WAGSTAFFE, Richard (1617-81), of Ravensden, Beds.

The Wagstaffes were a well-established Bedfordshire family whose seat, Shurtley End, was located at Ravensden, just three miles north-east of Bedford. During the 1640s Richard Wagstaffe supported Parliament as a soldier in its armies. He was first recorded as such in January 1645 when the committee of the Eastern Association at Cambridge granted him pay for nine months.21SP28/26, f. 53. That implies that he had been serving in the army of the 2nd earl of Manchester (Edward Montagu†). However, he was probably not the ‘Captain Wagstaffe’ based in Staffordshire in 1643 and 1644.22Staffs. Co. Cttee. 10-11, 70, 209, 212, 219, 220, 224, 226, 243, 302; Mercurius Aulicus no. 47 (19-25 Nov. 1643), 671 (E.77.33). The future MP was not initially appointed as an officer in the New Model, but when a vacancy as a captain arose at some point between May 1645 and December 1646 in the foot regiment of Richard Ingoldsby*, he was commissioned to fill it.23Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, i. 57, 68, 78, 88. He attended three of the meetings of the council of the army in December 1648.24Clarke Pprs. ii. 280-1.

His military career under the commonwealth is rather better recorded. In April 1650 he was sent to command one of the companies which had been assigned the task of garrisoning Oxford.25CSP Dom. 1650, p. 128. Six months later, on 8 September, some of his men mutinied, seized control of New College and arrested their officers, including Wagstaffe. After two days in confinement, Wagstaffe led the escape by the officers, which allowed Ingoldsby to regain control of the situation.26Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. i. 379. The following day Wagstaffe travelled to London and reported the successful crushing of the mutiny to Parliament.27CJ vi. 293a. The reorganisation of some of the regiments in May 1651 made it possible for him to be rewarded with promotion to become the acting major of Ingoldsby’s regiment.28CSP Dom. 1651, pp. 188, 528; Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, ii. 63. He still held this position in early 1653 when, because of the possibility of hostile engagement with the Dutch, the regiment was sent to sea with the fleet.29CSP Dom. 1652-3, pp. 490, 537.

Even before he had left the army, Wagstaffe had begun to play a part in the local administration of his native county. In 1650 the council of state appointed him as a justice of the peace and as a militia commissioner, while Parliament included him on the local assessment commission.30CSP Dom. 1650, pp. 452, 455; A. and O. There does not seem to have been any suggestion that Wagstaffe could have stood for the first protectoral Parliament in 1654, but two years later he successfully stood for election as one of the five Bedfordshire MPs in the next Parliament. At about the same time, he and a number of other loyal supporters of the protectorate, including Sir William Boteler* and Edward Cater*, were admitted as burgesses of Bedford by the corporation.31Min. Bk. of Bedford Corp. 99-100.

Little is known about Wagstaffe’s activity in the 1656 Parliament. On 29 May 1657 he is recorded as having spoken in the debate on the form of the oath to be included in the bill for discovering popish recusants, making the suggestion that Bulstrode Whitelocke*, John Thurloe* and John Lambert* should all be counted in the division on the subject, even although none of them was present. This idea, which was contrary to every tradition of the Commons, was rejected at once.32Burton’s Diary, ii. 154-5. Later that day he and Lewis Audley* moved that the discussion as to when to consider the Irish Adventurers’ bill should be delayed until they next met.33Burton’s Diary, ii. 158. The following week he reminded the House to send thanks to the preacher who had preached on 31 May.34Burton’s Diary, ii. 175. One indication of his religious views might be that in the spring of 1657 he indicted three men to appear at the Bedfordshire quarter sessions for stealing back a cow and a calf which had been distrained from them for failing to contribute towards the repair of the parish church at Sharnbrook.35Notes and Extracts from the Co. Recs. (Beds. Co. Recs. ii), 42.

The re-institution of only two Bedfordshire seats for the elections to the 1659 Parliament did not prevent Wagstaffe from being re-elected, with another local resident with military experience, John Okey, taking the other seat. Nothing is known about Wagstaffe’s conduct in this Parliament. If anything, its dissolution that April and the establishment of the new council of state enhanced his public role for this paved the way for his re-emergence as a soldier. In late June 1659 the committee for the nomination of officers recommended him for a position as a captain in William Sydenham’s regiment. The Commons accepted this, but advised that he be given a more important position.36CJ vii. 683a, 688b. With this in mind, a place was found for him in Okey’s regiment, subject only to acceptance by the existing officer, Wroth Rogers*, of the governorship of Hereford.37CSP Dom. 1658-9, pp. 393, 394; CJ vii. 698a, 700b; Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, ii. 132. The realisation that a major uprising was being planned by the royalists prompted a further rethink. Within three weeks of his new appointment, he had been promoted to become governor of Bedford and it was in that capacity that he organised the crackdown in Bedfordshire to prevent any of the local royalists from joining the rebellion of Sir George Boothe*. Among those he arrested were Boothe’s brother-in-law, Lord Bruce (Robert Bruce†).38CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 16, 36, 77, 127. Once this threat was over, he was granted the command of one of the companies in Henry Ingoldsby’s regiment which was then stationed at Coventry as a replacement for William Purefoy I*.39Notes and Extracts from the Co. Recs. being a Cal. of Vol. I of the Sessions Minute Bks. 1651 to 1660; CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 158, 565. On 12 December he would have joined with Okey in his attempt to seize the Tower of London in support of the Rump had the plan not been leaked the day before. He was probably among the ringleaders rounded up by Charles Fleetwood*.40Mercurius Politicus no. 598 (8-15 Dec. 1659), 954-5 (E.773.26). The following month the Rump acknowledged these efforts on their behalf by accepting Okey’s recommendation that he should be raised to the rank of major. He probably held that position only for a few weeks, however, before being removed in the next purge of the officer corp.41CJ vii. 809a; Wanklyn, Reconstructing the New Model Army, ii. 150, 175.

The Restoration terminated Wagstaffe’s career as a soldier. The Bedford corporation also responded to the changed political climate by ejecting him for the ranks of their burgesses.42Min. Bk. of Bedford Corp. 100. He then retired to the family estates at Ravensden which had passed into his possession on the death of his father several years earlier. The 1671 hearth tax returns show that his house there had eight hearths.43L.M. Marshall, The Rural Population of Beds. 1671 to 1921 (Beds. Hist. Rec. Soc. xvi), 70. His involvement in local affairs was largely limited to the year he served as sheriff in 1670. When he died in either late 1680 or early 1681, everything was left to his son, John, presumably because John’s elder brother, Richard, had predeceased him.44PROB11/366/346.