LLOYDE, Griffith (by 1618-82), of St Ives and Hemingford Grey, Hunts.

Lloyde was a native of Llandeilo Talybont, Glamorgan. His epitaph identifies his parents (in Latin) as ‘Maurice Lloyde’ and ‘Elizabeth Williams or Conway’ of Glamorgan.16Acct. ed. McGrane, 354n. His will would mention several family members, including a nephew, William Lloyde of Llandeilo Talybont, son of his brother, Walter Lloyde, as well as another brother, John, and a sister, Katherine, wife of Peter Kingesea.17Acct. ed. McGrane, 349, 350, 358. Their father was therefore probably the ‘Morise Lloyd gent’ who was living at Llandeilo Talybont in 1634.18Names of all the freeholders…in the co. of Glamorgan, ed. H.H. Knight (1849), 6. Griffith was presumably one of his younger sons. He had already been born by the time his grandfather, William Lloyd of Talybont, made his will in late 1618, although, as Lloyde’s epitaph would state that he was aged 62 when he died in 1682, he is unlikely to have been more than an infant.19NLW, SD/1619/49; Acct. ed. K. McGrane, 353-4n. Later in the century Lloyde’s nephew, William, would be the largest landowner at Llandeilo Talybont.20Glam. Hearth Tax 1670, ed. E. Parkinson (S. Wales Rec. Soc. x), 105. The family’s status as minor Glamorgan gentry had probably been much the same earlier in the century.

Lloyde was only in his mid-twenties when the civil war broke out in 1642. He joined the parliamentarian army and, like many, found that this was a path to social mobility. By June 1643, when he received the troop’s monthly pay, he was serving under Captain Robert Nelson.21SP28/7, f. 331. Later that year Thomas Harrison I joined Charles Fleetwood’s regiment of horse as a captain and by January 1644 Lloyde was serving in Harrison’s troop.22SP28/12, f. 330; SP28/14, f. 275. He was probably not the ‘Griffith Lloyd’ who sued Anthony Morgan* in chancery over a bond for £4,000 and who appealed to the House of Lords in December 1646.23PA, HL/PO/JO/10/1/220, ff. 182-3; LJ viii. 615b, x. 18a; CJ vi. 201b.

By March 1647 Lloyde had been promoted to lieutenant.24LJ ix. 115a. He was then present at the meetings of the army officers at Saffron Walden on 21 and 22 March to meet with the delegation from the Committee for Irish Affairs seeking recruits to serve in Ireland.25LJ ix. 112b, 113a. Most of those attending responded with a petition seeking assurances about future pay and past arrears. Lloyde was among its promoters and several days later he approached some soldiers in the regiment of Edward Rosseter* seeking signatures.26LJ ix. 115a. This was doubtless why on 29 March he was ordered by the Commons to appear before them.27CJ v. 129a. He also signed the subsequent petition from the army officers presented to Parliament on 27 April defending the original petition.28The Petition and Vindication of the Officers of the Armie (1647, E.385.19). One source implied that he and William Goffe* were among the officers who remained most sceptical of Parliament’s assurances.29Clarke Pprs. i. 25. When in June of that year Major Philip Twisleton queried the decision by some of his men to accompany the king on his abduction from Holdenby to Newmarket, Sir Thomas Fairfax* sent Lloyde to Twisleton with orders that he and his remaining men were also to join up with the rest of the army. Fairfax’s letter to Twisleton described Lloyde, who was to explain the army’s actions, as ‘a faithful man and one well-known unto you’.30Clarke Pprs. i. 129.

When rioting broke out at Norwich on 24 April 1648, Lloyde and his men were among the troops then stationed in Norfolk who were sent to restore order. They did so by charging on the rioters.31Rushworth, Hist. Collns., vii. 1072; A true Relation of The late great Mutiny (1648), 3 (E.438.6). In 1650 Lloyde took part with Fleetwood in the Scottish campaign and was ‘sorely wounded’ at Dunbar.32Original Mems., written during the Great Civil War (Edinburgh, 1806), 279. In May 1653 he was a signatory to the letter from the council of officers to Fleetwood in Ireland explaining the change of government after the dissolution of the Rump.33The Fifth Monarchy, or Kingdom of Christ (1659), 24 (E.993.31). By 1656 his troop was stationed at Dumfries.34G. Davies, ‘The quarters of the English army in Scotland’, SHR xxi., 64. Service in Fleetwood’s regiment created a close bond between the two men. One person who viewed Lloyde as being particularly attached to Fleetwood was Oliver Cromwell*. In November 1655 the lord protector denied to Jerome Sankey* that he intended to recall Fleetwood from Ireland, but complained that Fleetwood’s friends, William Stane*, Hezekiah Haynes* and Lloyde, had made sure that Cromwell knew how much his absence in Ireland was costing Fleetwood.35Corresp. of Henry Cromwell, 77.

