suppressing the army mutiny at Burford on 14 May. When Cromwell returned to Westminster on 26 May, the House thanked him and appointed days of thanksgiving. Leman was deputed to summon Thomas Goodwin to preach one of the sermons on the first of those days. Moreover, Henry Ireton*, Sir Henry Mildmay* and Leman were asked to draft the bill explaining the reasons why they were so thankful.158CJ vi. 218a-b. Leman probably also supported the decision to reward Fairfax with a gift of lands.159CJ vi. 225b. To mark the day of thanksgiving on 7 June, the corporation of London entertained MPs at Grocers’ Hall. The lord mayor greeted the Speaker by delivering his sword to him, an honour previously accorded to the monarch. Gratified by this mark of loyalty, Parliament the next day appointed a committee, including Leman, to discuss how this could be reciprocated.160CJ vi. 227b. That same day Leman conveyed the House’s thanks to Goodwin for his thanksgiving sermon.161CJ vi. 226b. An indication of his importance in Parliament at this juncture is that on 25 June he was among MPs appointed to prioritise which bills should be passed before the expected imminent dissolution.162CJ vi. 242b.

Meanwhile, on 16 April Leman had been elected, apparently without being consulted, to replace the dismissed Presbyterian James Bunce as alderman for the Bread Street ward of London .163CJ vi. 181b; Beaven, Aldermen of London, i. 49; ii. 69. On 13 July the lord mayor and corporation reiterated to Parliament their desire that Leman accept this appointment.164CJ vi. 259a. When on 31 July a reluctant Leman told the House that he had ‘left the city 17 years since’, MPs resolved that he should be allowed to make up his own mind on the matter.165Whitelocke, Mems. (1853), iii. 76; CJ vi. 272b. Finally, on 25 August the corporation agreed to quash the election without imposing the customary fine on a freeman who refused such promotion.166Beaven, Aldermen of London, i. 49.

Perhaps not entirely helpfully, on 5 July Leman was probably again among a delegation that sought a loan of £150,000 from London for Cromwell’s expedition to Ireland.167CJ vi. 249b. On 20 July he was added to the Star Chamber Committee of Irish Affairs, a body which had acquired great importance now that the army was preparing to set sail.168CJ vi. 266b. Soon after he was named to the committees for taking accounts (3 Aug.), on the bill against seditious writings (9 Aug.) and on the bill to make endowment to assist the London poor (22 Aug.).169CJ vi. 274a, 276a, 284a. That September he was named a governor of Westminster School.170CJ vi. 299b; A. and O. On 12 October he was one of the MPs appointed to find out which of their colleagues had not yet taken the Engagement.171CJ vi. 307b. Later he supported the moves to compel all adult men to do the same.172CJ vi. 326b. Another of his committees concerned the state of the excise (23 Nov.).173CJ vi. 325a.

He received numerous committee appointments related to religion. These included committees to consider how best to discourage cursing and swearing (2 Nov. 1649) and to promote the preaching of the Gospel (20 Dec.).174CJ vi. 317b, 336a. He then took an interest in the bill on presentations to ecclesiastical benefices (8 Feb. 1650), the maintenance of ministers in Bristol (15 Feb.) and the sales of the remaining dean and chapter lands (18 Apr.).175CJ vi. 359a, 365b, 400b. On 4 July 1650 he was added to the Committee for Plundered Ministers.176CJ vi. 437a. Most importantly, he probably took the lead in promoting legislation for the maintenance of the ministers in St Albans (23 Aug. 1651).177CJ vii. 3a. When on 5 September the House referred the bill he had drafted to a committee, Leman was the second name on the list of MPs appointed to it, although nothing more was heard of the bill.178CJ vii. 11a, 12b. In February 1652 he was also named to the committee on the petition from a delegation of Independent clergymen led by John Owen*.179CJ vii. 86b.

