YELVERTON, Sir Christopher (1602-54), of Easton Maudit, Northants. and Aldersgate Street, London.

Sir Christopher Yelverton came from a distinguished legal dynasty. His father, Henry, was a Gray’s Inn bencher who became justice of the common pleas, and his uncle, also Sir Christopher†, was a justice of the king’s bench and Speaker of the Commons in 1597.28HP Commons 1558-1603; ‘Sir Christopher Yelverton’, Oxford DNB. Yelverton was admitted to Gray’s Inn before his fifth birthday, but did not follow the family business, instead enjoying a life of idleness punctuated by a spell at Cambridge University (where he was taught by Prince Charles’s chaplain, John Preston), a prolonged tour of Europe, and, in 1626 and 1628, two visits to the House of Commons as MP for Newport in the Isle of Wight. In April 1628 he became a member of the queen’s household, and in 1630, having succeeded to his father’s extensive estates in Northamptonshire, he married a daughter of the Kent baronet, Sir William Twisden.29HP Commons 1604-29.

Despite his closeness to the Caroline government, during the 1630s there are signs that Yelverton’s allegiances were shifting, perhaps through the influence of his uncle, the future parliamentarian Nathaniel Stephens*, who was the trustee for Yelverton’s estate in 1635.30Coventry Docquets, 681. In the same year Yelverton was forced to apologise for defaulting on the musters in Northamptonshire, and in 1639 he was made to pay £200 for the retrospective right to disafforest his home parish of Easton Maudit.31Coventry Docquets, 265; CSP Dom. 1635, p. 470; 1639-40, p. 124. The turning point was probably the rough treatment Yelverton received as sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1639-40, when his complaints of resistance and non-payment over Ship Money provoked accusations of negligence.32CSP Dom. 1639-40, p. 466; 1640, pp. 126, 223.

This slight may have encouraged Yelverton to seek election to the Long Parliament, although the reasons for his choice of the Cornish seat of Bossiney remain obscure. The original MPs for Bossiney, chosen in the general election, chose to sit for other seats, and a by-election was held on 22 December. This resulted in the return of three MPs: Yelverton, Sir Ralph Sydenham* and Thomas Bond†.33C219/43/12-14. Despite this, Yelverton attended the Commons, and on 30 December Sir John Strangways* certified that he had been duly sworn before him as rightful burgess for Bossiney.34CSP Dom. 1640-1, p. 328. On the same day, Yelverton was named to the committee stage of the bill for convening yearly Parliaments.35CJ ii. 60a. He apparently remained in the House until 12 January 1641, when John Glynne* moved that the Bossiney election should be investigated, and pointed out that the other candidates ‘did forbear the House, but that Sir Christopher Yelverton did sit’.36D’Ewes (N), 242; Procs. LP ii. 172. According to Sir Simonds D’Ewes*, ‘divers spoke for Sir Christopher that he might sit still’, but it was ordered that he should ‘forbear to sit’ until the dispute was resolved.37CJ ii. 66b. On 15 January Yelverton’s supporters had another go. Sir Hugh Cholmeley* moved that the election had been questioned after the customary time limit had elapsed, and ‘divers spake effectually for it, that he might at least sit till the question were determined’, but the former order was upheld.38Procs. LP ii. 199; D’Ewes (N), 256. The report was eventually considered on 15 February, the return was declared ‘totally void’, and a new election was ordered.39Procs. LP ii. 453; D’Ewes (N), 362; CJ ii. 86a. The date of the new contest is unknown, but it resulted in the return of Yelverton and Sydenham – suggesting that the earlier confusion had resulted from a genuine mistake rather than faction-fighting. Yelverton had reappeared in the Commons by 27 April 1641, when he was named to the bill against the Convocations of Canterbury and York.40CJ ii. 129a.