The sale of crown lands, authorised by Parliament in 1649, gave the soldiers the opportunity to buy lands in lieu of their arrears. Lloyde was one of those soldiers who acted as attorneys for the soldiers, which, in his case, were usually his colleagues in Fleetwood’s regiment.36SP 28/142, ff. 28-29. Their first purchase was made in April 1650 when they were allocated the royal manor of Woodstock in Oxfordshire, as well as an extensive rabbit warren at Methwold in Norfolk. These lands were valued at £17,894 19s 9d.37E320/ZZ23A-23B. Five months later they bought Enfield Old Park.38Madge, Domesday of Crown Lands, 240n, 243. The sales of the lands in Oxfordshire and Norfolk were however not finalised until April 1642, at which point those at Methwold were instead transferred to Fleetwood, who presumably compensated his officers accordingly.39E304/8/ZZ23A-23B; VCH Oxon. xii. 433. One effect of the Woodstock purchase was that, for some purposes, government officials began to regard Lloyde as being an Oxfordshire resident. Thus, in late 1655 he was among those men appointed by the Treasury commissioners to report on the state of Wychwood Forest.40CSP Dom. 1655-6, pp. 306-7. The following year he was added to the Woodstock commission of the peace.41C181/6, p. 157. But he was, in fact, putting down roots elsewhere.

In the contracts for the sale of the lands to Fleetwood’s soldiers in 1650 and 1652, Lloyde was described as being ‘of St Ives’ in Huntingdonshire.42E320/Z23A-23B; E304/8/ZZ23B; Madge, Domesday of Crown Lands, 243. Moreover, in July 1651 he was included on the Huntingdonshire commission of the peace for the first time.43C231/6, p. 218. Later he would acquire lands at Hemingford Grey, the parish on the opposite bank of the River Ouse from St Ives. This decision to settle in Huntingdonshire soon brought him into the orbit of one of the major figures within the county, Edward Montagu II*, himself a veteran of the parliamentarian army. Just how much confidence Montagu had in his new neighbour became apparent in the summer of 1654 when he began promoting Lloyde and Stephen Phesant* as his preferred candidates for the Huntingdonshire seats in the forthcoming Parliament.44Bodl. Carte 223, f. 334. They however faced opposition from Valentine Wauton* and, according to various witness statements that Lloyde later assembled, Wauton’s supporters openly intimidated the other voters at the poll on 12 July.45Bodl. Carte 74, f. 89. In the event, Wauton was unsuccessful, but so was Lloyde, with the three seats instead going to Montagu, Phesant and Henry Cromwell alias Williams*.

That Lloyde was trusted by Montagu was utilised by the lord protector in the spring of 1656. That April Cromwell sent Lloyde to brief Montagu and the other admiral-at-sea, Robert Blake*, who were lurking off the coast of Spain in the hope of intercepting the Spanish treasure fleet. Indeed, part of the purpose of Lloyde’s mission was to inform Blake and Montagu that the silver fleet would be much smaller than anticipated. As Cromwell explained to them, he had chosen Lloyde for this task because he was an ‘honest man’ and ‘a person of integrity’.46Abbott, Writings and Speeches, iv. 148; T. Carte, Collection of Original Letters and Pprs. (Dublin, 1759), ii. 102. Lloyde reached Blake and Montagu at sea on 23 May.47TSP v. 69, 98, 133. He then travelled on to Lisbon to meet up with the English envoy there, Philip Meadowe.48TSP v. 105, 106. Having re-joined Blake and Montagu, he left for England on 19 June, arriving in London on 11 July.49TSP v. 70, 134, 135-6, 170-1, 174, 202, 363, 518; Abbott, Writings and Speeches, iv. 239; Corresp. of Henry Cromwell, 161, 164. While Lloyde was on his way back, Montagu wrote to the secretary of state, John Thurloe*, asking that he arrange for Lloyde to be elected as one of the MPs for Huntingdonshire in the forthcoming Parliament.50TSP v. 179. But if he did stand again in Huntingdonshire, he was no more successful than he had been in 1654. When Montagu landed at Portsmouth three months later, Lloyde was part of the delegation sent by Cromwell to greet him.51Carte, Collection, ii. 115. The welcome for Montagu was especially warm as Richard Stayner had meanwhile succeeded in intercepting the treasure fleet. Lloyde oversaw the transportation of some of the captured silver to London.52CSP Dom. 1656-7, pp. 184, 444.

In late 1656 the decision by John Disbrowe* to sit in Parliament for Somerset created a vacancy at King’s Lynn. Although the evidence is only circumstantial, there is little doubt that Haynes, as deputy-major-general for East Anglia, tried to get Lloyde elected for that seat. On 15 December, just four days before the election, Lloyde, who had no connection with the town, was admitted as a freeman. But the pressure applied by Haynes was insufficient and the corporation instead chose Sir John Thorowgood*.53King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, ff. 503v, 505. When Cromwell dismissed William Packer* and the other senior officers of his regiment in February 1658, Thurloe thought that Lloyde might be one of the army officers who would be promoted to fill those vacancies as majors.54TSP vi. 806. But others were appointed instead.