The funding of the army remained a concern.180CJ vi. 368a. When the bill to prevent sailors serving in foreign navies was referred to the Committee of Navy and Customs on 9 March 1650, Leman was one of the MPs added to it for that purpose, although he had been made a full-time member of this body ten months earlier.181CJ vi. 219b, 379b. He was added to the committee again when George Manby’s invention for the manufacture of salt was referred to it late in March 1650.182CJ vi. 389a. On 19 April he was included on the bill to merge the various treasuries.183CJ vi. 400a. Two of his particular interests were combined in the committee to which he was named on 17 May, as it concerned abuses arising from money the Committee for Compounding had paid to the treasurers for sick and maimed soldiers.184CJ vi. 413b. Someone else he thought worthy of assistance was the widow of Thomas Rainborowe*.185CJ vi. 428b. Less obviously deserving was Sir Henry Vane II*, but Leman seems also to have supported the grant to him of lands worth £1,200 a year186CJ vi. 441a. Meanwhile, that July Leman was asked to present to Parliament the complaints from the Hertfordshire grand jury about the quartering of soldiers, although he seems never to have done so.187Herts. County Recs. v. 407. In August, in the weeks following Cromwell’s march into Scotland, the council of state asked Sir William Masham* to seek Leman’s views on number and quality of the mounted troops which had been raised in Hertfordshire.188CSP Dom. 1650, p. 295. On 6 September Leman was included on the committee on the indemnity bill.189CJ vi. 463b. He may also have backed the efforts to put the poor to work (9 Oct.).190CJ vi. 481a. On 20 December he was appointed as a member of the committee to address the concerns of the Irish Adventurers.191CJ vi. 512b.

The high point of his political career came on 10 February 1651 when he was elected to the council of state.192CJ vi. 532b. He attended almost exactly half of its meetings during the ten months he was a member – a roughly average record.193CSP Dom. 1651, pp. xxv-xxxv. He was also regularly named to some of its committees, including those on the ordnance, Scotland and Ireland, the conversion of St James’s Palace into barracks, the release of the Scottish prisoners, the funding of the militia and the future of the post office.194CSP Dom. 1651, pp. 63, 66, 134, 137, 147, 182, 217, 223, 375, 389, 450, 455, 494; 1651-2, pp. 14, 34. Occasionally the council made use of Leman’s specialised knowledge. In April 1651 councillors delayed the appointments of two new officers for Hertfordshire militia until they had consulted with him.195CSP Dom. 1651, p. 168. Several weeks later the Scottish and Irish sub-committee was reminded that Leman might have information useful to their questioning of army officers who had been based at Barnet.196CSP Dom. 1651, p. 244. On 12 June the council asked him to tell the Army Committee that the army badly needed the services of a physician and some apothecaries.197CSP Dom. 1651, p. 250. However, on only one occasion was Leman used as the council’s spokesman in Parliament. That was on 25 July when he secured Parliament’s agreement to a grant of £1,000 for the repair of Dover harbour.198CSP Dom. 1651, p. 148; CJ vi. 609b-610a.

As Leman was already active in the House, it is difficult to judge whether his status as a councillor increased his profile there even further. He continued to be named to many major parliamentary committees. Thus, he was added to the committee on naval stores on 13 February 1651 after it was asked to handle the bill to reform the admiralty, and to the committee on the oblivion bill when it was revived on 4 March.199CJ vi. 543a, 544b. On 12 April he was among MPs to whom the impressment bill was committed.200CJ vi. 563a. He was also added to the committee on the sale of the late king’s goods (21 May).201CJ vi. 576b. In early August he was a member of the committee to decide how Lord Grey of Groby (Thomas Grey*) should be rewarded for his role in the invasion of Scotland.202CJ vi. 618b. Four months later he supported the land grant to Bridget Ireton, the widow of Henry Ireton* (9 Dec.).203CJ vii. 49a.

