DRIDEN, Sir John, 2nd bt. (c.1580-1658), of Canons Ashby, Northants.

Driden’s grandfather had moved from Cumberland to Northamptonshire in the mid-sixteenth century, having acquired, through marriage, the manor of Canons Ashby in the south of the county, close to both the Oxfordshire and Warwickshire borders.40H. Whitehead, ‘Cumb. par. regs.’, Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Arch. Soc. xiv. 223; Vis Northants. 1564 and 1618-19, 178. His great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Sir John Cope†, had represented Northamptonshire in the 1547 Parliament, and his father, Sir Erasmus Dryden†, was returned for Banbury, on the Cope family interest, in 1624.41HP Commons 1509-1558, ‘John Cope’; HP Commons 1604-1629, ‘Sir Erasmus Dryden’. Driden was connected through his father – whose strongly puritan convictions he shared – with an influential network of godly gentlemen and opponents of Caroline policies that included William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, John Hampden*, Edward Bagshawe* and the fathers of Edward Horsman* and Sir Gilbert Pykeringe*.42J.T. Cliffe, The Puritan Gentry, 37, 92, 180-2; R. Cust, Forced Loan, 233; J. Fielding, ‘Conformists, Puritans, and the Church Courts: the Diocese of Peterborough 1603-42’ (Birmingham Univ. PhD thesis, 1989), 13, 14, 15, 17-18, 31, 49, 65, 154, 201, 218, 261. As sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1634-5, Driden was accused by the Laudian cleric Robert Sibthorpe of conspiring with Richard Knightley† and Bagshawe to hinder the collection of Ship Money in the county.43CSP Dom. 1635-6, pp. 348-9. Driden’s failure to distrain the goods of Ship Money defaulters was such that the attorney-general reportedly received orders from the king himself to indict Driden before the court of star chamber – although it does not appear that his case was ever brought to trial.44T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 284.

To add to Driden’s troubles in the mid-1630s, Archbishop Laud drew up a memorandum in 1635, specifying those Northamptonshire churches which he believed were ‘much profaned and their ministers out of all order’, of which one of the most notorious examples in his eyes was Canons Ashby. Examined by Laud’s vicar-general, Sir Nathaniel Brent, Driden promised ‘to provide conformable ministers without delay’, and Brent was confident of effecting a ‘perfect reformation’ at Canons Ashby.45CSP Dom. 1634-6, p. 601; 1635, p. xxxv. Nevertheless, Driden was tried and sentenced by the court of high commission in 1640 – very probably for offences against Laudian injunctions.46CSP Dom. 1640, pp. 385, 392, 409, 424, 429; 1640-1, p. 395. His name headed the list of signatures on the indenture returning John Crewe I and Driden’s nephew Sir Gilbert Pykeringe for Northamptonshire in the elections to the Short Parliament.47C219/42, pt. 1, piece 159.

In the elections to the Long Parliament in the autumn of 1640, Driden and Pykeringe were returned for Northamptonshire; Driden taking the junior place. According to a royalist commentator, Driden was ‘never noted for ability or discretion’, but rather for ‘weakness and simplicity and never put on any business of moment’ – an assessment that is consistent with the MP’s fitful and undistinguished parliamentary career.48J. Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy (1714), pt. 1, p. 91. Although he attended his place at Westminster, intermittently, until at least August 1647, he was named to a mere 14 committees and made no notable contribution to debate. Writing to one of his Northamptonshire kinsmen in November 1640, he lamented the fact that

I cannot be so serviceable either to yourself or to the county that hath set me in that place of trust [as an MP]. I can only bring straw or stubble to this great work. But God be praised, here want not skilful agents for this great work...The walls go up fast, though they cannot be suddenly finished; the ruins are such both in church and commonwealth that some years will hardly repair all breaches.49Northants. RO, D (CA)/906; HMC 2nd Rep. 63.

A few days before writing this letter he had joined other Commons-men in standing bond for £1,000 towards securing a City loan for the maintenance of the armies in northern England.50Procs. LP i. 228. In March 1641, Driden, Crewe and the future royalist Sir Christopher Hatton* lent £1,000 towards securing another loan from the City.51Procs. LP ii. 654, 655; Northants. RO, FH2876. In May, he took the Protestation, and having been granted leave of absence in July ‘for the recovery of his health’, his name then disappeared from the Journal until 28 February 1642, when he was named to a committee on legislation relating to brewers.52CJ ii. 133b, 211b, 461a.

