FAGGE, John (1627-1701), of Rye, East Hoathly, and Wiston, Suss.

Fagge was descended from a Rye mercantile family, which had become increasingly prominent in the area, both in terms of wealth and status. Fagge’s great-grandfather, John Fagge (d. 1582), was a butcher who owned land in Iden, and who served as both jurat and mayor of Rye during the reign of Elizabeth I.33W. Suss. RO, Wiston MSS 1509, 2255, 4605; E. Suss. RO, Rye MS 138/12; HMC 13th Rep. IV, 23, 60, 69. His heir, also called John Fagge (d. 1639), served as bailiff of Romney Marsh.34W. Suss. RO, Wiston MSS 2260, 5041; E. Suss. RO, Rye MS 140/38. The family’s status continued to rise with the father of our MP, John Fagge (d. 1645), who achieved a degree of prominence within the administration of the county as well as the town of Rye. He served on the sewers commission from the 1620s, and was assessed for the purposes of taxation at £200 in 1634.35C181/3, ff. 59v-60, 94; 172v-74; C181/5, ff. 253v, 259, 260; E. Suss. RO, DAP1/2/1, ff. 18-58; DAP1/2/2, f. 7v; DAP1/2/3, p. 97; Rye MS 1/12, f. 106. Most importantly, however, in 1626 his marriage brought not only a respectable portion of £1,200, but also an entrée into the circle of one of the leading gentry families in the county, the Morleys of Glynde.36W. Suss. RO, Wiston MSS 1292-3.

This Fagge was almost certainly a puritan. His will expressed godly leanings, and included bequests to a number of ministers, including John Beaton of Rye, Joseph Hawksworth, and John Harrison of Emmanuel College.37PROB11/193/457. It was doubtless as a supporter of godly Protestantism and further reformation that in the autumn of 1640 Fagge senior stood for election at Rye, where he had recently been made a jurat.38E. Suss. RO, Rye MS 1/13, f. 4v. His partner was his wife’s brother-in-law William Hay*, but both men were defeated by outsiders with aristocratic support – John White I*, secretary to the 4th earl of Dorset (Sir Edward Sackville†) and Sir John Jacob*, the nominee of the lord warden of the Cinque Ports, then Theophilus Howard, 2nd earl of Suffolk.39E. Suss. RO, Rye MS 47/133, unfol. By the outbreak of the civil war, however, Fagge senior had become mayor of Rye, and during the early months of the conflict acted as treasurer for the collection of money and plate in the town.40E. Suss. RO, Rye MS 1/13, f. 57; SP28/181, unfol.; SP28/253A, vol. II, f. 193v. In June 1643 he was appointed to the county committee and offered to lend Parliament £1,000.41Bodl. Nalson XI. 290; CJ iii. 134b, 173a, 412a; HMC Portland, i. 709. He went on to serve on numerous local commissions.42A. and O.

The first member of the family to attend university, John Fagge junior was admitted in July 1644 both to the strongly puritan Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and to Gray’s Inn. Twelve months later his education may have been curtailed by the death of his father, whose will (24 July 1645) named William Hay and Harbert Morley*as executors and Fagge junior’s guardians,.43W. Suss. RO, Wiston MSS 1294, 2252, 4762-3, 5048; E. Suss. RO, Glynde MS 191. They rapidly proved the will (28 July) and on 1 October secured for their ward his election as recruiter MP for Rye, just short of his eighteenth birthday. The indenture was sealed two days later.44C219/43/6/4/145. Hay’s influence, together with Fagge’s proprietorial interest, procured the defeat of the prominent Presbyterian, John Bastwick, one of the puritan martyrs of the 1630s, who sought the place, probably with the support of Robert Rich, 2nd earl of Warwick.45E. Suss. RO, Rye MSS 1/13, f. 158; 47/138/1; 47/140.

Fagge – whose return was probably aimed largely at blocking Bastwick – did not play an active role in the Commons before Pride’s purge. He took the Covenant on 29 October 1645, but did not appear again in the Journal for two years, nor in connection with any business for more than four.46CJ iv. 326a. Like Morley and Hay, on the other hand, he was in regular contact with his constituents.47E. Suss. RO, Rye MSS 1/13, f. 197; 1/14, ff. 37v, 306v; 47/139, unfol.; 47/144, unfol; 47/145/1; 47/145/2. All three men were recorded as being absent from Westminster at the call of the House on 9 October 1647, although the fines imposed on them were revoked later in the month, upon satisfactory explanation of the reasons for their absence.48CJ v. 330b, 344a.