Despite his lack of success in 1656 when he had a powerful patron whose influence proved to be insufficient, Lloyde managed to get elected at King’s Lynn two years later when Haynes’s influence there was no more. The King’s Lynn electors may have remembered that he had other powerful friends, such as Fleetwood and Montagu. Whatever the reason, Lloyde was elected in January 1659 as one of the town’s MPs for the Parliament called by Richard Cromwell*. Although the corporation and the freemen made separate returns, Lloyde was named in second place, after Thomas Toll II*, on both indentures.55King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/11, ff. 10v, 11. Once elected, Lloyde made little apparent contribution to the 1659 Parliament; most of the handful of references in the Journal that could refer to him more probably relate to his more prominent colleague, Charles Lloyd*.56CJ vii. 600b, 622b, 623a. The one exception may have been the appointment on 12 April of ‘Mr Lloyd’ to the committee to prepare impeachment articles against William Boteler*, not least because the specific accusations against Boteler related to his conduct while the major-general of several of the midlands counties, including Huntingdonshire.57CJ vii. 637a.

On 15 July 1659 the Rump, having resumed its sittings, confirmed Lloyde’s commission as a captain under Fleetwood.58CJ vii. 719b. By mid-August, by which time royalist risings had already broken out in other parts of the country, Lloyde was stationed at Newark. He was asked by the council of state to pay particular attention to the threat to King’s Lynn, where it was feared a royalist landing might occur.59CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 109, 111 That October he wrote to Montagu with the news that Fleetwood had first been dismissed and then reinstated as commander-in-chief and that the Rump was no longer sitting. Lloyde summed up these latest upheavals with the laconic observation that ‘we live in a very unsettled, distracted air’.60Clarke Pprs. iv. 298-9. The reaction of the commander-in-chief in Scotland, George Monck*, was less phlegmatic. However, although he was openly hostile to the new committee of safety, Monck took care to re-establish contact with Fleetwood. On 12 November Lloyde wrote to Monck on Fleetwood’s behalf assuring him of his friendship.61HMC Leyborne-Popham, 125. Fleetwood then sent Lloyde to Edinburgh with a more detailed response. Lloyde and the other two officers who accompanied him also took with them the agreement that had been reached in London between the council of the army in England and the commissioners representing their Scottish counterparts.62Ludlow, Mems. ii. 146-7; Clarke Pprs. iv. 124-5, 131, 140. After meeting with Monck in Edinburgh, they almost immediately returned to Newcastle-upon-Tyne with Monck’s answer for John Lambert*, which meant that Lloyde was then able to sign the letter of 29 November from the officers at Newcastle to the council of officers in Scotland.63Clarke Pprs. iv. 147, 148. Afterwards he travelled to London to update Fleetwood on Monck’s views.64Clarke Pprs. iv. 168, 192. Lloyde lost his commission at Fleetwood’s fall in January 1660 and was ordered to leave London.65Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 99; CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 309, 328.

Retiring from politics, Lloyde lived quietly in Huntingdonshire. In 1666 he married Elizabeth Lawrence, whose late father, Adam, had been a captain in Oliver Cromwell’s regiment. Earlier generations of the Lawrence family had been Familists.66Foster, London Marriage Licences, 852; Bury, Acct. 25; M. Spufford, World of Rural Dissenters (Cambridge, 1995), 25-6. Over half a century later Elizabeth’s second husband, Samuel Bury, a nonconformist preacher, paid tribute to Lloyde.

He was a gentleman of good reputation and estate, of great usefulness in his country, whilst in [the] commission of the peace; and afterwards, as a reconciler of differences, and common patron of the oppressed: he was one of a very active and generous spirit, a person of great piety, and singular temper, and steady faithfulness to his friends.67Bury, Acct. 25.

By the early 1670s Lloyde may have had links with the nonconformist congregation in Leadenhall Street, London, headed by John Owen*, which included Fleetwood, John Disbrowe and James Berry*.68R.L. Greaves, Enemies under his Feet (Stanford, California, 1990), 128.

Lloyde died on 13 April 1682.69Bury, Acct. 25. He was buried in St James’s, Hemingford Grey, where the monument erected to his memory in the chancel described him as being ‘brave in an unfortunate war, fortunate in sweet peace’.70VCH Hunts. ii. 314; Acct. ed. McGrane, 348, 353-4n. Those to whom he made bequests in his will included Berry (£10), Owen (£5), Samuel Disbrowe* (£1 for a ring) and Fleetwood, to whom he left £20 to be distributed to his former officers and their widows. He also left £30 to his ‘daughter’, Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Filbee, who, as he had no legitimate children, may have been an illegitimate daughter or, perhaps more likely, a goddaughter. In the absence of legitimate children, his lands at Hemingford Grey (which were probably only leased) were to pass to William Lloyde, eldest son of his brother, Walter, after the death of his widow.71PROB11/370/36; Acct. ed. McGrane, 349-59. Elizabeth Lloyde, who married Samuel Bury in 1697, however lived on until 1720.72Oxford DNB, ‘Elizabeth Bury’. William, the nephew, who still lived at Llandeilo Talybont, acknowledged his uncle’s bequest in his own will in 1688.73PROB11/392/30.