GOULD, James (1593-1676), of Dorchester, Dorset.

James Gould’s family, a cadet branch of the Devon Goulds, had become established in Dorchester only at the end of the sixteenth century.17Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 842. Despite this, James’s father, John Gould, was a successful clothier and quickly become one of the richest men in the town.18Bayley, Dorset, 16. He also secured influential local marriages for two of his four children: in 1610 Joan married Denis Bond* of Lutton, and in 1624 James married the daughter of George Savage of Bloxworth.19CSP Dom. 1627-8, p. 95; Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 842. By the time of his marriage Gould had already established himself in the cloth trade, with more success than scruple. He was a founder member of the Dorchester Company, with his brother-in-law, Denis Bond, and prominent local figures such as Sir Walter Erle* and Giles Grene*.20Rose-Troup, John White, 63, 450. In 1627 he joined his kinsman, William Gould of Exeter, and Richard Alford of Lyme in petitioning the 1st duke of Buckingham for compensation for £30,000-worth of cargo impounded by the French, and in 1639 he was accused of side-stepping the Poole customs and transporting goods privately.21CSP Dom. 1625-49, p. 604. Gould continued his father’s association with Dorchester, being involved with St Peter’s church, and holding lands in the adjacent parishes of All Saints and Fordington.22Dorset RO, St Peter’s, Dorchester, par. regs.; PE/DO(AS)/OV1; E179/272/54. He rose steadily through the ranks of the town’s hierarchy during the 1620s and 30s. He was elected capital burgess of the borough in 1623, bailiff in 1635, assistant governor in 1636, and mayor in 1637.23Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/1, f. 22; D/DOB/16/3, ff. 26v, 29v, 32.

Involvement in the corporation had brought Gould into closer contact with the leading figures in Dorchester, including Denis Bond (who was mayor in 1635 when Gould served as bailiff) and Sir Thomas Trenchard* (who sold him land in 1639), and these men may have encouraged him to oppose the unpopular policies of Charles I.24Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/3, f. 26v; C54/3235. Gould was a staunch opponent of Ship Money, no doubt encouraged by Bond. In 1635 and 1637 he was listed as being in arrears and in February 1639, the sheriff, Sir John Croke, singled him out for criticism, saying that his arrears had risen to £5 6s.25SP16/319/89; E179/272/54; CSP Dom. 1638-9, p. 421; PC Regs. v. 105. It was probably in connection with this charge that Gould was summoned to appear before the privy council on 26 April 1640.26PC Regs. x. 585.

Unsurprisingly, on the outbreak of civil war, Gould joined Bond in siding with Parliament, and he soon put his money at the service of the county committee. In April 1643, when support for Parliament was wavering in Dorset, he made a loan of £300, followed by £100 in June 1643 and a further £50 in August 1644 to pay off the troops of the Irish commander, Lord Inchiquin, who had recently surrendered Wareham to Parliament.27Bayley, Dorset, 17n; Bodl., Gough Dorset 14, ff. 1, 86. Gould also served as a captain in the local parliamentarian forces, raising a company to serve under the 5th earl of Bedford against the 1st marquess of Hertford’s threatened incursion into the county in the late summer of 1642.28Bayley, Dorset, 49. He was probably the James Gould who in December 1642 was recompensed 30s by the Dorchester corporation ‘in consideration of the hurt he [had] received in the service of the state’.29Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/4, p. 68. Gould continued to command his company of foot, paid for by the county committee, until at least 1645, and was present at the capitulation of Corfe Castle in February 1646.30Bodl., Gough Dorset 14, ff. 19, 21v, 91; Bayley, Dorset, 323. Gould may also have played a minor role in the county administration, as he reportedly sat as a magistrate in the quarter sessions in April 1646.31Christie, Shaftesbury, i. appx i, p. xxxiv.

Despite his service to the town and his continuing prominence as a merchant there, Gould’s ties with Dorchester seem to have loosened during the 1640s. He ceased to attend the town council after 1641, and refused to serve as bailiff, despite being repeatedly elected in 1644, 1645 and 1650.32Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/3, ff. 34, 44. It seems that Gould was becoming increasingly disenchanted with the parliamentary cause as the decade continued, and he certainly had qualms about accepting the commonwealth regime after the winter of 1648-9. The cooling of his enthusiasm perhaps indicates that he shared the Presbyterian sympathies of many in Dorset. The situation came to a head in October 1653, when Gould was elected mayor of Dorchester but refused to take the oath of Engagement to the commonwealth; and in the following August the town council removed him as capital burgess.33Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/4, p. 220. No further action was taken against him, however. He continued to rent land in Dorchester throughout the 1640s and 1650s, and even served as sheriff of the county in 1655-6, possibly through the influence of his influential brother-in-law, Denis Bond.34Dorset RO, PE/DO(AS)/OV1; D/BOC, Box 23, unfol.; List of Sheriffs, 39.

Gould’s rehabilitation came only in 1659, when he was unanimously elected as MP for Dorchester for Richard Cromwell’s* Parliament, his fellow MP being another prominent townsman, John Bushrod*. Gould is not recorded as having taken any part in this Parliament. In the following year the Dorchester election for the Convention Parliament was disputed, and Gould came third to Denzil Holles*, who had re-emerged as a major figure after years in the political wilderness, and the burgess John Whiteway*. Gould was said to be ‘short by 11 voices in general, and by 10 voices of the freeholders and freemen’.35Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/5, p. 84. That this reflected the prestige of Gould’s opponents rather than his own unpopularity in the town is confirmed by his election in February 1661 as burgess and senior alderman in the town, in place of Denis Bond, who had died three years earlier. In the following month Gould was returned for the borough in the Cavalier Parliament.36Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/5, p. 105.

Gould evidently continued to prosper during the 1660s. In the hearth tax records for 1664 he was listed as owning a house with 14 hearths in Dorchester, and other properties in West Stafford, Spetisbury and Wotton Glanville.37Dorset Hearth Tax, 4, 16, 40, 55. He remained active in local affairs, despite the onset of old age, and in 1675, aged 82, he was named as a commissioner for recusants in Dorset.38CTB iv. 695. In the same year he drew up a will which is eloquent testimony to his prosperity. He gave small sums to the poor of eight parishes in Dorset and Somerset where he had landed interests, and endowed each of his younger sons with a legacy of £1,000 or more.39PROB11/350/581. ‘Old James Gould’ died in the early weeks of 1676, at the age of 82, and was buried in St Peter’s church, Dorchester, on 15 February.40Dorset RO, St Peter, Dorchester, par. regs. He was succeeded by his eldest son, and namesake, James Gould.41PROB11/350/581.