FOXWIST, William (?1610-73), of Caernarfon, Caern. and St Albans, Herts.

Foxwist’s forebears, cadets of a Cheshire family, had settled in Caernarfon by the early sixteenth century. A brass memorial to Richard Foxwist (d. 1500), the first of the line in the district, survives in Llanbeblig church. He was evidently a notary.22J. M. Lewis, Welsh Monumental Brasses (Cardiff, 1974), 40. Other Foxwists became burgesses of Caernarvon borough.23NLW, H R Hughes (Kinmel) MS 32. William Foxwist’s father, also Richard, was active in a supporting role in Caernarfonshire government. In 1613, two years before his death, he provided a deputy lieutenant with an account of arms in his custody.24NLW, Clenennau MS 112. On his mother’s side of the family, William Foxwist was the grandson of William Thomas of Aber, a professional soldier, who sat for Caernarvonshire in 1574 and 1584 before his death in Flanders under the command of the earl of Leicester, at the battle of Zutphen in 1586.25HP Commons 1558-1603; DWB. William Foxwist, an eldest son, was born in Caernarfon, and his father, Richard, died when he was a child. William was sent to Oxford and Lincoln’s Inn, doubtless at the behest of his mother’s brothers, who were prominent in the government of their native county. One of Foxwist’s manucaptors at his admission to Lincoln’s Inn was John Glynne*, and in 1632 Foxwist in turn stood surety for the admission of Glynne’s son, William Glynne*.26LIL, Admission Bk. 6, ff. 16v, 57. He was called to the bar in 1636 on the same occasion as Matthew Hale* and Augustine Wingfield*, and practised law in north Wales and in London. He was part of a network of north Wales lawyers who looked out for places for new entrants to the profession from their region, and generally assisted them in the capital.27Cal. Lttrs. relating to N. Wales, 45, 47. But he seems never to have served on any commissions issued from chancery or exchequer.

Foxwist probably remained in London during the early stages of the civil war, and did not involve himself in it. A statement that he was a commissioner for the king in his native county cannot be substantiated; but when a kinsman from north Wales arrived in the capital in 1646 after an association with the defeated royalist cause, he found Foxwist one of the few to offer him help.28Jones, Brief Account, 12; Cal. Lttrs. relating to N. Wales, 66. He was well thought of by those who managed the parliamentary executive. In December 1644, the Committee for Examinations intervened in the governance of St Albans by proposing Foxwist as steward there, an office that had arguably been abolished by a charter of Charles I. Foxwist, who was acceptable to the mayor and principal burgesses, was duly sworn as freeman and steward.29Gibbs, Recs. of St Albans, 72, 297. On 1 June 1645 he became recorder of St Albans, and the following month was awarded the stewardship of several sequestered royalist manors in Essex and Suffolk by the Committee for Advance of Money, with the right to receive the customary fees: a stewardship in Buckinghamshire was added to these in the following January.30CCAM 121, 179, 304. Foxwist’s association with St Albans was cemented by his marriage to the daughter of John Pemberton of that borough, who was living in 1634 when he attested to the accuracy of the heralds’ pedigree of his family; he was of at least the third generation of it to live in the town.31Vis. Herts. 1572, 1634 (Harl. Soc. xxii), 81.

In June 1646, Foxwist’s patron in his steady accumulation of stewardships and legal offices was revealed to be John Glynne, his manucaptor at Lincoln’s Inn when he first arrived in London, and now recorder of London. Glynne’s wish to promote Foxwist to the post of judge of admiralty cases in north Wales was accepted by the Committee for the Admiralty and Cinque Ports, to which Glynne himself would be added as a member six months later.32LJ viii. 398b. On 8 December 1646, the writ for Caernarvon Boroughs was moved, to recruit a replacement for Foxwist’s uncle, William Thomas, who had been disabled for royalism.33CJ v. 4a. There can be little doubt that Foxwist’s successful candidacy on 13 January 1647 was at the behest of Glynne, and that he was returned on the assumption that his presence would augment the Presbyterian interest, of which Glynne was a leading member. With 19 other new MPs, Foxwist took the Covenant on 24 February.34CJ v. 97a. His first committee appointment came on 6 April, when he was included in the committee to examine the petition of Newcastle-upon-Tyne freemen for a new representative in Parliament. Just over a week later (14 Apr.), he was granted leave of absence, and on 8 July was allowed the same privilege. It was not until 14 December that he was again noticed by the Journal clerk, who noted his inclusion in the committee chaired by Thomas Pury I on an ordinance to punish the soap monopolists of the 1630s.35CJ v. 134a, 142a, 236b, 383a. His very low profile through 1647 coincided with the travails experienced by his patron Glynne, impeached by the army in June 1647 as one of the Eleven Members. Glynne’s brother, Thomas Glynne*, a colleague of Foxwist’s in the vice-admiral’s court in north Wales and like him a beneficiary of John Glynne’s patronage, was mentioned in the impeachment articles, though Foxwist escaped notice.36A Particular Charge or Impeachment (1647), 24 (E.397.17).