Despite his apparent anonymity within the Commons, on 6 January 1649 Fagge was named, along with Morley, as a commissioner for the trial of Charles I. He attended some of the preparatory stages for the trial in the painted chamber, usually alongside his mentor, but probably followed Morley in not attending the trial itself or signing the death warrant.49Muddiman, Trial, 194, 199, 201. Fagge only took the dissent from the vote of 5 December 1648 (in favour of a personal treaty with the king) on 5 February, after the execution, thereby expressing his conformity with the new regime, rather than his approval for the revolutionary actions of recent weeks.50PA, Ms CJ xxxiii, p. 645.

Fagge almost certainly approved of the republican government, however. Following the abolition of kingship and the House of Lords he began to play a more prominent role in political and administrative affairs, albeit as a loyal associate of Morley, and albeit in the county more than at Westminster. Nominated in April 1649 to the Sussex commission of the peace, he remained active throughout the ensuing decade and became firmly established in local life.51Suss. QSOB 1642-1649, 174; E. Suss. RO, QO/EW2, ff. 4v-63v; QO/EW3, ff. 1-63. Even before he came into his full inheritance, he expanded his landed estate, in particular purchasing the prestigious manor of Wiston from John Tufton, 2nd earl of Thanet at a cost of nearly £7,000, and in February 1650, the manor of Chartham in Kent from the commissioners for the sale of crown lands for £2,500.52C54/3461/3; W. Suss. RO, Wiston MSS 1295, 1326, 3658, 4765-6.

Fagge received his first Commons appointments in July 1649, when he was added to the committees for the court of wards (14 July) and for Irish affairs (20 July).53CJ vi. 260a, 266b. He then disappeared from the Journal until May 1650, when he was named to four committees, one of which concerned a local matter (Sackville College), and only one of which, that for settling the militia (28 May), was of any real significance.54CJ vi. 413b, 417a, 418a. During the remainder of Rump he had only two further committee nominations, which concerned the taking away of honours conferred by the king during the 1640s (16 Apr. 1651) and an attempt to encourage merchants to set forth ships for the use of the commonwealth (4 Nov. 1652).55CJ vi. 562b; vii. 210a. Nevertheless, in November 1652 he narrowly missed securing election to the council of state. Fagge and two other MPs polled 39 votes for the last place, but the name of Thomas Harrison I* was plucked from the hat.56CJ vii. 221a. Although he appears to have remained active in committee until the dissolution of the Rump in April 1653, there is no sign of him in the chamber.57SP46/97, f. 21.

Like Morley, Fagge took an oath to be faithful to the commonwealth of England and its government as a free state, without a king, single person or House of Lords.58CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 62. Alongside his work on the Sussex commission of the peace, he was active in religious matters. In January 1654, for example, he was involved in drafting a report for the council of state concerning the appointment of a minister, Samuel Wilmer, to the parish of Clapham in Sussex.59CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 369. That February he supported a petition on behalf of his local minister Nehemiah Beaton of Wiston (son of his father’s friend John Beaton), who was to be dogged by controversy for his comments on Charles I and Charles II, and who at the Restoration was ejected from his living, although protected by Morley.60SP18/66, f. 133; CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 416; Calamy Revised; N. Beaton, No Treason to say Kings are Gods Subjects (1661).

In the Parliament of 1654 Fagge sat as one of the knights of the shire for the county. As one of those Sussex Members who probably disapproved of the protectorate, Fagge was not noticeably active. He was appointed on one occasion to inform Francis Cheynell, assistant to the Sussex triers and ejectors, that he had been invited to preach a fast sermon.61CJ vii. 366a; ‘Francis Cheynell’, Oxford DNB. Fagge was named to only four committees during the Parliament, including the committee of privileges, and, more controversially, the committee appointed on 18 December 1654 for preparing the bill for a new constitution to replace the Instrument of Government.62CJ vii. 366b, 380a, 381b, 403a.

By late 1655 Major-general William Goffe* suspected the loyalty of Fagge and his friends, informing Secretary John Thurloe* on 7 November that he planned to exclude Morley, Fagge, and Hay from the list of commissioners for executing the protector’s orders in the county. Goffe had received reports that Fagge was ‘lately observed to be too gracious with disaffected men, besides will not stir a hair’s breadth without Colonel Morley’.63TSP iv. 161. However, Goffe conceded a week later that Fagge

was very free and courteous, professing himself very ready to assist me in any public business, though (as he saith) he was very glad he was not named to his [sic] employment.64TSP iv. 190.