A letter to Driden and Pykeringe from a group of gentlemen who had assembled at Canons Ashby was read in the House on 9 August 1642, whereupon the Commons ordered Driden, Pykeringe and other Commons-men associated with Northamptonshire to return to the county to execute the Militia Ordinance.53CJ ii. 711a. He had evidently returned from this mission by 7 September, when he was named first to a committee for preparing a declaration to thank and encourage Northamptonshire’s parliamentarians after their successful resistance of a party of Oxfordshire Cavaliers.54CJ ii. 756a. On 1 November, he was added to the Committee for Examinations*, and on 3 February 1643 he was included on a committee dominated by Members associated with the war party for sequestering the estates of Parliament’s enemies.55CJ ii. 829a, 953b. He was present in the House on 6 June to take the newly introduced vow and covenant.56CJ iii. 118b. But he made his clearest statements of commitment to the parliamentarian cause – and, perhaps, to the policy of a military alliance with the Scots – in September, when he contributed £200 towards the supply of Sir William Waller’s* army and joined his cousin Richard Knightley* and Philip Holman* in a donation of £100 to Parliament’s war chest.57CJ iii. 242a; SP28/172, pt. 3, unfol. His godly religious convictions also remained in evidence, resulting in his addition on 25 December to the committee for removing superstitious images from churches and an active role on the Northamptonshire committee for sequestering ‘scandalous’ clergymen.58CJ iii. 353a; Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy, pt. 1, p. 91; J. T. Cliffe, Puritans in Conflict, 135, 139. It was probably Driden’s godly piety that recommended him to the House for appointment in April 1644 to the standing committee for managing the collegiate church and school of St Peter’s, Westminster – a duty he seems to have performed with considerable diligence.59CJ iii. 439b; Add. 70107, unfol.; Westminster Abbey Lib. WAM 9763, 9856, 16477, 22974, 42201, 42209, 42723, 42828. That same month (Apr.), his house at Canons Ashby – which had been made a parliamentarian garrison – was sacked by the royalists.60Mercurius Aulicus no. 16 (14-20 Apr. 1644), 948-9 (E.45.10).

Although Driden was named to several committees during the spring of 1645, he made no known contribution to the process of new modelling Parliament’s armies.61CJ iv. 104a, 121a. Nor is there any evidence that he attended Westminster between his appointment to minor committees in October 1645 and February 1647.62CJ iv. 321b; v. 84a. His final committee appointment in the Commons was to a committee set up on 11 August 1647 for repealing the legislation passed during the July-August Presbyterian counter-revolution.63CJ v. 272a. In December 1647 and again in September 1648, he and other Northamptonshire MPs were ordered by the Commons to expedite the collection of assessment money in the county.64CJ v. 400b; vi. 30b. But having been granted leave of absence on 4 October 1648, he may well have abandoned his seat entirely.65CJ vi. 43b. Although he was not among those secluded at Pride Purge, he made no recorded impression upon the Rump’s proceedings until 21 April 1652, when it was resolved, upon a vote, that he be re-admitted to the House.66CJ vii. 123b. However, there is no evidence that he acted upon this vote and resumed his seat – although he did attend at least five meetings of the Committee for Plundered Ministers* during the autumn and winter of 1652-3.67SP22/2B, ff. 88v, 92, 94, 316, 322. It was at local level, as part of Northamptonshire’s governing group under the Rump, that his support for the commonwealth regime, and the evident trust it reposed in him, are most apparent.68CSP Dom. 1650, p. 68; 1651-2, p. 504; C231/6, p. 144.

Driden seems to have had little difficulty accommodating himself to the establishment of the protectorate and was returned for Northamptonshire again in the elections to the first protectoral Parliament in the summer of 1654. However, he left no trace upon the House’s proceedings. There is no evidence that he stood for election to the second protectoral Parliament in 1656. His correspondence and property affairs during the 1650s indicate that he was on friendly terms with William Bury*, Sir John Trevor*, Major-general William Boteler* and the Independent divine Philip Nye.69Northants. RO, D (CA)/594, 908, 917; HMC 2nd Rep. 63-4.

Driden died at some point during the second half of 1658.70C181/5, p. 311; PROB11/283, f. 169. His place of burial is not known, although it was probably Canons Ashby. In his will, which was proved on 11 November 1658, he bequeathed £2,500 apiece to two of his daughters, £3,000 to a third daughter and £2,000 to each of his four younger sons. He also decreed that ‘for the settlement of peace and love in my family and the avoiding of all manner of contention’, any questions arising from his will should be resolved by his ‘loving friends’ Richard Knightley and William Bury. The signatories to his will included Edward Bagshawe.71PROB11/283, ff. 167-9. Driden’s second son John represented Huntingdonshire for much of the period between 1690 and 1708.72HP Commons 1690-1715, ‘John Dryden’. The renowned Restoration poet and playwright John Dryden was Driden’s nephew.