When at the turn of 1651 Parliament decided to replace the four treasurers at war with only two new treasurers, both to be MPs, Leman was selected for the role with John Blackwell (31 Dec. 1651, 1 Jan. 1652).204CJ vii. 58a, 61a, 62b, 63a; A. and O. For Leman, this appointment may partly have been intended as consolation for his recent failure to get re-elected to the council of state. But the treasurerships were no mere sinecures. The continuing military occupation of Scotland and Ireland and the outbreak of war with the Dutch the following spring kept Leman and Blackwell very busy, with huge sums of money passing through their hands.205CSP Dom. 1651-2, pp. 130, 148, 159, 166, 168-9, 174, 184-5, 189-90, 220, 224-5, 236, 320, 352, 360, 527, 555, 556, 601, 608, 612, 618, 620; 1652-3, pp. 24, 26, 75, 79, 93, 208, 482; CCC 560, 618, 620, 637-8, 823. From time to time the council sought Leman’s advice on military matters.206CSP Dom. 1651-2, pp. 151, 164. Thus, in September 1652 he and Francis Allein* were asked to attend a meeting of the council’s Scottish and Irish committee when it was discussing a potential reduction in troops stationed in Scotland and Ireland.207CSP Dom. 1651-2, p. 400.

Leman acted as a teller in a division for the first time on 29 January 1652. He and Cornelius Holland* marshalled the minority who sought a proviso in the new oblivion bill which would have prevented indemnity being extended to lands concealed by delinquents who had compounded.208CJ vii. 79a Two months later he was a member of the committee on the bill to appoint new commissioners to complete the sales of royal, ecclesiastical and sequestered lands (30 Mar.).209CJ vii. 112a. The following week Leman was named to a committee to consider a petition about this from the contractors for the sale of bishops’ lands.210CJ vii. 115a. Another of his committee appointments at about this time was on the union with Scotland (13 Apr.).211CJ vii. 118b. On 13 August he was one of the MPs asked to consider the petition from the army officers.212CJ vii. 164b. That same month his eldest daughter, Rebecca, married Tanfield Vachell*, a Long Parliament MP who had refused to sit in the Rump.213Clutterbuck, Herts. ii. 414; G.P. Crawfurd, ‘Vachell of Coley, Reading’, Quarterly Jnl. of the Berks. Archaeological and Architectural Soc. iii. 65; A.C. Vachell, ‘The Vachells of Coley’, Berks. Arch. Jnl. xl. 85.

Leman was again a teller on 7 September. With Henry Neville* he got the bill to enact the judgement previously made in the dispute between one of the London aldermen, John Fowke, and the East India Company referred back to a committee.214CJ vii. 175a. On 29 December he and Henry Marten* counted those in favour of selling off Windsor Castle.215CJ vii. 237a. He paired again with Marten on 13 January 1653 in a division on the petition from the adjutant-general of the army, John Nelthorpe.216CJ vii. 246b. During the final months before the Rump was dismissed, he sat on the committees on the bills for the sales of the royal forests (8 Jan.) and further sequestered estates (1 Mar.).217CJ vii. 245a, 263b.

Later career 1653-67

The dismissal of the Rump had two immediate consequences for Leman. On the one hand, he ceased to serve as the treasurer at war.218Aylmer, State’s Servants, 244. On the other, on 12 July the freemen of the Billingsgate ward elected him as their new alderman. No more willing to serve than he had been four years previously, several weeks later Leman got that election discharged by paying the fine of £400.219Beaven, Aldermen of London i. 28, 227. Plausibly, he wished to withdraw from public life, but if so, that withdrawal was never absolute. In 1654 he became a commissioner in Hertfordshire against scandalous ministers and he continued to hold most of the routine local appointments.220A. and O. Possibly he had republican scruples which made him view Cromwell’s ascendancy with unease. He may even have revived his business interests. He was described as a ‘merchant’ of London in October 1657 when he received permission to transport a coach to Holland.221CSP Dom. 1657-8, p. 119. In 1655 his eldest son, William†, married Mary, daughter of Sir Lewis Mansel of Margam, Glamorgan. This renewed Leman’s earlier links with the earl of Manchester as the bride was the earl’s niece. As part of the marriage settlement, Leman transferred most of his lands to various trustees (including Vachell) to the use of William junior.222PROB11/325/275.

