WEST, Robert (c.1624-84), of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Over, Cambs.

The Wests of Over were a minor Cambridgeshire family whose claims to gentility derived more from their clerical and academic careers than from any landholdings. The Robert West who married Ellen Musgrave at Over in 1584 was probably this MP’s grandfather.16Over par. reg. More certainly, the MP’s father, John West, married Sarah Hatley there in 1620. He and his new wife settled at Langton in Lincolnshire after he was appointed rector of the local church in 1622.17Over par. reg.; Al. Cant. Their second son, Robert, was born at Langton soon after.18Cambs. RO, C34, f. 3v; MIs Cambs. 132.

Robert West was admitted as a student at his father’s old Cambridge college, Trinity, in 1639.19Al. Cant.; Admissions to Trinity Coll. ii. 368. As such, he took the Protestation two years later.20Protestation Returns for Cambs. ed. P. Palgrave (Cambridge, 2004), 35. Although, as an undergraduate, he was exempt from military service, Trinity College was hardly a haven from the disruptions of the civil war. The college was used by the Cambridge committee of the Eastern Association as its headquarters and 49 of the fellows were ejected during the visitation of Edward Montagu, 2nd earl of Manchester, in 1644 and 1645. By the time West was himself elected as a fellow in 1647 the college was recovering from these upheavals, but the fellowship he joined was very much the direct creation of the parliamentarian visitors. Most of his colleagues owed their jobs to their willingness to support Parliament. From 1650 onwards West served as tutor to at least 11 undergraduates, including his brother, Willoughby West, Thomas Bainbridge (a future vice-master of the college) and William Corker, all three of whom went on to become fellows.21Admissions to Trinity Coll. ii. pp. vii, 407, 409, 411, 413, 415-16, 426. He was probably relieved of these teaching duties in 1653 when he took over as senior bursar and thus assumed responsibility for the management of the college’s estates.22Trinity College, Cambridge, senior bursar’s audit bk. 1637-59, ff. 248-298.

It was rare in this period for dons without outside commitments to become involved in local administration. West’s appointment as an assessment commissioner for Cambridge in November 1650 seems, at first sight, something of a mystery.23A. and O. The explanation almost certainly lies in his kinship with John Disbrowe*, whose mother, like West’s, was one of the Hatleys of Over. As yet, this was West’s only local office, and it brought little honour and much unpopularity, although the skills he would need as bursar would have served him well as a tax collector. Disbrowe’s backing must also be the key to West’s election to Parliament in 1656. The same forces which had ensured that all four county seats for Cambridgeshire had gone to strong supporters of the protectorate in 1654 combined again in 1656 to repeat that success. With no candidates opposing them, Sir Francis Russell*, Robert Castell* and Henry Pickering* were all elected again for their old seats. As Disbrowe, the other MP elected in 1654, had plenty of offers of other seats elsewhere, he probably deployed his personal interest instead to nominate West, although the latter’s election may also have been intended as a token gesture towards the university interest.

Unlike most first-time MPs, West made an immediate impact in Parliament, helped by his guide in the ways of Westminster. Thomas Burton* mentions that he met West twice in December 1656, both times in the company of Disbrowe.24Burton’s Diary, i. 107, 332-3. Within days of the opening of the new session, West was named to the committee for Irish affairs, and by the end of that year he had been named to a further 11 committees.25CJ vii. 427a, 428a, 429b, 438a, 442b, 444a, 445b, 446a, 450a, 454b, 472b, 477b. One in which he clearly took a particular interest was the committee for trade, for he attended two of its meetings in December 1656 to support the clothworkers in their dispute with the Merchant Adventurers and acted as chairman of its sub-committee which met on 23 December to consider schemes for, among other things, the improvement of tanning.26Burton’s Diary, i. 175, 221, 227-8. Whenever religious or moral issues were under discussion in the Commons, West remained firmly level-headed. His one intervention in the debates about James Naylor was to warn against getting bogged down in irrelevant side-issues. Unlike some of his colleagues, he saw little point in disputing as a breach of privilege the lord protector’s request on 26 December to be supplied with their reasons for condemning Naylor. There were more important matters requiring their attention.27Burton’s Diary, i. 250. He viewed the proposed bill against gaming and betting as an insufferable infringement of subjects’ liberties and he pursued an effective line of argument against it when he pointed out that it would criminalise bowling, even though the protector himself was known, on occasion, to play the game.28Burton’s Diary, i. 229. There may be a link here with the amendment to the excise bill which he and Lambarde Godfrey* proposed on 8 January 1657 restricting the rights of excise officers to enter private houses, for this was one of the classic issues of concern to those worried about state interference in the private lives of the subject.29Burton’s Diary, ii. 329. Similar concerns seem to have lain behind his suggestion on 9 June that postal officials be prevented from requisitioning horses without their owners’ consent.30Burton’s Diary, ii. 202.

