WENIEVE (WINNIFFE), Edward (1600-58), of Brettenham, Suff.

It was the Wenieves’ claim that there had been family members living at Brettenham in south-west Suffolk since at least the reign of Henry VI.16Le Neve’s Peds. 167; Vis. Suff. 1561, 1577 and 1612, 211. At that date they already owned land within the parish, although it was not until the late seventeenth century that the family acquired the manor of Brettenham Hall.17Betham, ‘Brettenham’, 133; Copinger, Manors of Suff. iii. 141. Thomas Winniffe, who became bishop of Lincoln in 1642, may have been a distant relative.18Betham, ‘Brettenham’, 142-3. This MP’s father, George Wenieve, had succeeded to what lands the family did hold at Brettenham by the early seventeenth century. The first of George Wenieve’s children, Elizabeth, was born in about 1583 during his short-lived marriage to Elizabeth Bolton and this daughter grew up to marry a future bishop, Joseph Hall.19Vis. Suff. 1561, 1577 and 1612, 212; Le Neve’s Peds. 168; Oxford DNB, ‘Joseph Hall’; J. Hall, Epistles (1608), 169. In 1588 George Wenieve remarried and with this second wife, Mary Barker, had two sons, Thomas and Edward. Thomas, died (aged only 21) in April 1612 and Edward, baptized on 8 January 1600, thus became heir to his father, who died in 1619.20Vis. Suff. 1561, 1577 and 1612, 183, 212; Betham, ‘Brettenham’, 135; Brettenham par. reg. By the terms of the latter’s will, control of the family estates passed to Wenieve’s mother, who was instructed to provide Edward with a ‘reasonable and competent maintenance’ on condition that he kept to ‘an honest, sober, kindly and Christian course of life’. Among the overseers appointed to assist her as executrix was the Wenieves’ neighbour, the noted antiquary, Robert Ryece of Preston.21Brettenham par. reg.; Suff. RO (Bury), IC500/1/132/139. As it happened, Edward did not have long to wait before inheriting the estates, for his mother died just over a year later in March 1621, bequeathing to him her own lands as well.22Betham, ‘Brettenham’, 134; Brettenham par. reg.; Suff. RO (Bury), IC500/1/76/156.

Wenieve’s decision to enter Lincoln’s Inn as late as November 1626 was probably connected with his appointment as the feodary responsible for the collection of rents in Suffolk on behalf of the court of wards.23LI Admiss.; Le Neve’s Peds. 167; Soc. Antiq. MS 667, p. 120. This office was in the gift of the master of the court, who at that time was another Suffolk man, Sir Robert Naunton†. Naunton was a Lincoln’s Inn lawyer, and it was probably he who arranged for Wenieve’s admission to the inn. Wenieve’s marriage to Anne Plumsted (sister of Edward*) may also help to explain his choice of inn.24Vis. Suff. 1561, 1577 and 1612, 212; Vis. Norf. 1563, 1589 and 1613, 224. The Plumsteds had strong connections with Lincoln’s Inn, for Anne’s late father had been a barrister there and his patron, Sir Henry Hobart†, had been a bencher. Wenieve’s wife came with a marriage portion of £1,000, and in about 1627 she gave birth to an heir, George†.25PROB11/135/382; Betham, ‘Brettenham’, 135. Anne’s elder brother, Francis Plumsted, married a Suffolk woman and by the 1630s he was living at Brettenham, which was possibly how the two families had become acquainted.26Vis. Norf. 1563, 1589 and 1613, 224. Anne Wenieve died in childbirth in May 1637.27Brettenham par. reg.

Another lawyer with whom Wenieve had connections was the former lord chief justice, Sir Edward Coke†. Both were among the four men to whom Thomas, 6th Baron Windsor, alienated the manor of Godlesford at St Mary Stoke, Ipswich, in 1630. They were joined in that transaction by John Pepys, who was probably the elder brother of Richard Pepys*.28Coventry Docquets, 536. Wenieve’s circle of associates also included Sir Robert Crane*, who in 1643 appointed him, together with Richard Pepys, as a trustee for the management of his estates after his death.29PROB11/191/171; Vis. Suff. ed. J.J. Howard (Lowestoft and London, 1866-76) i. 155-7. Wenieve again had dealings with Richard Pepys three years later when the two of them, together with Henry North*, bought the manor of Harlston, which was only several miles from North’s estates at Great Finborough and not far from Brettenham.30Suff. RO (Bury), Acc. 326/43-4; Acc. 326/46. Wenieve further extended his land holdings in May 1649 when he bought an estate at Capel St Mary belonging to Sir Thomas Timperley of Hintlesham, who, as a Catholic, may have been selling to raise money for composition.31CCC 2133. Some of these transactions may have been undertaken to protect royalist friends from sequestration.