Evidently selective, Fagge was willing to continue with his work as a justice of the peace, and in 1657 he served as a commissioner for charitable uses in Rye.65E. Suss. RO, Rye MSS 112/5, 112/6.

Yet Morley and Fagge were active once again in securing seats in the second protectorate Parliament for men opposed to the government. Fagge was returned for the county, but both he and Morley attended the election at Rye, in order to ensure the return of William Hay.66E. Suss. RO, Rye MS 47/153/2. The names of both Morley and Fagge then appeared on the declaration of Members secluded from the Parliament by the powers vested in the protector under the Instrument of Government, but Morley claimed that neither he nor Fagge had any knowledge of this, and denied suggestions that they were active opponents of the government.67The Humble Remonstrance and Appeale of Several Knights and Gentlemen Duly Chosen (1656, E.889.8); TSP v. 456, 490. Although Morley stressed that he and Fagge planned to live quietly in the country, Fagge was back at Westminster by 3 February 1658, when the Commons divided on a matter concerning the ‘other House’. When the question was put whether to form a committee of the whole House regarding the issue, the House was equally divided, but Fagge, who had missed the vote because he was not informed that it was taking place, claimed that he had been present at the debate, and argued successfully to be allowed to register his opinion. Casting what was effectively the deciding vote, Fagge enabled the victory of those who wanted the matter to be discussed by a grand committee.68CJ vii. 591b; Burton’s Diary, ii. 436-7.

In Richard Cromwell’s Parliament of 1659, the number of county seats was reduced, making it more difficult for Fagge and Morley to guarantee their return as knights of the shire, and prompting both men to hedge their bets with a number of constituencies. On 16 December 1658 Morley and Fagge wrote to the mayor of Rye recommending William Hay, while asking that the town’s election be held after the county election, so that they themselves could seek a place in the town in the event of failing to secure a county seat.69E.Suss. RO, Rye MS 47/157/7. In addition, Fagge was also elected for two other Sussex constituencies, Horsham and Bramber, and took a seat in the Commons before having chosen which borough to represent. In the meantime, on 28 January 1659 he was named to the committee for elections and on 2 February he acted as teller, with John Goodwyn*, for the majority against putting the question for removing former army officer Lewis Audley* from the Surrey commission of the peace following a violent confrontation at Westminster connected with an election dispute.70CJ vii. 594b, 597b. On 7 February the Horsham election was declared void, following a dispute, and on the 11th Fagge opted to sit for the county, whereupon a new writ was also issued for an election at Bramber.71Mercurius Politicus no. 553 (3-10 Feb. 1659), 222-3 (E.761.13); CJ vii. 601a, 602a; Burton’s Diary, iii. 203. Fagge is subsequently recorded to have spoken on two occasions, in debates on the ‘recognition’ of the lord protector (14 Feb.) and – apparently more expansively and more authoritatively as to parliamentary procedures – on the business of Irish MPs (9 Mar.), both of which probably represented republican-inspired attempts to filibuster and delay proceedings.72Burton’s Diary, iii. 284; iv. 104.

Fagge assumed a prominent role at Westminster only with the restoration of the Rump in May 1659, working most often with fellow republicans such as Morley, Valentine Wauton*, and Sir Arthur Hesilrige*.73CJ vii. 704b, 705b, 717b. He continued to address the interests of Rye, particularly in regard to their complaints about taxes, poverty, and the decay of trade, and the charges of quartered soldiers.74E. Suss. RO, Rye MSS 47/157/12, 47/161/1. But he was also appointed to a number of important committees concerned with planning for the new council of state (16 May), navy commissioners (18 May), mariners (22 June, 2 July) and the militia (27 June).75CJ vii. 656a, 656b, 691b, 694b, 702a. He was also involved in moves against religious radicals (1 July), and against delinquents in London (5 July), as well as matters involving some knowledge of Whitehall – investigating the ownership of furniture in former royal palaces (23 May) and reviewing outstanding expenses for mourning for Oliver Cromwell* (4 July).76CJ vii. 663a, 700b, 704b, 705b.

