KEKEWICH, George (1614-61), of Catchfrench, St Germans, Cornw.

The Kekewiches were landowners in Lincolnshire and Shropshire during the middle ages, but in the fifteenth century one of their number married the daughter and heir of Edward Talcarne of Catchfrench in the parish of St Germans, and established the family in eastern Cornwall.15Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 252. According to Carew, Catchfrench – ‘a house so named (by likelihood) for some former memorable, though now forgotten, accident’ – had become a by-word for hospitality during the harvest failures of the 1590s, for the family’s ‘continual, large and inquisitive liberality to the poor … beyond the apprehensive imitation of any in the shire’. By the early seventeenth century, the local reputation of the Kekewiches had been further enhanced by a series of marriages allying them to, among others, the Bullers and the Godolphins.16Carew, Survey, 108v-109. This marriage network continued to expand during the next generation. George Kekewich’s sister married Joseph Jane* of Liskeard in 1633 and on 10 April 1634 George married a daughter of Sir Richard Buller of Shillingham.17Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 254. The latter wedding may have been finalised in some haste, as it was solemnised during the last illness of George’s father, William Kekewich, who had written his will (being ‘weak of body’) on 31 March, and would be buried at St Germans church on 15 April.18Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 254; PROB11/166/257.

The Bullers seem to have exerted considerable influence over George Kekewich throughout his career. When Kekewich’s son and heir was born in December 1639 he was baptised not at St Germans but at the Bullers’ local church, St Stephen by Saltash; and barely a week later another cousin, Thomas Wise* of Sydenham in Devon, wrote to his brother-in-law, Francis Buller I*, to discuss how Kekewich would fit into their complicated plans to squeeze the maximum benefit from the Cornish elections for the forthcoming Parliament: ‘let me pray know whether my cousin Kekewich endeavours for Liskeard … [and] if his aim be not to serve, he may, by appearing willing, gain power in disposing the place’.19Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 254; Antony House, Carew-Pole BC/26/18/10. In fact, Kekewich’s influence in Liskeard was probably second-hand, derived from his position as brother-in-law of Joseph Jane, and it was presumably Jane who secured him the borough seat in April 1640. There is no evidence that Kekewich attended the Short Parliament, and in the elections for the new Parliament in November, it was Jane, not Kekewich, who was returned as the MP for Liskeard.

At the outbreak of civil war in 1642, the Bullers were strong supporters of Parliament, and Kekewich followed suit despite the influence of other relatives, notably the Janes, who sided with the king. Kekewich later claimed ‘that he hath been in the service of the state in Plymouth, Cornwall and Devon, ever since the beginning of these troubles’, and other sources provide glimpses of him as lieutenant in Anthony Rous’s* troop of horse at the very beginning of the war, and captain in the Plymouth garrison from October to December 1642.20BHO, Cromwell Assoc. database; LJ viii. 465b; SP28/128, Devon, pt 1, accounts of Philip Francis, f. 2. His subsequent career is unclear. The ‘Captain George Kekewich’ captured by Sir Ralph Hopton* and released in the summer of 1643, was the MP’s cousin, one of the Kekewiches of Stonehouse.21CJ iii. 138a, 151a; Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 253. The MP’s service appears to have been less eventful, as he probably continued in the Plymouth garrison, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and where his wife died in January 1645.22Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 254. In the meantime, Kekewich’s estates fell into royalist hands (£20 was levied from the family in 1644) and Parliament encouraged him with nominal commissions, to sit on the Cornish county committee (1 July 1644) and to administer the collection of assessments there (18 Oct. 1644).23Cornw. RO, B/35/64; A. and O. After the conquest of the south-west by the New Model army in the spring of 1646 – the very time when Kekewich might have expected his reward – the Plymouth forces were reduced, leaving him to petition Parliament in August 1646 to beg for ‘some employments in those parts’.24LJ viii. 465b; HMC 6th Rep. 131.

Parliament’s response to Kekewich’s petition was positive. On 18 August the House of Lords proposed that he be appointed governor of St Mawes Castle – one of the two Henrician forts guarding the Fal Estuary. On 28 August both Houses ordered that he should take the more junior title of ‘captain’ of the castle, and this was resolved by the Commons on the same day and agreed by the Lords on 1 September.25LJ viii. 465b, 475b, 477b; CJ iv. 657b. Further favours came in 1647, after Kekewich had been elected as recruiter MP for Liskeard in place of his royalist brother-in-law, Joseph Jane. On 12 March the Commons passed a resolution nominating Kekewich as full governor of St Mawes; this was also resolved by the Lords on 4 June, and an order of both Houses was issued on 17 June.26CJ v. 110b; LJ ix. 238a; CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 573. On 23 June Kekewich was included in the assessment commission for Cornwall, and in the weeks that followed was given custody of ‘divers malignants’ imprisoned at St Mawes.27A. and O.; Bodl. Walker c.10, f. 92. The timing of Kekewich’s election and the appointments that followed suggest that he was aligned with the Presbyterian faction which dominated the Commons in the spring and summer of 1647. Kekewich’s later absence from Parliament may have been caused by his unwillingness to support the Independent hegemony, as much as by the demands of his position as governor of St Mawes. He was missing at the call of the House on 9 October 1647, and his excuses ‘were not then admitted’; he was again absent, but excused, on 24 April and 26 September 1648.28CJ v. 330a, 348a, 543b; vi. 34b. On 6 December of the same year, Kekewich was secluded from Parliament during Pride’s Purge – a fate he shared with most of the Cornish MPs, including his brother-in-law, Francis Buller I.29Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 377.