Following his false start, Yelverton quickly established himself among the ranks of those calling for far-reaching reform. On 30 April he moved that the solicitor-general, Oliver St John*, should bring into the House a true copy of his speech in Westminster Hall, so that it could be circulated among the MPs.41Procs LP iv. 152. He took the Protestation on 3 May, and on 27 May he moved that the bill against star chamber should be reported without further delay.42CJ ii. 133a; Procs. LP iv. 609, 617. In the second half of June, Yelverton briefly became more prominent, being named to series of important committees, including that on the bill to declare Ship Money illegal, and to organise a conference with the Lords on ‘the safety of the kingdom’, in response to the army plot revelations.43CJ ii. 181b, 185b, 187b, 190b. On 30 June Yelverton was created a baronet by Charles I, ostensibly for agreeing to maintain 30 soldiers in Ireland for three years, although the honour may also have been part of the king’s attempt to win over key opponents.44CB; CSP Dom. 1641-3, p. 30. If this was the intention, it had little lasting effect. In the late summer of 1641 Yelverton was again involved in the opposition to the king, and on 18 August he was appointed messenger to the Lords to arrange a conference on the safety of the Tower of London.45CJ ii. 221a, 262a-b; LJ iv. 369a. After the recess, and with the worsening of relations between Parliament and the king, Yelverton lost none of his enthusiasm. On 22 November 1641, according to D’Ewes, Yelverton approved of the move by the hotheads to have the parliamentary declaration passed ‘without the alteration of any one word’ – a position that was defeated by a majority of the MPs.46D’Ewes (C), 185-6. On 10 December, Yelverton recounted to D’Ewes and others, with evident glee, the shocked reaction of the Lords on discovering the guards posted around Parliament.47D’Ewes (C), 265

From the winter of 1641-2, Yelverton continued to work with the king’s enemies, apparently fuelled by a growing sense of paranoia about conspiracies and plotting. On 31 December, he was named to a committee to consider letters intercepted at Plymouth, which suggested a link between the king’s supporters and Rome.48CJ ii. 364a. On 26 February he was the messenger to the Lords with articles of impeachment against the prominent royalist George Lord Digby*, and with propositions concerning the Irish Adventure.49PJ i. 476; CJ ii. 457b-8a; LJ iv. 615a. Yelverton’s involvement with Irish affairs was not down to self-interest; rather it reflected his growing alarm at sinister developments across the British Isles. On 24 March, for example, he was named to a committee to go to London to secure a loan for the Irish war, and the next day he was named to the committee that considered the security of the key port of Hull.50CJ ii. 496a, 497a. In the same period, Yelverton was becoming increasingly concerned for the security of his home county of Northamptonshire. On 20 January 1642 he told the Commons that a local Catholic peer, Edward, 4th Baron Vaux, had been gathering arms, and the House responded by ordering the local justices of the peace to search the houses of Vaux and other suspects.51PJ i. 121. On 10 February Yelverton urged the Commons to receive a petition presented by ‘some 40 gentlemen of the best of that county’, and on 16 March he told the House of the activities of the sheriff of Northamptonshire, who had circulated the king’s objections to the militia bill, and he was named to the subsequent committee.52PJ ii. 45, 137; CJ ii. 480a. He was one of three MPs ordered to examine the sheriff, after his arrest, on 28 March.53CJ ii. 501b.

This local concern made Yelverton an obvious choice as one of the four MPs from Northamptonshire and newly-made deputy lieutenants, sent to put the militia ordinance into execution in the county on 8 June.54CJ ii. 614a. Before his departure he promised £200 and four horses for the defence of Parliament.55PJ iii. 476. He and his colleagues were at Northampton by 16 June, when the House received letters from them, reporting their efforts to implement the militia ordinance and muster the trained bands.56PJ iii. 85. His sojourn in the east midlands was brief, however, and he had returned to Westminster by the end of June.57CJ ii. 644a. Over the summer he acted as messenger to the Lords, requesting conferences, on five occasions, and he continued to be active in Northamptonshire affairs, recouping £1,000 that he and other gentlemen had advanced for the county from their own money, and on 9 August he was again named to the committee to return to the county to execute the Militia Ordinance.58LJ v.268b, 271a, 272b, 301a, 326b, 332b; CJ ii. 710a, 711a, 725b, 740a, 745a. He did not leave London at this point, however, and was on hand to consider a letter from Northamptonshire delivered to the Commons on 9 September.59CJ ii. 756a. Over the following weeks, as civil war broke out, Yelverton’s main role was as a messenger to the Lords.60CJ ii. 758b-9a, 762b, 764a, 815a, 822b; LJ v. 343a, 351a, 408a, 422a. On 27 October, as news of the inconclusive battle of Edgehill reached Westminster, he was named to the committee to discuss the implications.61CJ ii. 825a. Immediately afterwards, he was involved in practical measures to defend London, including, on 3 and 4 November, the provision of scouts to warn of Prince Rupert’s approach, and the sending of instructions to the local committee members to remove any horses that might assist the enemy.62Add. 18777, ff. 49v, 50; CJ ii. 833a, 834b. On 7 November he was messenger to the Lords with orders for raising more troops and arranging the repayment of loans made by the City of London.63CJ ii. 839a; LJ v. 437a. The holding of the royalist army at Turnham Green occasioned another conference of the Houses ‘touching the great affairs of the kingdom’, and Yelverton was again the messenger.64LJ v. 446a; CJ ii. 850b, 851a.