During the summer, however, Fagge became involved in the work which eventually brought him to national prominence, in a key military role in the last months before the Restoration. At the end of July Fagge was appointed commander of the Sussex militia; his commission was to be prepared by Morley (15 Aug.).77TSP vii. 712; Mercurius Politicus no. 583 (11-18 Aug. 1659), 672 (E.195.40); CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 562; SP28/335/50; SP28/335/59; SP28/335/82; CJ vii. 759b. His command was confirmed on 1 September, and although he was named to committees regarding the assessment (1 Sept.) and the settlement of the government (8 Sept.), he was not visible in the Commons between 8 September and the ‘interruption’ of proceedings on 13 October, and may have been absent for significantly longer. 78CJ vii. 772a, 775b. On the other hand, Fagge sent reports to Morley and Bulstrode Whitelocke* from Chichester, including news of the arrest of royalist suspects, and on 4 August Whitelocke despatched instructions to him to maintain the garrison at Cowdray House.79CCSP iv. 307; W. Suss. RO, Cowdray MS 4935, p. 64.

Sometime during the ‘interruption’, Fagge and Morley appear to have considered switching their allegiance to Charles II. Morley was approached by the diarist John Evelyn to this end; apparently well inclined, both Morley and Fagge sought to obtain a pardon from the king. While Morley left London, Fagge stayed in town to keep up the contact. However, when General George Monck* declared for a Parliament, Wauton, Hesilrige and Morley forged a deal with Colonel Nathaniel Whetham I*, in the hope of securing Portsmouth against army die-hards. Morley then travelled to Portsmouth, while Fagge went to Sussex.80Baker, Chronicle (1665), 736; Evelyn Diary, ed. De Beer, iii. 238. It was soon reported that Fagge was trying to raise troops in the region with a commission from the republican grandee Thomas Scot I*, although the pro-army journalist Marchamont Nedham claimed that he ‘hath done nothing considerable, and another party of ours is by this time at the back of him, to prevent his further acting’. Fagge was arrested in mid-December, having ‘got together an hundred men’ in order to join Morley, Wauton and Hesilrige at Portsmouth. Apparently warned that Lieutenant-colonel Waldive Lagoe* was following him, he barricaded himself in Wiston, but was captured by Lagoe and sent to London.81Mercurius Politicus no. 598 (8-15 Dec. 1659), 946 (E.773.26); Rugg, Diurnal, 15; CCSP iv. 481; FSL, V.a.454, p. 59; Clarke Pprs, iv. 188.

Fagge was presumably released once the Rump was restored at the end of December 1659. He immediately resumed an active role in the House, being added to the committee of inspections on 26 December and appointed to a number of committees in the next few days, particularly on matters to do with the army and with those imprisoned during the ‘interruption’.82CJ vii. 797a, 798a, 799a, 800a. On the committee which prepared a bill for indemnifying soldiers who had declared for Parliament (28 Dec.), he was a teller against indemnifying those who had not.83CJ vii. 798b, 802b. On the latter he opposed Hesilrige, but he aligned with civilian republican leader Scot I as a teller over a customs appointment.84CJ vii. 798a. His own loyalty to the Rump was recognised on 29 December, when the House declared its approval of his actions and those of others in opposing the army.85CJ vii. 799a; Mercurius Politicus no. 601 (29 Dec. 1659-5 Jan. 1660), 992 (E.773.39). Previous private discussions regarding an accommodation with the king were apparently now dropped, with one observer commenting that Fagge was ‘now again at the helm and intends the world shall see, he has a better faculty in acting than in suffering’.86Baker, Chronicle (1665), 736-7; FSL, V.a.454, p. 60.

An indication of the eminence of Morley and Fagge within Westminster came on 30 December with their appointment to the council of state; Fagge was one of those who counted the votes.87CJ vii. 800a, 800b; Mercurius Politicus no. 601 (29 Dec. 1659-5 Jan. 1660), 995 (E.773.39); Rugg, Diurnal, 24. But both declined to take the oath of the new council, which would have involved abjuring the royal Stuart line, and were thus unable to take their places (2 Jan. 1660).88Baker, Chronicle (1665), 739-40. Furthermore, on the following day Fagge was a minority teller against reading the bill for an oath to renounce the title of Charles Stuart, in opposition to two more radical republicans, Henry Neville* and Augustine Garland*.89CJ vii. 803b. Despite – or perhaps because of – an apparently decisive split with his former republican allies, Fagge remained active in the month before the readmission of the secluded Members, receiving appointments to committees addressing the restructuring of government and administration, including the great seal, the admiralty and navy, the Army Committee, the commission of the peace and the militia.90CJ vii. 806a, 806b, 811a, 821a, 822b.