Although he had been secluded from the Commons, Kekewich was not treated as an enemy by the commonwealth regime. He had been added to the commission of peace for Cornwall by early 1650, and in October of that year he was commissioned as a captain of foot in the Cornish militia.30C193/13/3, f. 10; C231/6, p. 205; CSP Dom. 1650, p. 512. A key figure in Kekewich’s cordial relations with the government seems to have been Colonel Robert Bennett* (who had married into the Kekewiches of Trehawk) and it may be significant that in July 1651, while the threat of a Scottish invasion was current, Kekewich wrote to Bennett to protest his loyalty, and willingness to follow orders.31FSL, X.d.483 (94, 141). Kekewich petitioned the council of state on behalf of the St Mawes garrison in July 1652, and his case was referred to the ordnance committee.32CSP Dom. 1651-2, p. 322. In 1655-6, when the religious and political radical John Carew* was imprisoned at St Mawes, Kekewich’s daughter became ‘one of Mr Carew’s converts … and if often times in her singing trances, and so continues 12 or 14 hours if not longer’, in imitation of the mystic, Anna Trapnel. Understandably, it was said that her father was ‘much troubled at the same, and… conceals it what he can’.33TSP vii. 542. Kekewich’s relations with other members of his family were less fraught. In September 1654 Joseph Jane received news from ‘my brother William Kekewich’ of his wife’s plan to travel to the continent, and also reports that ‘his eldest brother had married a third wife’, the widow of one Dowse of Wallop in Hampshire; at the time the banns were called Kekewich was recorded – presumably temporarily, for a purpose unknown – as residing in the parish of Britford, just south of Salisbury in Wiltshire.34Nicholas Pprs. ii. 87; Wilts. Par. Regs. iii. 44-5; C10/463/111. In March 1656 Kekewich agreed an indenture with Francis Buller I allowing him to lease lands adjacent to St Mawes, and this appears to have been a confirmation of an earlier agreement, as Kekewich was paying rents to the Bullers for the same lands in October 1654 and April 1655.35Antony House, Carew-Pole BC/25/10, unfol.; HD/4/6/8.

When the Rump was restored in May 1659, Kekewich was again prepared to work with Bennett and his friends, and in August 1659 he was recommended by Richard Lobb* as a suitable commander for one of the militia companies in the county.36FSL, X.d.483 (127). Once the Restoration became a possibility, Kekewich was happy to re-align himself once yet again. In February 1660 he was confirmed as governor of St Mawes by George Monck*, in March he was appointed to the Cornish militia commission, and in June he was included in the assessment commission.37Coate, Cornw. 311; A. and O.; An Ordinance…for an Assessment. The return of the king was not to the advantage of Kekewich, however. On 16 June 1660 his eldest son George, writing from Westminster, reported to his father that some MPs had been ‘moving untruths in the House’ against him, although Kekewich had been defended by his neighbour in St Germans, John Eliot*, ‘who hath not spoken before nor since, but only then in your behalf’. It was feared, the son continued, ‘that it’s impossible for you to keep your command for long, for one of them … is confident he will carry it’. Hugh Boscawen* and Sir John Clobery† had also promised ‘they will do what they can … [but] they fear they cannot prevail’. In an interesting aside, George junior added that many MPs were disappointed by the new king, who ‘speaks not the same language as at first’, even though his court and person were ‘very splendid’.38Cornw. RO, T/1662. This may shed light on Kekewich’s own views as a moderate parliamentarian and lukewarm Presbyterian. Any such disappointments were soon compounded by a personal grievance, as on 13 July 1660 Charles II sacked Kekewich and appointed Sir Richard Vyvyan* as the new governor of St Mawes.39Cornw. RO, T/1660.

George Kekewich drew up his will in September 1661, leaving all his Cornish lands to his eldest son, George, and putting the two younger sons, William and Richard, into the care of their brother, who was also executor. The overseers were the boys’ uncles, Francis Buller I and William Kekewich.40PROB11/309/278. George Kekewich junior died without heirs in 1673, and was succeeded by his brother, William, whose daughter, Mary, was the last of the Kekewiches of Catchfrench; neither brother sat in Parliament.41Vivian, Vis. Cornw. 254.