ODINGSELLS, John (1577-1655), of Epperstone, Notts.

The Nottinghamshire Odingsells were descended from a gentry family that had settled in Warwickshire by the thirteenth century.22Vis. Notts. ed. Marshall, 75-6. It is not entirely clear which member of the family – John Odingsells senior or junior – represented Nottinghamshire in the Nominated Parliament. The likeliest candidate, despite his advanced age, is Odingsells senior, who had been named to numerous local commissions in the Nottinghamshire region since the Jacobean period. He was a signatory to the indenture returning Sir Thomas Hutchinson and Robert Sutton (his nephew) to the Short Parliament in March 1640 and again to the Long Parliament in November.23C219/42/1/167; C219/43/2/76. In July 1642, he signed a letter from a group of Nottinghamshire gentlemen – mostly future royalists – to Hutchinson and Sutton, declaring that the surest way to enjoy the benefit of the ‘known laws ... is to join and comply with his Majesty’.24Thoroton, Notts. ii. 52-4. He took no known part in the civil war, but evidently retained the trust of the parliamentarian authorities, for in March 1648 he and Odingsells junior were appointed to the Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire assessment commissions respectively.25A. and O. i. 1112, 1113. One of his daughters had married a brother of Edward Cludd, who was also selected to represent Nottinghamshire in the Nominated Parliament.26Abstracts of Notts. Marr. Lics. (British Rec. Soc. lviii), 79; Vis. Notts. 1662-4, 43, 105.

John Odingsells junior had received a gentleman’s education at Cambridge and Gray’s Inn.27Al. Cant.; G. Inn Admiss. 169. He had married into a Yorkshire family and established his main residence at Rest Park in the parish of Sherburn in Elmet, near Pontefract.28Vis. Notts. 1662-4, 105; PROB11/246, f. 385; C6/130/124. Through his marriage, he became associated with a group of Yorkshire parliamentarians that included Sir William Constable* and John Anlaby*.29CJ iii. 263b; CSP Dom. 1650-1, p. 4. By the early 1650s, he was a Yorkshire justice of the peace and sequestrations commissioner (his brother Gabriel was a sequestrations commissioner for Nottinghamshire).30CCC 171. He died intestate at Tanshelf, Pontefract, in about 1669.31Index of Wills, Admons. and Probate Acts in the York Registry ed. E. W. Crossley (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. lx), 157.

Whether it was Odingsells senior or junior who attended the Nominated Parliament, he received just one appointment – to the committee for Scottish affairs set up on 20 July.32CJ vii. 286b. The case for thinking that it was the elder Odingsells who was the MP is strengthened by the appointment of one of the two men as an ejector for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in 1654.33A. and O. ii. 970. The elder Odingsells had stronger connections with this region than his son, whose main centre of activity was Yorkshire. Assuming that it was Odingsells senior who was the ejector, this appointment suggests that he was regarded as a man of godly convictions – which may help to explain his selection as a Member of the Nominated Parliament. However, given the family’s relative obscurity it is difficult to see why either Odingsells senior or junior would have been an obvious candidate to represent Nottinghamshire in any Parliament.

Odingsells senior died on 10 July 1655 and was buried in Epperstone church on 13 July.34MI Epperstone; Epperstone par. reg. In his will, he charged his estate with bequests in excess of £700.35PROB11/246, ff. 384-5. He was the first and last of his line to sit in Parliament.