PILE (PYLE), Sir Francis, 2nd bt. (c.1617-49), of Compton Beauchamp, Berks.

The Pile family originated in Wiltshire and in this period the cadet branch still retained some lands there.14Wilts. Vis. Pedigrees, 151; VCH Wilts. ix. 30-1, xii. 49. Their shift of interest to Berkshire took place around the time this MP was born. In 1617 his grandfather, Sir Gabriel Pile of Collingbourne Kingston, Wiltshire, bought the manor of Compton Beauchamp in Berkshire, albeit just over the county border.15VCH Berks. iv. 525. On Sir Gabriel’s death in 1626 this passed first to Francis Pile and then, on the latter’s death in 1635, to his son the future MP, who also inherited the Wiltshire estates and the baronetcy granted to his father in 1628.16PROB11/171/240; CB.

The future MP was still only in his mid-twenties when the civil war broke out in 1642. Even so, he immediately came out in support of Parliament and was appointed to the relevant local offices to assist the parliamentarian cause. He was a member of the Berkshire county standing committee from the outset.17LJ v. 311a; Reading Recs. iv. 117. From early 1643 he was included on the local assessment and sequestration commissions.18A. and O. Then, in January 1644 Parliament appointed him as the sheriff of Berkshire, presumably believing that they needed a committed, dependable supporter in that position at a time when part of the county was still under royalist occupation.19CJ iii. 354b; LJ vi. 384a. His duties included overseeing the disputed by-elections at Abingdon and Reading. However, at some point during the war, Pile spent six months living at Wells in Somerset with his kinsman, William Morgan; Morgan would later cite this fact as a mark in his favour when, as a former royalist, he had to compound for his delinquency.20CCC 1380.

Pile was elected as MP for Berkshire in the summer of 1646 in the by-election to replace John Fettiplace*. He had taken his seat by 4 August, when he was one of the local MPs appointed to oversee the forces to be sent to Ireland from Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.21CJ iv. 633a. Later that month he took the Solemn League and Covenant.22CJ iv. 653a. But, after this initial activity, Pile disappears from the records for another 17 months. As he is unlikely to have been avoiding Parliament, this is more likely to have represented mere inactivity by a novice Member. By the time he did become active, he may have had other concerns.

With his first wife, Mary Dunch, Pile had a son, Francis junior, but he died in infancy. His second wife, Jane Still, produced a trio of daughters, but no son.23Vis. Berks. i. 261. By 1647 Pile was already troubled by this lack of an heir. His estates in Wiltshire were then handed over to his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Still, for 21 years, after which they were to pass to three trustees, namely Tanfield Vachell*, William Whitmore and Pile’s royalist kinsman, William Morgan. This was intended to safeguard the inheritance for any future son, or, failing that, his daughters. In January 1648 he appointed those same trustees to hold his Berkshire lands so that they could, in time, provide portions for those daughters. The following month he confirmed these arrangements when he made out his will.24PROB11/207/535.

Yet, if Pile realised that he did not have long to live, he probably now became more active than ever at Westminster. Whereas he had never before been named to any Commons committee, in January 1648 he was named to two, namely, those on grievances (4 Jan.) and on complaints against the marshal of king’s bench (14 Jan.).25CJ v. 417a, 432a. It is true that he was absent when the House was called on 24 April.26CJ v. 543b. But on 1 June he joined with Robert Packer* in writing to the Derby House Committee to complain about the attempt by their colleagues on the county committee to create a new garrison at Reading. As this was at the height of the new royalist rebellions in Kent and Essex, the county committee had legitimate reasons to be worried, but, as Pile and Packer pointed out, there were already substantial garrisons at Windsor and Wallingford.27LJ x. 302a-b. The Commons agreed and on 7 June ordered Pile to prepare a letter to the county committee instructing them to abandon their plans and to slight the defences around Reading Abbey.28CJ v. 587b. The following week the Commons asked him to report on the names to be added to the Berkshire sequestration committee.29CJ v. 600a. That he was included on the committee considering the bill to abolish cathedral chapters (16 June) confirms that he supported religious reform.30CJ v. 602a, 603b. In August 1648 he backed the moves to raise horse in London, while on 23 September he and Vachell were given the job of preparing letters to encourage the assessment collections in Berkshire.31CJ v. 678a; vi. 30a. His final known act in the House was as one of the tellers in the vote on 9 October on whether the royalist captive Sir Thomas Peyton* should be allowed out of prison to compound. Pile and John Gurdon* counted those who were unsympathetic enough to vote against the motion.32CJ vi. 47a. Despite aligning himself with the hardliners on this particular issue, there seems to have been a limit to Pile’s radicalism, for he was named on one of the lists of those secluded from the Commons by the purge of 6 December.33A List of the Imprisoned and Secluded Members (1648, 669.f.13.62); Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 383. The army may have remembered and resented his opposition to the creation of a Reading garrison six months earlier.

Pile outlived Charles I by less than a fortnight. He was then buried in the church at Collingbourne Kingston.34MIs Wilts. 1822, 185; CB; CJ vi. 145b. His second wife and daughters survived him. The care which Pile had taken over their inheritances helped ensure that all three daughters grew up to be considerable heiresses. In 1671 there was some discussion that one of them should marry Samuel Whitelocke, younger son of Bulstrode Whitelocke*. The portion would have been £6,000. Pile’s widow was not keen and the idea was quickly abandoned.35Whitelocke, Diary, 780-1. In the event, all three married well. The eldest, Anne, became the second wife of Francis Holles*, later 2nd Baron Holles, while the second, Elizabeth, married Thomas Strickland*. In the division of their father’s estates, the lands at Compton Beauchamp passed to the youngest daughter, Jane, who married Edward Richards of Yaverland, Isle of Wight.36VCH Berks. iv. 525. Pile’s brother, Seymour, had succeeded him as the 3rd baronet. The title probably finally died out on the death of Sir Seymour’s great-grandson, Sir Francis Pile, 6th bt., in 1761, no further member of the family having sat in Parliament.37CB ii. 57.