There are few clues as to Wenieve’s political stance during the 1640s. The king’s decision to appoint him as a commissioner of array at the start of the civil war proves nothing beyond the fact that the king hoped to gain his support.32Northants. RO, FH133, unfol. More revealing is his addition to the Suffolk commission of the peace at some point before January 1646, which was when he began attending the Bury quarter sessions on a regular basis.33Suff. RO (Ipswich), B105/2/1, ff. 62, 87v, 91, 95, 99v, 102v, 104v, 108v, 112, 115, 116v, 119. This suggests that he was acceptable to the local supporters of Parliament who controlled the commission. On the other hand, his continuing omission from the Suffolk standing committee and from the assessment commissions argues against zealous commitment on his part. In 1649 he was among those who ceased acting as a justice of the peace after the execution of the king, although his name continued to appear on successive commissions of the peace.34Suff. RO (Ipswich), B105/2/1, 123v-170v; B105/2/2; Names of the Justices of Peace (1650), 53 (E.1238.4); Stowe 577, f. 50; C193/13/4, ff. 93-4.

In 1652 Sir Edward Coke’s eldest son, Sir Robert Coke† of Huntingfield (brother of Henry Coke*), was appointed sheriff of Suffolk as a punishment for his royalist opinions. When Sir Robert died in July 1653, Parliament acted swiftly, confirming Wenieve as his replacement the following day. Given that Wenieve was the sole executor of Coke’s will, his appointment as sheriff meant that he was able to settle Coke’s shrieval obligations in conjunction with his personal affairs.35CJ vii. 286b; List of Sheriffs, 132; Soc. Antiq. MS 667, pp. 120, 442; F. Haslewood, ‘The ancient families of Suff.’, Procs. Suff. Inst. Arch. viii. 212; PROB11/230/446. The main beneficiary of the will was Wenieve himself, with Coke leaving him his house and lands at Epsom in Surrey.36PROB11/230/446. Wenieve applied to and obtained the lifting of Coke’s sequestration from the Committee for Compounding later that same year.37CCC 858. In contrast, Wenieve’s brother-in-law, Joseph Hall (who had since become one of the foremost polemicists in favour of episcopacy and who had served as the bishop of Exeter and of Norwich) made no mention of him in his 1654 will.38PROB11/258/175.

The return of Wenieve as one of the MPs for Suffolk in 1656 was part of a general backlash in the county against the protectorate. Because he was only marginally associated with the war in the 1640s and had been largely inactive in local government since 1649, Wenieve won the support of many dissatisfied with the protectorate. At a poll held at Stowmarket on 20 August 1656, Wenieve came third out of a field of 22 candidates (standing for ten seats). The spread of the votes may indicate that Wenieve was not standing alone but as one of a group of candidates, which may also have included John Sicklemor*, William Bloys* and William Gibbs*. This group may have been elected on the strength of its opposition to the rule of the major-generals, as perhaps were Wenieve’s friend, Henry North, and Edmund Harvey II.39Suff. RO (Ipswich), GC17/755, f. 140v. What confirms the suspicion that North, Harvey, Wenieve, Sicklemor, Bloys and Gibbs were loosely allied is that all were prevented from taking their seats at Westminster by the council of state.40CJ vii. 425b. Wenieve was included as a signatory of the (probably spurious) remonstrance of the excluded Members, although his name was misspelt as the otherwise mysterious ‘Richard Winene’.41To all the Worthy Gentlemen ([1656], E.889.8). Parliament did however approve Wenieve’s appointment to the Suffolk assessment commission the following June.42A. and O. It is not known whether he took his seat during the brief second session of this Parliament in January and February 1658.

Wenieve was dead by the time the next Parliament was summoned. By surviving to 8 September 1658, he outlived the lord protector, Oliver Cromwell*, by only five days. He was buried two days later in the chancel of the church at Brettenham, where a Latin epitaph was placed, praising his honourable ancestry, good character, sharp intelligence and polished eloquence.43Brettenham par. reg.; Betham, ‘Brettenham’, 135-6. The estates passed to his eldest son, George, who in 1660 married Christian, daughter of Sir Dudley North*, and who was knighted by Charles II in 1663. Sir George was returned as a tory for Sudbury in 1685, thus becoming quite possibly the only subsequent member of the family ever to take a seat in a Parliament.