However, Fagge and Morley appear to have found themselves unable to secure the changes which they desired. On 28 January, for example, they failed to marshal sufficient votes against the appointment of Colonel Thomas Middleton as a commissioner for the admiralty.91CJ vii. 825b. On 17 January Fagge was again thwarted when he and Thomas Lister* opposed the motion to send Major Richard Salwey* to the Tower for assisting the army and the committee of safety against the civilian republicans, being defeated by more than two to one by Richard Darley* and Colonel Edmund Harvey I*.92CJ vii. 814a. By the end of January (Sir) Edward Hyde* was informed that Fagge formed part of a pro-Monck cabal which met in the Tower, and which included Morley and Oliver St John*.93CCSP iv. 533. Absent from the Journal between 28 January and 15 February, Fagge re-appeared as Monck arranged meetings with the secluded Members and received two nominations, including one to consider the engagement to be taken by councillors of state.94CJ vii. 843b, 844a. He received another on the 21st, the day the secluded Members were re-admitted, and on the 22nd and 23rd two more to prepare MPs’ qualifications to sit and settle the militias.95CJ vii. 848a, 848b, 849a. But these not unimportant appointments were his last before the dissolution of Parliament on 15 March.

Despite their evident support for Monck, and their stance against the army in late 1659, neither Fagge nor Morley stood much chance of being returned to the Convention as knights of the shire. Morley secured a place at Rye, while Fagge was elected at Steyning. He was named only to the committee of privileges.96HP Commons 1660-1690. In the meantime, following the king’s declaration from Breda and the escape of John Lambert* from the Tower (10 Apr.), the regiments of both Morley and Fagge signed the remonstrance of allegiance to Monck.97Rugg, Diurnal, 69. As it became clear in early May that a restoration of the monarchy was imminent, it was reported to Hyde that both men were seeking pardons from the king.98CCSP v. 7. Fagge’s regiment took the oaths of supremacy and allegiance on 10 June, and on 13 July letters patent were signed for his pardon.99Mercurius Publicus no. 25 (14-21 June 1660), 399 (E.186.6); W. Suss. RO, Wiston MS 5407; SO3/13, unfol. Although he was removed from the commission of the peace in August, and was forced to petition to be able to keep former crown lands in Chartham which he had purchased, in December he was awarded a baronetcy.100C231/7, p. 32; CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 247; SO3/13, unfol.

During the remainder of his long life, Fagge sustained a remarkable parliamentary career, and in addition to keeping his own seat, sought to maintain his influence over other boroughs, especially Rye.101E. Suss. RO, Rye MS 47/165, unfol. In April 1661 he was selected by the town to attend the king’s coronation on its behalf, and to carry his majesty’s canopy.102HMC 13th Rep. IV, 239. However, while he remained in Parliament until 1700, Fagge never again assumed the political prominence which he achieved in the 1650s, although in 1675 he became the focus for a famous and acrimonious dispute concerning parliamentary privilege between the Commons and Lords.103HMC Hamilton, ii. 89; HMC 9th Rep. pt. 2, pp. 56–7. Yet he remained a powerful and wealthy figure in his county, and one who would consistently be styled a ‘whig’, and who was prepared to patronise religious non-conformists like John Beaton.104Calamy Revised. His abiding friendship with Harbert Morley was evident from his nomination as executor of Morley’s will, and guardian of his young children.105E. Suss. RO, Glynde MSS 181-2, 193, 966–70; Firle MS, Box 22/11; W. Suss. RO, Wiston MS 1537. His prosperity is indicated by his ability to give a portion of £4,500 to one of his daughters in 1678, and another of £3,000 to a younger daughter in 1682.106W. Suss. RO, Wiston MSS 4973-4, 4979; Add. 44207; E. Suss. RO, HIC/167. Fagge settled his estate in 1683, but survived until January 1701. 107W. Suss. RO, Wiston MS 4695. His eldest son John Fagg II†, who sat for New Shoreham, pre-deceased him; he was thus succeeded as second baronet by his next son, Robert Fagg†, who sat twice for New Shoreham and three times for Steyning.108CB; HP Commons 1660-1690; HP Commons 1690-1715.