On 4 January 1648 Foxwist was named to the committee set up to redress the grievances of the people, which was led by Thomas Scot I and Alexander Rigby I, both committed members of the Independent interest in the House. Further committees, on petitions and on indemnity for tenants well-affected to Parliament, quickly followed.37CJ v. 417a,425a, 447b, On 19 April, he, John Corbett, Humphrey Edwardes and Sir Gregory Norton were asked to bring in an ordinance to reward Thomas Mytton* for his part in reducing north Wales to the will of Parliament. Foxwist was the only one of these draftsmen not associated with the Independents in the House.38CJ v. 537b. By this time, Glynne’s rehabilitation had begun, and Foxwist’s profile rose accordingly. In the wake of the second civil war, Foxwist was asked to frame the ordinance which imposed sequestration on the north Wales participants in the revolt against Parliament (10 June). He was also required to work with John Jones I, an Independent, on a narrative of the capture of Sir John Owen, the rebel leader, for publication; and also with Jones was to prepare for the Speaker’s signature a letter of thanks to the parliamentarian commanders in the region: Mytton, John Carter*, George Twisleton* and Robert Duckenfield*.39CJ v. 592b, 593a. With Thomas Erle*, Foxwist was tasked with considering the best way to proceed judicially against Owen. On 14 June, Foxwist was named to the committee on the insurrection in Kent, and the same day reported on the process to be followed for Owen’s trial.40CJ v. 599b, 600a. He was responsible for the ordinance to reimburse from sequestrations the expenses incurred by Thomas Madrin*, John Carter and Thomas Mytton in suppressing Owen’s rebellion (27 June), and the same day was given extensive responsibility for tuning the north Wales commissions of the peace.41CJ v. 613a. The Derby House Committee summoned Foxwist three times that month on the unspecified business of ‘Mr Wynne’, possibly Thomas Wynne, who was sought six months earlier by Sir Thomas Fairfax* in connection with disorder in Caernarfon; and more reliably a man likely to have been linked to Foxwist by ties of kinship through marriage.42CSP Dom. 1648-9, pp. 33, 100, 127, 147; Cal. Wynn Pprs, 304; PROB11/343, f. 319v.

Foxwist was probably the author of the ordinance he took to the Lords on 26 July, to support an able minister in his adoptive town of St Albans.43CJ v. 648a. On matters relating to the imposing of Parliament’s will on north Wales, Foxwist was at this point of equal importance to John Jones I. Working with Jones, he was given responsibility for bringing in an ordinance to raise taxes to pay soldiers in north Wales (1 Aug.), and he and Jones were entrusted with identifying reliable men to serve in local office in Merioneth. Foxwist took to the Lords the ordinance to reward Twisleton and Carter for their military achievements.44CJ v. 656a, 661a. On 14 August, he took to the Lords three ordinances, the most important of which was one proposing an association of the five counties of north Wales. This was the single one of the three which the Lords held up, but on the 21st they approved it, and Foxwist was among the commissioners named for Caernarfonshire.45CJ v. 670b; LJ x. 448a. On 4 October, he and Sir John Trevor were required to write a letter thanking Mytton and Jones for securing Anglesey for Parliament, and on 17 November, a day after his elevation to become a bencher at Lincoln’s Inn and unusually in the light of the general run of his appointments, he was added to a committee that had no particular focus on north Wales: an ordinance that would have exempted adherents of Parliament from paying arrears of fee farm rents.46CJ vi. 43b, 78b. Among his fellow nominees to this committee were William Prynne, John Glynne, Nathaniel Stephens and Thomas Gewen, all redoubtable figures among the Presbyterian interest. His political and judicial ascent was cut short on 6 December. Despite his work in rewarding (and consolidating politically) Parliament’s military victors in north Wales, Foxwist was evidently considered hostile by the New Model, probably by association with Glynne, and he was among the Members secluded at the purge of the House.47A List of the Imprisoned and Secluded Members (1648, 669.f.13.62).