After the excitements of the autumn, Yelverton played surprisingly little part in parliamentary affairs during the winter of 1642-3, and he may have been in Northamptonshire during that period. He was back at Westminster by 1 February, when he was named to a committee to consider the establishment of weekly assessments, but he appears to have attended the Commons regularly only from the beginning of March.65CJ ii. 951a, 986b. Over the next nine months, Yelverton became a very diligent Member, serving as messenger to the Lords no fewer than 19 times in the next nine months (a frequency which perhaps reflected his links with some of the peers, including John Mordaunt, 1st earl of Peterborough) and as teller on nine occasions.66CJ ii. 986b, 989a; iii. 10a-b, 12a-b, 27a, 59b, 68a-b, 91b, 96b, 97a, 109b, 114b, 120a, 141a, 143b, 149a, 157b, 162b, 163b, 177b, 187a, 217a, 268b, 269a-b, 279b, 280a, 289b, 294a, 340b; LJ v. 630a, 656b, 658b; vi. 28b, 57b, 86a, 123b, 128b, 154b, 248a, 261a, 273b. Much of this activity was mundane, but during the summer Yelverton was involved in the parliamentary reaction to Edmund Waller’s* plot, being named to the committee to inform the City authorities of the conspiracy on 8 June, and on the same day acting as messenger to the Lords, telling them that all the Members of the lower House had taken the oath and covenant.67CJ iii. 118a, 120a; LJ vi. 86a. The next day, Yelverton was appointed to the committee charged with preparing a form of the oath to be taken across the kingdom, and on 12 June he was named to another committee, to consider the involvement in the plot of two peers, the Jerome Weston, 2nd earl of Portland and Edward Conway, 2nd Viscount Conway.68CJ iii. 122b, 126a.

As the king’s forces made advances in the west country in early August, Yelverton was among those MPs who discussed suing for peace, and he argued that ‘their wives and some goods may be permitted to pass over’ to the Netherlands for safety.69Harl. 165, f. 148v; Add. 18778, f. 13. He soon regained his composure, however, and on 10 August spoke in favour of sending further supplies to Parliament’s lord general, Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, who had ‘lately behaved himself so gallantly and showed himself so faithful as we ought to give him satisfaction’.70Harl. 165, f. 150. D’Ewes commented acidly that he thought the Commons would have voted the supplies through ‘without his speaking’.71Harl. 165, f. 150. Yelverton was also involved in the discussions with the Scots that attended the treaty negotiations in May, July, October and December, and he became a regular messenger and negotiator with foreign dignitaries, including the Tuscan envoy in June and the French ambassador from October.72CJ iii. 96b, 109b, 140a, 143b, 264a, 268b, 296a, 306b, 316b, 340b, 352a; LJ vi. 57b, 248a.

Alongside national affairs, Yelverton continued to liaise with the Northamptonshire parliamentarians. On 21 April he moved that an earlier order to provide arms and ammunition for William, 1st Baron Grey of Wark at Leicester should be fulfilled; and on 8 May he also pressed for the despatch of 40 barrels of gunpowder to the same, while joining Sir Henry Mildmay* in drafting a letter ordering the forces at Leicester to join the rendezvous with Colonel Oliver Cromwell* in Lincolnshire.73Harl. 164, ff. 376, 384; CJ iii. 75a. On 6 July Yelverton was messenger to the Lords requesting that Edward Montagu, 2nd earl of Manchester, should succeed the late earl of Peterborough as lord lieutenant of Northamptonshire; and on 9 October he took the Northamptonshire assessment ordinance to the Upper House, taking an order from the Commons to the county committee concerning sequestrations three days later.74CJ iii. 157b, 269a-b, 275a; LJ vi. 123b.

