NELTHORPE, John (1614-1669), of Glanford Brigg, Scawby, Lincs., and Gray’s Inn, Mdx.

The identity of John Nelthorpe MP is impossible to establish with absolute certainty. He was probably the John Nelthorpe who belonged to the senior branch of a family that had settled near Beverley, in Yorkshire, by the 1570s. His father, Richard Nelthorpe of Glanford Brigg, in Lincolnshire, built up an extensive estate in the north of that county, including the manor and rectory of Scawby, while retaining a considerable amount of property in Beverley.19Henthorn, Brigg Grammar School, 1-3. His will, written in 1640, featured a lengthy preface in which he described himself as ‘a most wretched, detestable and vile sinner, leading my lingering and wearisome life fully fraught with many miseries as slothfulness, idleness, hastiness … and chasing at trifles, abounding with all covetous concupiscence’. His will also revealed that he numbered the godly Lincolnshire knight and future parliamentarian Sir Edward Ayscoghe* among his friends.20Supra, ‘Sir Edward Ayscoghe’; PROB11/183, ff. 48-9. John Nelthorpe and his cousin and namesake – a scion of the Beverley, and junior, branch of the family – were both admitted to St John’s, Cambridge in 1631 and to Gray’s Inn in 1634.21Al. Cant.; G. Inn Admiss. John Nelthorpe of Glanford Brigg was almost certainly the man of that name who was made a barrister at Gray’s Inn in 1641.22PBG Inn. 342. In the 1660s, he would be described as ‘counsellor at law of Gray’s Inn’.23SP29/149/1, f. 2.

The established view that John Nelthorpe of Glanford Brigg, the probable future MP, was also the John Nelthorpe who served as a lieutenant and captain in the Eastern Association Army, as a captain and adjutant-general in the New Model army under Colonel Edward Rosseter* and Colonel Philip Twisleton, and as a major under Colonel Matthew Alured* in the 1650s is evidently incorrect.24Henthorn, Brigg Grammar School, 4. Although Captain Nelthorpe sometimes styled himself of Gray’s Inn, his principal residences during the 1650s were Utterby Grange, Lincolnshire, and Enfield and Willesden, Middlesex. Moreover, in contrast to John Nelthorpe of Glanford Brigg, who remained a bachelor, Captain Nelthorpe married a daughter of the Cromwellian grandee Sir William Roberts* of Willesden and was still living in 1672 – three years after the death of his barrister namesake.25C54/3977/11; CRES6/2, pp. 123-4; Lincs. RO, LCL/3463, 3465, 3476; CCC 2356; Misc. Gen. et Her. n.s. iii. 28. Establishing the identity of Captain John Nelthorpe is also problematic, but he was probably the above-mentioned cousin and namesake of John Nelthorpe of Glanford Brigg and the elder brother of James Nelthorpe of Beverley – the man with whom John Nelthorpe of Glanford Brigg was returned for the town in 1645. Regardless of his true identity, it is clear that Captain Nelthorpe was not the man elected in 1645. John Nelthorpe the MP was invariably styled ‘Mr’ by the clerks of the Commons and Lords, not captain, and was secluded at Pride’s Purge – a fate that would not have befallen a man such as Captain Nelthorpe, who purchased large amounts of sequestered crown and church land for himself and as an attorney for third parties, served in the army during the 1650s and enjoyed the patronage of Alured, an ardent republican.26CJ vii. 246b, 698b, 748b, 809b, 817b; E121/3/4/87; C54/3397/1; C54/3419/3; SP28/142, f. 22; SP28/288, ff. 2, 6, 8, 9, 13; SP46/128, ff. 68, 78; C7/449/57; CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 239; A Further Narrative of the Passages of These Times in the Common-Wealth (1658), 51-2; S. J. Madge, Domesday of Crown Lands, 205, 219, 224, 243, 348, 386, 388, 391, 394, 395; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 159, 164, 194, 195; Abbott, Writings and Speeches, ii. 439.