During the period of the commonwealth, Foxwist was able to sustain his legal career, but continued in public life as a magistrate in Caernarfonshire and as a commissioner for the assessment in Hertfordshire. He retained his recordership of St Albans. He made adjustments to his land holdings in north-west Wales between 1649 and 1651.48NLW, Peniarth Estate, DC102, DC103. Crucially, he retained his links with Glynne. Although he was left out of any special commissions to try rebels against the Rump Parliament, he was entrusted in February 1654, along with John Carter* and Griffith Bodurda* with the conveyancing of the manor and castle of Hawarden to Glynne. The property came to Glynne, via Sir John Trevor* and others, from Charles, 8th earl of Derby, heir of the 7th earl, executed for treason and attainted in 1651. The transactions show Foxwist to have been Glynne’s agent and trustee.49NLW, Hawarden 337, 342, 346, 348. Foxwist and Bodurda joined Glynne in making a presentation to the living of Hawarden in 1657.50LPL, COMM/2/335. In May 1654, Glynne was made lord protector’s serjeant, which could only bode well for Foxwist, and in the elections to the first protectorate Parliament Foxwist was returned for Anglesey alongside Glynne, who sat for neighbouring Caernarvonshire.

When the Parliament opened in September 1654, Foxwist was named to important committees on the constitution (on the bill known as the Recognition, 25 Sept.) and on Irish affairs (28 Sept.).51CJ vii. 370a, 371b. A number of committees dealing with review of the ordinances of the protector’s council claimed his attention: on scandalous ministers (25 Sept.), on chancery and on all ordinances of the 1653 Parliament as well as of the council (5, 10 Oct.).52CJ vii. 374a, 375b, He was named to committees on the abuses of writs and on the petition of William, 1st Baron Craven.53CJ vii. 381a, 381b. By 25 November he had become the leading legal commentator on the bill designed to reform chancery, and on 4 December it was Foxwist who reported the bill for regulating that court.54CJ vii. 390a, 394b. Two more committees followed in December: on a bill designed to pull together the votes taken on the constitution (7 Dec.), and on the abolition of purveyance (22 Dec.).55CJ vii. 398a, 407b. In contrast to his profile in the Long Parliament, Foxwist’s committee appointments in 1654 were almost all legal in character, drawing upon his professional expertise. None was particularly concerned with affairs in north Wales. He was named to no further committees in what remained of the Parliament.

In July 1655, a month after Glynne became chief justice of the upper bench, Foxwist was given a judicial appointment, which confirmed that he was regarded as dependable by the Cromwellian government, as well as continuing to travel politically in Glynne’s wake. As second justice on the Brecon circuit of great sessions (the chief justice was John Corbett*), he was posted away from his usual home territories of Caernarfonshire and Hertfordshire, with a new profile in the south Wales counties of Brecon, Glamorgan and Radnor.56Williams, Hist. Gt. Sessions in Wales, 61, 137. He remained active at Lincoln’s Inn, acting with John Maynard* in June 1656 as counsel for the inn in defence of its interests.57LI Black Bks. ii. 413. As a commissioner for the security of the protector from June 1656, he was thus part of a pool of individuals who could be called on to serve on special high courts of justice. His judicial appointment kept him out of the second protectorate Parliament. He was expected by his brother-in-law to be at Hereford assizes in August 1658, perhaps acting as counsel, but on the death of Oliver Cromwell* Foxwist walked in the funeral procession by virtue of being a Welsh judge.58Herbert Corresp. 154; Burton’s Diary, ii. 525. He conducted at least one marriage in St Albans in the second half of the 1650s, on the authority vested in him as recorder and magistrate there.59Par. Regs. of St Albans Abbey ed. W. Brigg (Harpenden, 1897), 165.