During 1644, Yelverton was less active in the Commons, making no impact on the parliamentary record during February and most of March, September and the beginning of October. Whether he returned to the midlands during these absences is not known, but he remained in close contact with Northamptonshire and Leicestershire when at Westminster, being named to the committee to settle the dispute between Lord Grey of Wark and the Leicestershire militia committee on 16 August, and appointed to a committee to consider a petition from Leicestershire on 4 September.75CJ iii. 592a, 618a. He continued to have an interest in Irish affairs, and on 23 October 1644 – the third anniversary of the outbreak of the Irish rebellion – he joined Sir John Evelyn of Wiltshire in delivering the Commons’ protest to the judges of king’s bench that the leading rebels, Lord Maguire and Colonel McMahon, had not yet been prosecuted.76Add. 31116, p. 336. Yelverton was again employed as an envoy between Parliament and foreign representatives, notably the Dutch ambassador, and he was named to various committees to speed supplies to the armies of the earl of Essex and Sir William Waller*.77CJ iii. 363b, 364a, 382b, 544b, 568a, 593a; LJ vi. 376b, 675a. There are also indications that during the summer Yelverton was beginning to side with Essex and his friends in what would become known as the ‘Presbyterian’ party. On 29 August, for example, while Essex and his army lay trapped by the royalists at Lostwithiel, Yelverton was named to a committee to prepare a letter to the earl, thanking him for his fidelity; and on 29 November he was ordered to write to Essex to ask for speedy exchange of the son of his uncle (and future Presbyterian) Nathaniel Stephens*.78CJ iii. 611a, 708b.

Despite his contacts with key Presbyterians, in the early months of 1645 Yelverton seems to have made an effort to be even-handed. He acted as messenger to the Lords with the New Model ordinance in January, was appointed to the committee under the ordinance in February, and in March took the lists of officers to the Lords; but in the same period he was also messenger during the Uxbridge peace treaty at the beginning of February, and on 4 March he was named to the committee to thank the Scots commissioners for their part in negotiating with the king.79CJ iv. 37b, 40b, 68a71a, 77a; LJ vii. 165a, 174a, 266a, 272a. It was probably his enthusiasm for the Uxbridge peace talks that prompted Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s* snide remark, made later in the year, that under the influence of the leading royalist negotiators, James Stuart, 1st duke of Richmond, and Thomas Wriothesley, 4th earl of Southampton, ‘Sir Christopher Yelverton would have us send our propositions’.80Add. 18780, f. 177v. Yelverton’s religious views were less conflicted. He reported to the House a clandestine meeting in London by those ‘who disprove the scriptures and deny the Trinity’; he was re-appointed to the Committee for Plundered Ministers to consider a case of blasphemy; and was messenger to the Lords with an ordinance against lay preaching.81Add. 18780, f. 5v; CJ iv. 116b, 117a, 124a-b, 158a; LJ vii. 337a. In May and October he was ordered to invite the leading Presbyterian ministers Thomas Hodges and Edmund Calamy, respectively, to preach.82CJ iv. 185b, 326a. Yelverton’s religious opinions acquired more of a political edge in 1646. On 20 February he was messenger to the Lords with letters from the Scottish Parliament, and to ask that the upper House concur with a Commons vote to establish the Presbyterian system in London.83CJ iv. 448a-b; LJ viii. 177b. In July, he was named to the committee to prepare a declaration concerning sequestered ministers, and in November he was named to the committee for the maintenance of ministers.84CJ iv. 605b, 719b. Overall, Yelverton’s involvement in the Commons in 1646 was more muted than in previous years, perhaps because of the illness that led to his being granted leave ‘for recovery of his health’ on 16 April, and he was again given leave of absence on 18 August.85CJ iv. 511b, 647a.

It was only in the new year of 1647, as the faction-fighting at Westminster intensified, that Yelverton emerged as an open supporter of the Presbyterian interest. On 7 January he was teller in favour of putting the question that Sir James Harington*, an Independent, should be one of the commissioners to treat with the king at Newcastle, and when this was passed, he was teller for the noes, in a vote that was passed by the narrow margin of 11, with Sir Arthur Hesilrige and Oliver Cromwell as tellers on the other side.86CJ v. 45a. In the following weeks, Yelverton was again busy with routine matters, such as taking messages and receiving letters from foreign ambassadors, and inviting orthodox ministers like Calamy and Hodges to preach, and on 12 April he was again given leave of absence.87CJ v. 48b, 58b, 66a, 69b, 150a. On his return, in early May, Yelverton was briefly active. On 5 May he was named to the committee stage of the ordinance for settling lands on Cromwell; on 7 May he was named to the committee to indemnify all who had acted on Parliament’s authority during the civil war; and on 11 May he was appointed to the committee on the ordinance to grant lands to Sir Thomas Fairfax* – all measures designed to placate the army.88CJ v. 162b, 166a, 167a. There is, however, no evidence of his attendance in the Commons after 13 May, and he may have withdrawn altogether as the political tensions increased.89CJ v. 170b.