John and James Nelthorpe were returned for Beverley as ‘recruiters’ in September 1645. John Nelthorpe probably owed his election to his family’s proprietorial interest in Beverley, to his perceived usefulness to the borough as a Gray’s Inn barrister, and perhaps also to oblige his cousin James, who was one of the town’s aldermen and probably its most influential inhabitant by the mid-1640s.27Supra, ‘Beverley’; infra, ‘James Nelthorpe’. Nelthorpe was reportedly sitting in the House by 19 November, but his first recorded action at Westminster was on 31 December, when he and his cousin James took the Covenant.28Perfect Occurrences no. 48 (14-21 Nov. 1645), sig. Bb4v (E.266.20); CJ iv. 393a. Although the two cousins were evidently active in the House, the clerk of the Commons’ apparent tendency to refer to both men simply as ‘Mr Nelthorpe’ makes it impossible to catalogue their activities and appointments with any precision.

During the three years or so after taking his seat – that is, until Pride’s Purge in December 1648 – John Nelthorpe was named to somewhere between four and 42 committees (James was named to somewhere between six and 42);29CJ iv. 618a; 701a; v. 14b, 17b. and during that same period, ‘Mr Nelthorpe’ served as a teller in two minor divisions and was twice appointed a messenger to the Lords.30CJ v. 12a, 502b, 625a, 667b. John Nelthorpe was granted leave on 13 March and 21 August 1647 and declared absent at the call of the House on 9 October of that year, whereas James was granted leave on five occasions and declared absent at the call of the House in both 1647 and 1648.31Supra, ‘James Nelthorpe’; CJ v. 111a, 281a, 330a. John is known to have reported from the House’s Northern Association Committee* in July 1648, and he may therefore have been the ‘Mr Nelthorpe’ who made regular reports from this committee during the later 1640s.32LJ x. 423a; CJ iv. 528a, 565b, 566a; v. 281a, 595a, 653b; vi. 26b. And given his status as a barrister, he was probably the man who was named to committees for regulating chancery and other courts of law, for giving greater legal force to measures for compounding with royalists and indemnifying parliamentary and other public officials, and to prepare instructions for the judges on the assize circuits.33CJ iv. 637b, 694b, 701a, 701b, 708a; v. 8b, 60a, 87a, 220b, 447b. Similarly, in light of his subsequent seclusion at Pride’s Purge, he may have been the ‘Mr Nelthorpe’ who served as a teller with the Presbyterian-leaning John Boys on 12 December 1646 against releasing a royalist prisoner comprehended in the Oxford Articles. The defeated tellers were the prominent Independents Oliver Cromwell and William Purefoy I.34CJ v. 12a.

In March 1647, the Lords attempted to implement a recommendation from the Committee for Revenue that John Nelthorpe MP be appointed steward of the manors of Barrow and Barton, Lincolnshire, in place of the recently deceased John Broxolme*, but the Commons failed to give its concurrence in the matter.35LJ ix. 103b; CJ v. 128a. Nelthorpe had inherited or acquired lands in both Barrow and Barton, some of which had been leased from Broxolme.36PROB11/183, f. 48v; C142/594/61; Lincs. RO, NEL/4/3/10-11. The fact that Captain Nelthorpe purchased these manors (and much other property besides) from the trustees for the sale of crown lands in the 1650s has reinforced the mistaken impression he was the MP.37C54/3977/11; H. J. Habakkuk, ‘The parliamentary army and the crown lands’, WHR iii. 404-5, 406, 408, 413-14.