Whether the same is true of his interventions in the debate on 20 June 1657 on the bill to protect the sabbath is less clear. His comments appear to have been directed against sloppy drafting and need not indicate that he disapproved of the bill in principle, but they do hint that he might have thought some of its provisions to have been needlessly proscriptive.31Burton’s Diary, ii. 264-5. His role as a teller in the division on 18 March concerning what became the eleventh clause of the Humble Petition and Advice indicates that he wanted the proposed ‘confession of faith’ to be ‘recommended’ as well as ‘held forth’ to ‘the people of these nations’.32CJ vii. 507a. That could mean that he did not want it to be binding. His support for recent religious upheavals may also be revealed by his one other tellership. In acting for the yeas in the vote on 17 June, he probably favoured restricting the number of ejected clergymen who would be entitled to compensation under the Act to confirm the replacement incumbents in their clerical livings.33CJ vii. 560a. Meanwhile, he had been part of the delegation appointed on 27 March to attend on Cromwell in order to arrange the audience at which the first version of the Petition and Advice was presented.34CJ vii. 514a. Unlike Disbrowe, he is said to have supported the offer of the crown to Cromwell.35A Narrative of the late Parliament (so called) (1657), 22 (E.935.5).

During discussion of the assessment bills in June 1657, West really came into his own as a parliamentary debater. He displayed a knowledge of the subject beyond that of most men whose single claim to expertise in the matter was several years’ service as an assessment commissioner. His principal concern was that the distribution of the assessment between different parts of the country should be adjusted to make it more equitable. He first voiced this view after Christopher Packe* moved on 10 June 1657 that London’s contribution be reduced. West thought it best that the whole question be referred to a grand committee, but this immediately ran in to opposition as being too time-consuming. The suggestion that Ireland’s contribution also be reduced reinforced his fears and he therefore supported Robert Shapcote’s proposal that the total English contribution be limited to £35,000 per month. He was more sympathetic to the Scots, agreeing that they should pay £5,000, although it was the alternative figure of £6,000 which carried the day. Later in the debate he agreed with Shapcote that the Ship Money proportions should be used to allocate the burden to fall on individual counties, for he had ‘talked with many persons that understood Ship Money that say it was very equal’.36Burton’s Diary, ii. 208-9, 213-14, 218. On this occasion, West and Disbrowe adopted different stances, for Disbrowe had opposed West’s suggestion that it all be referred to a grand committee.37Burton’s Diary, ii. 208. But Disbrowe had another idea in reserve and, when he floated it two days later, West was quick to support it. Disbrowe’s proposal was simply that a rate of 6d in the pound be imposed on everyone across the country, and West, for good measure and to ensure that there would be no shortfall in the yield, further proposed that the rate of 6d should also be imposed on every £20 in goods. It was West who later moved that the motion concerning Disbrowe’s proposal be put first.38Burton’s Diary, ii. 230, 235. In the event, the Commons voted to leave the method of assessment unaltered. The following day West was appalled when the lord deputy, Henry Cromwell*, successfully moved that the Irish assessments be reduced. He again appealed to the Commons to consider the plight of the English counties.39Burton’s Diary, ii. 246. In these debates West perhaps displayed the obsessiveness which often characterises those with an interest in tax reform, but the defects in the existing system were real enough and the concerns he expressed were probably shared by the bulk of his constituents.

Appropriately enough, these debates coincided with West’s promotion to the assessment commissions for Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. This was not so much due to his newly established reputation as someone with an interest in the subject, as that, because he was now the local MP, he could hardly be omitted. Similarly, he was also added to the Cambridgeshire commission of the peace, and, late in 1657, to the Lincolnshire and to the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire commissions for ejecting scandalous ministers.40A. and O.; CSP Dom. 1657-8, p. 186; SP25/78, p. 334. Local positions which were sometimes seen as essential prerequisites for those aspiring to Parliament were now granted to West as a consequence of his having already been elected. The revival of the old franchises effectively ruled out West’s chances of election to the Parliament called by Richard Cromwell* for 1659. There is no evidence that he made any attempt to stand again. Hopes of further benefiting from Disbrowe’s patronage could not survive the events of 1660. By then, Disbrowe was ruined and without him West had little independent standing, even in Cambridgeshire.

Just when West ceased to hold his Trinity fellowship is unclear. He may have kept it until the Restoration, in which case, (like his brother Willoughby) he presumably resigned from it rather than conform to the new regime. However, the final reference to him in the college accounts dates from 1658, suggesting that he may have surrendered his position at about that time.41Innes, Fellows of Trinity Coll. 33. Perhaps he gave up his academic career in order to marry. His first wife, Mary, gave birth to a daughter in December 1661.42Over par. reg.

West was hardly destitute. A house at Langton had been presented to him by his father, probably at about the time he came of age. Moreover, John West had retained some lands at Over, and, at some point before 1652, he sold them to Robert for at least £100.43PROB11/235/655. Over now became his principal residence. On the death of his mother in 1667 he also inherited parts of her dower estates.44PROB11/235/655; Over par. reg. West’s first marriage was cut short by Mary West’s death in January 1662, but he married Sarah Butler three years later and, in time, the couple had a son.45Over par. reg.; Cambs. Par. Regs. v. 96. West spent the final two decades of his life living quietly at Over, and it was in the church there that, at his own request, he was buried when he died in March 1684.46MIs Cambs. 132; Over par. reg. Most of his lands, at Over and elsewhere, were bequeathed to his young son, John, whose education he instructed should be supervised by his former pupil William Corker and by James Disbrowe, son of Samuel Disbrowe* and nephew of John. He made other bequests to members of the family, including an annual clothing allowance of 40s to his brother, Samuel, who had emigrated to Carolina.47Cambs. RO, C34, f. 3v. None of West’s descendants sat in Parliament.