By a charter of confirmation of 3 May 1658, Swansea, which lay in Foxwist’s great sessions circuit, was granted the privilege of returning a single Member to Parliament. With his previous parliamentary experience and regional seniority on the bench, Foxwist would have been a credible candidate at any election, but he had no electoral interest of his own in west Glamorgan. He must have been elected to Richard Cromwell’s* only Parliament with the approval of Philip Jones*, Swansea’s high steward, chamberlain and chancellor of the Brecon circuit and the dominant political figure in the region.60Grant Francis, Swansea Charters, 51. Foxwist made only a slight contribution to the Parliament when it assembled. He was named to one committee only, a controversial retrospective enquiry (5 Feb. 1659) into the finances of the Welsh church since the Long Parliament, a committee in which his ally Philip Jones was placed under pressure.61CJ vii. 600b. He spoke on 11 February to defend the right of Richard Cromwell to act with the full title of lord protector; against those, mainly republicans, who sought to circumscribe his authority: ‘If I had questioned his highness being protector, I had not been here. I have sworn to it, and hope I shall defend it. My motion is to leave out the limitations’.62Burton’s Diary, iii. 204. The purpose of his intervention in the debate on the case of the suspected former royalist Robert Danvers alias Villiers* (12 Feb.) appears to have been to bring the discussion to a conclusion, a further suggestion that he was on the side of the government’s business managers.63Burton’s Diary, iii. 246. On 1 March, Foxwist himself was briefly in the sights of the protectorate’s critics. Mathew Alured* asserted that the burgess for Swansea was sitting in the House even though no sheriff’s return had yet reached Westminster. Perhaps sensing the implications for other Members were procedural niceties to be observed punctiliously, the House ‘waived’ the matter.64Burton’s Diary, iii. 562.

After the collapse of the protectorate, Foxwist lost his judgeship on the Brecon circuit, although he continued in the commission of the peace in Caernarfonshire and Hertfordshire. He continued to enjoy a prominent standing at Lincoln’s Inn, where in November 1659 his opinion was sought on a legacy of a benefactor.65LI Black Bks. ii. 425, 431. He was among the secluded Members re-admitted to the House on 21 February 1660, and the following day, with Prynne, John Maynard, Sir William Waller and Thomas Erle, undertook to bring in legislation to repeal the act which specified the wording of the electoral writ.66CJ vii. 848b. Many of the 10 committee nominations he received between 22 February and the dissolution on 16 March were legal in character. They included committees on bills for Lancashire assizes (24 Feb.), to revive jurisdictions in the counties-palatine of Chester and Lancaster (3 Mar.) and the future form of writs of election to Cinque Ports seats (13, 14 Mar.).67CJ vii. 851b, 860b, 873b, 876b. He was also named to a committee for a bill to settle the militia (23 Feb.) and one to decide which individuals should be released from imprisonment or sequestration (27 Feb.).68CJ vii. 849a, 854a. Foxwist was included in the committee to settle the ministry of the church and a confession of faith, and after Edward Harley had reported a bill for the approbation of ministers (2 Mar.), he was among the additions to Harley’s committee.69CJ vii. 856a, 858a. He was added to the committee to settle Hampton Court and other properties on George Monck*, and he himself was rewarded on 14 March with a restoration to the judiciary, as justice-associate for Chester, and second justice on the Chester circuit.70CJ vii. 855a, 876a.

Foxwist would probably have regarded his appointment to the Chester circuit as a promotion, since it was the native region of his ancestors, but he was not to enjoy the post for long. He was removed from it in August 1660, after having sat in the Convention for St Albans. On 25 January 1661, doubtless anticipating that the visit of commissioners for regulating corporations would be unsympathetic, he resigned his recordership of St Albans.71Gibbs, Recs. of St Albans, 76. He continued to live there, however, though he had lost all local office, and in August 1662 advised a cousin from north Wales on the best way to recover lands, the title to which had been compromised by the attainder of John Jones I*.72Cal. Lttrs. relating to N. Wales, 122. There remained only Lincoln’s Inn and the law, with an occasional foray into north Wales. In 1665 he was working as steward of the manors of Great and Little Stanmore, Middlesex, for the owner, Sir Lancelot Lake, a fellow bencher.73LMA, Acc/0784/003; LI Black Bks. iii. 7. Foxwist faded out, and was reduced to associate benchership of his inn (3 June 1673).74LI Black Bks. iii. 89. His will, dated 25 March 1673 and proved on 14 December that year, suggests that he died £800 in debt, and that even after the sale of his property in Caernarfon his childless widow could expect an income of little over £100 a year. It also shows him as a benefactor of his native town, and a critic of unreconstructed Welsh funeral customs which he expressly forbade to be practised at his. He left £5 a year to the incumbent of Llanbeblig to be a bilingual ‘preaching minister’.75PROB11/343, f. 319v.