SAYER, John (c.1589-1658), of Bourchiers Hall, Aldham, Essex.

The Sayer family had lived in Essex since at least the fourteenth century.17Morant, Essex, ii. 199; W. Addison, Essex Worthies (Chichester, 1973), 164. By the sixteenth century they had settled in Colchester and, during the lifetime of this MP’s great-grandfather, George Sayer† (d.1577), they were the wealthiest and most godly family in the town.18L.M. Higgs, Godliness and Governance in Tudor Colchester (Ann Arbor, Mich. 1998), 112, 193. Towards the end of his life, George Sayer bought Bourchiers Hall at Aldham, several miles outside the town, and so completed their transformation from Colchester merchants into a gentry family of modest rank.19Morant, Essex, ii. 199.

John Sayer’s father, a knight from 1607, had married well, for his wife Dorothy Heigham was a member of a prominent family in the neighbouring county. By 1613 and for a number of years thereafter John was serving as captain of the militia regiment which was raised in Colchester. In 1620, towards the end of his time in this office, he reported that the inhabitants of Colchester would oppose any attempt to hold musters of his troop outside the town.20Maynard Lieut. Bk. 28-54. Otherwise he seems to have held no local office until the 1640s. Following the death of his father in 1631, he inherited the family estates.21PROB11/159/570. Almost immediately he was forced to sell some of those properties to rationalise the family finances. Lands at Stanway had to be mortgaged to raise £3,168 in 1632 and the manor of Motts on the outskirts of Colchester was sold off in 1634.22Essex RO, D/Dge/460; D/DJ 20/3; VCH Essex, ix. 395. His eldest son, George, thought it necessary to seek a fortune elsewhere. Born in about 1615, he was knighted by the king in 1640, served as master of the horse to the elector palatine and married a daughter of the grand chamberlain of Moravia.23Al. Cant.; Essex RO, D/DCm/Z19, p. 154b.

The crisis of the early 1640s gave Sayer the sort of role in local government which he had hitherto lacked. In July 1641 he was added to the Essex commission of the peace. In September the following year Parliament named him as one of the deputy lieutenants for the county, presumably, in part, because of his militia experience over 20 years earlier.24C231/5, p. 459; LJ v. 354b. Before long Parliament was also appointing him to the assessment commissions and to the committee for the sequestration of delinquents.25A. and O. Lord Grey of Warke (Sir William Grey†) included him as one of the commissioners for the Eastern Association.26Suff. ed. Everitt, 52. It was his appointment as deputy lieutenant which was probably the most important of these offices.27Eg. 2646, f. 283; HMC 7th Rep. 555, 560, 561, 564. The role which he seems to have found for himself was as the man who kept up a constant pressure on the corporation of Colchester to ensure that they met in their entirety their obligations to supply of men, horses, arms and ammunition. He and his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Honywood* spent much of late 1642 and most of 1643 writing to the mayor of Colchester with yet more demands.28Essex RO, D/Y 2/7, p. 73; D/Y 2/9, pp. 81-123; D/Y 2/8, p. 59; HMC 7th Rep. 557, 564. Remarkably Sayer seems to have been able to mobilise the town’s full military potential while remaining on good terms with its leading citizens. His involvement in the civic affairs of Colchester was greater than ever. He had also retained some land within its wall.29Essex RO, D/Y 2/9, p. 125.

This close working relationship with the corporation helps explain why Sayer was chosen in October 1645 to fill the vacancy as MP for Colchester which had been created by the death of Sir Thomas Barrington* the previous year. Just how healthy he was at this time is uncertain as only months before he had thought it necessary to compile his will, and there is some evidence that his time as an MP would be interrupted by illness.30PROB11/287/442; CJ v. 560b. On the day of the election Ralph Josselin, the vicar of Earls Colne, sought Sayer’s support ‘in his activeness for the public good’ over his dispute with some of the other local officials.31Josselin, Diary, 48.

Sayer was never very prominent during the three years he spent as an MP. Much of his known work at Westminster was very routine and was often interrupted by extended periods of leave. During the first two years in which he was a Member he was appointed to only eight committees, although these did include the Committee for Plundered Ministers and the committee of privileges.32CJ iv. 365a, 545b, 555b, 653a, v. 14b, 134a, 166a, 205a. In October 1646 he was able to use his position on the Committee for Plundered Ministers to obtain financial assistance for Josselin.33Josselin, Diary, 74. He seems to have taken an interest in 1647 in the question of indemnity, being named to the committee to consider the bill on that subject (7 May) and being added to the committee to receive information on other MPs after the question of their wartime records was referred to it (10 June).34CJ v. 166a, 205a. He was granted permission on 8 July 1647 to go into the country and he was still absent when the House was called the following October.35CJ v. 236b, 329b. It therefore seems likely that he was absent from London throughout the crisis of that summer, although it is possible that his sympathies lay with the army, for his name appears on one of the lists of those Members who took refuge with Sir Thomas Fairfax* and his men following the Presbyterian coup at Westminster of late July.36HMC Egmont, i. 440.

Sayer was granted a further six weeks of leave that December, which the Commons then turned to their advantage by appointing him as one of the commissioners who were to encourage the assessment collections in Essex.37CJ v. 374b, 400b. His next visit to London may not have take place until the spring. He seems to have been back in the Commons by late April 1648 and on 2 May he carried to the Lords the resolution appointing Robert Bourne as the new sheriff for Essex. He was also an obvious person to include on the committee appointed on 3 May to write to Edward Whalley* and Sir Thomas Honywood* about the recent riots at Colchester.38CJ v. 550a, 551b; LJ x. 243a. Those riots were a small local problem compared to the rebellion which would overrun Essex within weeks. During its eleven-week siege Sayer’s constituency was the focus of national attention. His whereabouts during that these events are unrecorded. On 16 May, three weeks before the rebellion broke out in Essex, he had been granted leave of absence on the grounds of ill-health. This time his absence probably took him closer to the action; Aldham would have been in a war zone for the duration of the siege. He was well enough that autumn to return to Westminster, supporting measures to increase the security around Parliament and to sequester any Essex delinquents.39CJ vi. 47a, 67a. In the aftermath of the purge of the Commons on 6 December 1648 he made no attempt to seek readmission to the House.40Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 385.

Thereafter he more or less withdrew from public life. His removal from most of the local commissions indicates that he was not thought to be sympathetic to the new regime, although he would be restored to the commission of the peace shortly before his death. He probably spent the remaining years of his life in retirement at Aldham. His main concern now may have been money. The will which he had compiled in May 1645 confirms the impression of continuing financial difficulties. He was forced to make provision for the sale of more lands to pay off debts and all he could afford as a bequest for his wife were his coach and horses, ‘being heartily sorry the weakness of my estate will not suffer me better to show the largeness of my affection’.41PROB11/287/442. In the event the will was not required until 1658. He almost but not quite managed to outlive Oliver Cromwell*. He had, however, managed to outlive both his sons.42Essex RO, D/P 208/1/1, unf.; D/DCm/Z19, p. 154b; RCHME Essex, iii. 2. Bourchiers Hall was therefore inherited by his only granddaughter, Esther, daughter of his late son, Sir George. She married Sir John Marsham† and so, after her death in 1716, the Sayer lands passed to the Marsham family.43Morant, Essex, ii. 200.