At least one of the Nelthorpes – probably John – continued to attend the Commons during the Presbyterian ‘counter revolution’ of late July and early August 1647; neither man is known to have signed the ‘engagement’ of those Members who took refuge with the army.38CJ v. 265a. And it may have been John who was appointed in April and May 1648 to request the Presbyterian divine Anthony Burgess to preach the next fast sermon and to thank him for his pains afterwards. It was certainly John who would be employed in these roles in July and August with respect to another Presbyterian divine, Samuel Bolton.39CJ v. 545b, 580a, 647a, 692b. Nelthorpe reported from the Northern Association Committee in June and July 1648 concerning the arrears of the reduced officers who had served under Ferdinando 2nd Lord Fairfax*, and it may therefore have been John rather than James who was added to Sir Thomas Dacres’ committee for considering petitions from reduced officers (10 July).40CJ v. 595a, 631a, 653b; LJ x. 423a. Again, it was probably John, as a Lincolnshire man, who was ordered by the House on 7 July to prepare an ordinance for raising money and men for the defence of that county.41CJ v. 626b.

Nelthorpe was among those Members secluded at Pride’s Purge – in contrast to his cousin James, who was an active member of the Rump – and in 1650 he was omitted from the Lincolnshire assessment commission.42Supra, ‘James Nelthorpe’; [W. Prynne*], A Vindication of the Imprisoned and Secluded Members (1649), 29 (E.539.5). There is no evidence that he sought election to any of the Cromwellian Parliaments or was active in public affairs during the protectorate. Following the second restoration of the Rump, late in December 1659, Nelthorpe and 20 or so other secluded Members turned up at Westminster and sought to take their seats, only to be turned away by the army.43W. Prynne, A Brief Narrative of the Manner how Divers [Secluded] Members of the House of Commons...were again Forcibly Shut Out (1659), 3 (E.1011.4).

Nelthorpe returned to the House following the re-admission of the secluded Members on 21 February 1660 and was named to at least three committees in the last weeks of the Long Parliament. He was evidently a leading member of the committee set up on 22 February to determine the qualifications for Members to sit in the Convention, for he reported from this body on 24 February.44CJ vii. 847b, 848b, 851b, 857a, 860b, 868b, 873b. Writing in support of Nelthorpe’s successful suit in 1666 for a baronetcy, Sir William Pulteney† and Sir William Roberts† (Captain Nelthorpe’s brother-in-law) insisted that he had been ‘very active’ in securing Charles II’s restoration and that he had never borne arms against Charles I – further evidence that Sir John Nelthorpe should not be confused with Captain Nelthorpe, who would almost certainly have fought at the battles of Naseby (1645) and Preston (1648).45SP29/149/1, ff. 1, 2; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 164, 165. Roberts’ involvement here suggests that Sir John and Captain Nelthorpe were on reasonably friendly terms. But Sir John was much closer by the mid-1660s to another north Lincolnshire gentleman and political Presbyterian, Edward Rosseter* – although the fact that Captain Nelthorpe served under Rosseter in the 1640s has helped to sustain the illusion that he and Sir John were one and the same man.46Infra, ‘Edward Rosseter’; Vis. Lincs. ed. A. Gibbons, 120; Henthorn, Brigg Grammar School, 4-5, 50, 164. Nelthorpe’s friends by the late 1660s also included the Lincolnshire civil-war parliamentarian Thomas Lister*.47Vis. Lincs. ed. Gibbons, 28.

Nelthorpe died at some point between 13 September and 5 October 1669.48PROB11/331, f. 91v. According to one authority, he was buried at St James, Clerkenwell, but there is no entry to this effect in the parish register.49CB; Henthorn, Brigg Grammar School, 5. In his will, Nelthorpe settled many of his properties upon four trustees, among them George Lord Eure*, for the endowment of a school at Glanford Brigg – which has survived to the present day. Having never married and dying childless, he left the remainder of his estate to his nephew Goddard Nelthorpe, who succeeded to the baronetcy. Sir John charged his estate with bequests totalling approximately £1,600 and annuities of £45.50Henthorn, Brigg Grammar School, 159-65. His legatees included the son of ‘my deceased friend’, the episcopalian divine Edward Corbett, who had referred in his own will of 1658 to ‘my good friend John Nelthorpe of Gray’s Inn’.51PROB11/273, f. 45v; Henthorn, Brigg Grammar School, 164; Oxford DNB, ‘Edward Corbett’. Nelthorpe was the first and last of his line to sit in Parliament.