DEVEREUX, George (d. 1683), of Vaynor, Berriew, Mont.

The Warwickshire Devereux were a cadet branch of the family of Robert, 3rd earl of Essex, the parliamentary general, who was appointed lord lieutenant of Montgomeryshire by the two Houses in 1642.17Lloyd, ‘Sheriffs of Mont.’, 195-6. Devereux’s grandfather was the youngest son of Walter Devereux, 1st Viscount Hereford, and had represented Tamworth in 1589.18HP Commons 1558-1603, ‘Edward Devereux’.

In contrast to his elder brother Walter, who rallied to Parliament, Devereux’s father, Sir George Devereux, sided with the king at the outbreak of civil war and was an active member of the Warwickshire commission of array.19Northants. RO, FH133; A. Hughes, Politics, Society and Civil War in Warws. 1620-60 (Cambridge, 1987), 142, 157, 159, 163. In September 1642, the Commons imprisoned him in King’s Bench for attending Charles at Coventry and supplying his army with two horses.20CJ ii. 760b; PJ iii. 346-7; CCAM 1412. Following his release on bail in mid-1643, Sir George was alleged to have resided in royalist-held Lichfield and Shrewsbury – although he was never formally charged with delinquency or obliged to compound for his estate.21Lloyd, ‘Sheriffs of Mont.’, 199; CCAM 1412; CCC 585, 3006-7. According to later gossip, ‘Sir George Devereux, though not sequestered, being charged for sending in two horses, pleaded that his unruly son took them out of his stable without his knowledge or consent and went to the king with them’.22Mems. of the Verney Fam. iii. 262. If George Devereux was the ‘unruly son’ referred to here, he was either misrepresented or his royalist fervour did not translate into other notable services in the king’s cause. He was considered sufficiently conformable to Parliament by February 1645 for the Lords – at the earl of Essex’s instigation – to recommend his appointment as a deputy lieutenant for Montgomeryshire, to which the Commons consented.23NLW, Wynnstay ms K2/3, item 75; LJ vii. 216b, 217a, 219b; CJ iv. 56b. In about July 1646, Devereux and Edward Vaughan* signed a petition from Montgomeryshire to Parliament, requesting the settlement of a ‘lawful magistracy’ in the county and the appointment of a new high sheriff in what was probably an attempt to challenge the power of the county committee and its allies among the soldiery.24NLW, Wynnstay ms K3/2, item 77.

Shortly after the earl of Essex’s death, in November 1646, a group of Montgomeryshire county committeemen and parliamentarian officers, among them Roger Pope*, had Devereux’s estate sequestered and his person committed a ‘close prisoner’ on charges that included raising money for the royalist war-effort, observing orders from the Oxford Parliament and for protecting delinquents. Edward Vaughan suffered a similar fate.25NLW, Wynnstay mss K2/3, items 16, 19, 29, 40, 52, 121; CJ v. 143b; HMC 2nd Rep. app. p. 67. The Montgomeryshire sub-committee of accounts, on the other hand, insisted in a letter to the Committee of Accounts in London that Devereux had remained loyal to Parliament throughout the war, had raised and maintained troops against the royalists, and that the earl of Essex had commissioned him as a colonel of foot.26NLW, Wynnstay ms K2/3, item 75. Likewise, the Montgomeryshire sequestration committee, of which Devereux was a member, objected to his imprisonment as ‘unjust and illegal’ and ‘tending to the destruction of the subject’s liberty’.27NLW, Wynnstay mss K2/3, items 16, 80-1.

Devereux was returned as a ‘recruiter’ for Montgomery Boroughs in April 1647.28C219/43/3/207. Radical elements in the army would allege a few months later that ‘malignants, neuters, knaves and fools like Devereux and his adherents of the junto faction [i.e. the Presbyterian grandees]’ had been recruited to the Commons as part of a conspiracy ‘to obstruct the good proceedings of pious and public spirited persons’ – that is, the army and its friends at Westminster.29Worc. Coll. Oxf. Clarke ms CX, f. 16. But there is little reason to suppose that any of the Presbyterian grandees was directly involved in securing Devereux’s return. His electoral patrons in Montgomeryshire were almost certainly members of his wife’s family, the Prices of Vaynor, or their friends. Nevertheless, his presence in the Commons was not welcomed by the Independent interest, for nine days after his election, on 15 April, when he had already ‘sat and voted’ in the House, Sir William Brereton and Sir Henry Mildmay were majority tellers in favour of his suspension from sitting until the ‘great and grievous charges’ against him had been investigated by a committee set up a few months earlier to examine similar accusations against Vaughan, who had been returned as a recruiter for Montgomeryshire. The minority tellers against Devereux’s suspension were the Presbyterian grandee Denzil Holles and Sir Edward Hungerford.30CJ v. 143b-144a. On 8 July, the investigation of the charges against Devereux and Vaughan was transferred to the committee for receiving complaints against MPs – a body used by the Independents to hound their political opponents – where it seems to have languished.31Supra, ‘John Bulkeley’; CJ v. 237b.

Devereux was absent (without leave) at the call of the House on 9 October 1647 and again on 24 April 1648, when his absence was excused.32CJ v. 330b, 543b. At the beginning of the second civil war, he and Vaughan signed a declaration from the well-affected of Montgomeryshire on 20 May, affirming their adherence to Parliament ‘according to our Covenant’ and their resolve to suppress all ‘tumults, insurrections and disorders’ in the county.33Rushworth, Hist. Collns. vii. 1126. Devereux was not listed among those Members secluded at Pride’s Purge that December – doubtless because he had observed the order suspending him from sitting, which remained in force.

Devereux enjoyed a brief political rehabilitation following the introduction of the new protectoral constitution, the Humble Petition and Advice, in 1657, securing appointment to the Montgomeryshire assessment commission and serving as the county’s sheriff in 1657-8. However, he was left out of local office in the decade or so after the Restoration – in contrast to his aged father, who was added to the midlands oyer and terminer commission.34C181/7, p. 16. Appointed to the Montgomeryshire bench in 1676, Devereux favoured showing leniency towards the Quakers.35Lloyd, ‘Sheriffs of Mont.’, 206-7.

Devereux died in the summer of 1683 and was buried at Berriew on 29 June.36Berriew par. reg. In his will, he divided the bulk of his estate – which he had augmented considerably with property purchased in Montgomeryshire – between his sons and grandsons. He charged his estate with legacies of £1,500.37PROB11/377, ff. 296-302. His grandson Price Devereux†, who succeeded him at Vaynor, represented Montgomery Boroughs between 1691 and 1700.38HP Commons 1690-1715.