Yelverton’s absence during the Presbyterian coup and the army’s entry into London, meant that he was able to return to the Commons without question in the autumn of 1647. During the next twelve months, he again typified the moderate Presbyterians, keen to strike a deal with the king, and wary of the power of the New Model and the sectaries. On 18 October 1647 he was added to the committee to consider a lasting settlement, and on 12 November he was named to the committee that considered the king’s escape from Hampton Court.90CJ v. 336a, 357a. During December Yelverton was named to committees on the regulation of the City of London and to increase the powers of the Westminster militia committee, and on 1 January 1648 he was appointed to the committee to consider the thorny problem of allowing the army to take free quarter.91CJ v. 387b, 413a, 414b. Yelverton may have been ill over the spring and early summer, as he was excused at the call of the House on 24 April and granted leave ‘for recovery of his health’ on 30 May.92CJ v. 543b, 578a. He did not become regular in his attendance at Westminster until October 1648, when he was involved in moves to negotiate with the king. On 13 November he was named to the committee to frame an answer to the king’s first proposition to Parliament, ‘concerning his being settled in a condition of honour and safety’; and on 30 November he joined Thomas Erle as teller against considering the army’s Remonstrance.93CJ vi. 54a, 75b, 91b. It was this last act that sealed Yelverton’s fate on 6 December, when he was secluded from the Commons at Pride’s Purge.94A List of the Imprisoned and Secluded Members (1648, 669.f.13.62).

Yelverton’s career was perhaps typical of a solid parliamentarian turned moderate Presbyterian, governed by caution as much as factionalism. His attachment to the earl of Essex did not preclude his involvement in the creation of the New Model in 1645, and his instinct in the spring of 1647 was to seek to mollify the army. His inclination towards moderation was perhaps encouraged by his many links with friends and relatives in the royalist camp. In 1644 the Committee for Advance of Money agreed to discharge the fine imposed on Yelverton’s sister Mary, and left her to the ‘discretion and tuition’ of her brother.95CCAM 326. He persuaded his royalist brother-in-law Sir Roger Twisden† to compound with Parliament for his estates, and also sheltered the deposed bishop of Durham, Thomas Morton.96Keeler, Long Parliament, 403-4; Arch. Cant. lviii. 45. Another royalist, Edward, 2nd Baron Montagu of Boughton, had been Yelverton’s friend during the 1630s, and the two remained in contact in the late 1640s.97HMC Buccleuch, i. 215, 277. In March 1649 Yelverton joined William Jephson* and Richard Knightley* in defending the rights of the countess of Peterborough, whose husband, Henry Mordaunt, the 2nd earl, faced ruin following his support of the king in the second civil war.98CCAM 634.

After the purge, Yelverton retired to Northamptonshire, and played no further part in political affairs. His recurrent ill health in earlier years may have presaged his premature death. In the preamble to his will, drawn up in November 1654, he called upon God to forgive his unworthiness, bemoaning the ‘sinfulness of my nature’, the ‘wickedness both of my whole life and conversation’, and the ‘millions of sins of my youth and riper age’. This breast-beating, perhaps prompted by recollection of his early years as a court drone, was offset by the godly company he now kept, as he left a small sum to his friend Edmund Calamy, and included his Presbyterian uncle, Nathaniel Stephens, among his executors.99PROB11/247/575. He also mentioned the imminent marriage of his daughter to Robert Montagu, 3rd earl of Manchester, which was a religious, as well as a social, coup.100PROB11/247/575; Add. 46185, f. 27; Vis. Northants 1681 ed. Longden, 141. Yelverton died in December 1654, and was buried at Easton Maudit, where a monument was erected in his memory.101Bridges, Northants. ii. 167. He was succeeded by his son, Henry†, who became the second baronet and sat for Northamptonshire in 1660 and 1664.102Add. 46185, f. 27; HP Commons 1660-90.