The return of the Rump in early May 1659 allowed Leman to resume his parliamentary career. On 1 June he was added to the committee on the Forest of Dean, after a petition from the local inhabitants was referred to it.223CJ vii. 670b. Nine days later he was named to the committee on the bill to appoint commissioners for Ireland.224CJ vii. 678b. Over the following weeks Leman found himself being named to committees on the urgent task of raising new assessments and loans (14, 18 June) to pay the army, and to persuade some officials in the law courts to lend money by agreeing to defer their salaries (22 June).225CJ vii. 684b, 689a, 691a. He was also included on the committee to consider the impressment bill (22 June).226CJ vii. 691b. Alongside this, he was added to committees discussing enforcing the collection of remaining composition fines (14 July) and the disposal of delinquents’ lands as yet unsold (5 Aug.). 227CJ vii. 717a, 748b. He was named to work on the bill to punish those who disturbed religious services (1 July) and may have supported the attempts to establish a market in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.228CJ vii. 700b, 757a. Otherwise, he sat on the committees on whether to retain the use of Worcester House for government officials (20 Aug.), on the petition from Michael Oldisworth* (24 Aug.) and on the appointment of a new clerk of the Parliaments (24 Aug.).229CJ vii. 763b, 767a. His continuing concern for the welfare of injured soldiers was reflected in his appointment to the committee for hospitals on 5 October.230CJ vii. 797b.

Leman was perhaps slow to resume his seat when the Rump returned a second time in late December 1659. He first surfaces in the House on 31 January 1660 when he was nominated to consider the bill in support of George Monck*.231CJ vii. 827a. Two days later he was named to the committee on the post office.232CJ vii. 833b. That on 15 February he was named second on the list of MPs appointed to draft the engagement to be taken by the members of the new council of state suggests that he was still hostile to a return to monarchy, to rule by any other single person and to a revival of the House of Lords.233CJ vii. 844a. Although he apparently remained in the House after the MPs who had been excluded at Pride’s Purge were re-admitted, his final committee appointment came eight days later, when he was named to the one on the bill to settle the London militia (29 Feb.).234CJ vii. 856a.

Over a century later William Strode† (1738-1809), who had inherited some of the Leman estates, would claim that in 1660 Leman travelled to Breda to offer financial assistance to Charles II, with the result that the new king granted him a pardon and a baronetcy.235Leeman, ‘Leman baronetcy’, 232. This seems rather garbled. Leman was indeed granted a baronetcy by Charles II, but only in 1665, so it is unlikely to have been a direct reward for any support offered in 1660.236CB iv. 7. Other evidence suggests that the restored monarchy otherwise kept him at arm’s length. He was initially continued as a justice of the peace, but removed from the St Albans commission in the autumn of 1660 and probably from the county commission soon after.237C181/7, pp. 52-3. He had also ceased to be included on the assessment commissions.

Leman was buried at Northaw on 3 September 1667.238Leeman, ‘Leman baronetcy’, 233. His will confirmed the 1655 settlement in favour of his son, William. It also made various generous legacies to other members of the family, including £10 to ‘my brother Doctor Goodwyn’. He also left his coach, horses and equipage to his wife and half a year’s wages to his servants.239PROB11/325/275. William, who now succeeded as the second baronet, sat for Hertford in 1690. Another son, Edward, had married a daughter of Thomas Holt*.240Clutterbuck, Herts. ii. 414; Burke, Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, 309; Woodhead, Rulers of London, 107. The second baronet and later generations of the family developed the Goodman’s Field estate in Whitechapel, where Leman Street still commemorates the family name.