LLOYD, John (c.1617-63), of Fforest Brechfa, Llanfihangel Rhos-y-corn, Carm. and Woking, Surr.

The paternal ancestors of John Lloyd had been at Fforest for six generations before him, and the property had descended in the maternal line for many generations before that. Tudor pedigrees traced Lloyd’s ancestors to Rhydderch, a chieftain slain in 997 in a skirmish between the princes of south and north Wales.19West Wales Recs. i.61-3; Dwnn, Vis. Wales, i. 222-3. Lloyd’s father served as a magistrate from 1616 and as high sheriff of his county in 1626-7. On his mother’s side, Lloyd was descended from Pembrokeshire gentry. His mother’s brother was married to the sister of Hugh Owen of Orielton, who from 1626 sat in five Parliaments for Pembroke Boroughs and Haverfordwest.20West Wales Recs. vii. 3; HP Commons 1604-1629. Born the second son of the family, Lloyd was evidently expected to earn a living, and was sent to Gray’s Inn, although he was never called to the bar. Instead of pursuing a career in law, he joined the army and served as a junior officer in the regiment of Sir John Meyrick*, a Pembrokeshire professional soldier, when it went to the north to fight the Scots in the second bishops’ war. Lloyd adhered to Meyrick at the outbreak of the civil war in 1642, beginning the conflict as a captain in his regiment. His civil war service remains obscure, but it can reasonably be inferred that he followed Meyrick on active service. In June 1644 he may have been the Lieutenant-colonel Lloyd wounded in a skirmish near Oxford; if so, his injuries would have saved him from the ignominy of the disaster which overwhelmed the earl of Essex, Meyrick and their army, when they were obliged to surrender at Lostwithiel early in September. With Essex at that time was a ‘Captain Floyd’, unlikely to have been John Lloyd, who retired from the army no later than the self-denying ordinance of April 1645, which ended the military career of his immediate patron, Meyrick.21Rushworth, Hist. Collns. v. 671, 702. Active military service also explains Lloyd’s omission from the list of commissioners for the association of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire (10 June 1644), headed by Meyrick.

In 1646 Lloyd married Beatrice Zouch, the widow of a royalist colonel and daughter of the Irish politician Francis Annesley†, Viscount Valentia [I], who was related by marriage to the Philipps of Picton in Pembrokeshire. After his marriage Lloyd moved into his wife’s family orbit, and the rest of his career was dominated by Valentia and his son, Arthur Annesley*. It was doubtless with their support that he was returned, with the title Col. Lloyd, as recruiter MP for Carmarthenshire on 16 April 1646, and his passage was eased by his association with the Essex interest, whose most active agent in south-west Wales remained Rowland Laugharne†. Three months after the poll Laugharne reported ‘the sincere affection to the Parliament’ of Lloyd’s father.22CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 455. As a final reminder of his military career and loyalties, Lloyd participated in the public funeral of the earl of Essex (14 Sept. 1646), bearing the standard. Two west Walian old comrades, Meyrick and William Davies*, also took roles in the ceremonial.23The True Mannor and Forme (1646), 8, 17 (E.360.1). Whatever opposition there was to Lloyd’s election from the influential Richard Vaughan†, 2nd earl of Carbery [I], it had evidently been overcome by August 1647, when the earl wrote to Lloyd, affirming his friendship and acknowledging him as a cousin.24C108/188, pt. i, ‘correspondence 2’, unfol.

Lloyd had taken his seat by 11 June 1646, when he was added to the committee to consider a petition from Caernarfonshire, and on 4 August was one of the committee of five asked to investigate the possible transfer of troops to Ireland from south-west Wales.25CJ iv. 572a, 634a. He was one of the Members who took the covenant on 9 December 1646, and as ‘Colonel Lloyd’ was added to the committee of privileges a week later.26CJ v. 7b, 14b. He headed the five Members who on 24 December 1647 were sent to south Wales to expedite the collection of the six months’ assessment.27CJ v. 402b. Lloyd does not seem to have taken part in parliamentary proceedings in 1648, although in March that year he was still in lodgings in King Street, Westminster.28C108/189, pt. ii, ‘correspondence 2’. His attachment to the parliamentarian cause was by this time compromised by his connections in south Wales with the network of gentry that had secured his election. Lloyd remained on good terms with Rowland Laugharne, as well as with the earl of Carbery, despite Laugharne’s decision in 1648 to join the king. Twelve years later, in 1660, Laugharne’s wife would thank Lloyd for his ‘very many favours to my husband and son’, favours which included the loan of money.29C108/188, pt. i, ‘correspondence 2’, unfol. In the late 1640s Lloyd was spending much of his time at his wife’s home in Surrey, and was chosen as a Presbyterian elder in the Surrey classis in 1648, and religious scruples doubtless played a part in his alienation from Westminster and the political domination of the Independents.30Shaw, Hist. Eng. Church ii. 434. He joined Annesley and Meyrick in being secluded from the House at Pride’s Purge on 6 December.31A List of the Imprisoned and Secluded (1648, 669.f.13.62); A Vindication (1649), 28 (irregular pagination) (E.539.5); Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 378.

According to a later account, with the final defeat of the king, Lloyd ‘refused, though tendered, to bear any office, civil or military, under the various governments that sprung afterwards’.32E.D. Jones, ‘Gentry of South West Wales’, NLWJ, xi. 143. This is borne out by other evidence. Lloyd spent much of the 1650s in retirement on the Surrey estate retained by his wife during the minority of the heirs of her first marriage. Through the 1650s, the Carmarthenshire estate was in the capable hands of a steward, whose reports kept Lloyd abreast of developments there.33NLW, 18983E. The couple also resided at Henrietta Street in Covent Garden and at King Street, Westminster.34C108/188, pt. i, ‘correspondence 2’, unfol.; C108/189, pt. ii, ‘correspondence’, unfol. Relations with the Annesley tribe were at times fraught. In February 1651 Valentia tried to involve Lloyd in his private feud with Annesley, whose ‘scorn and contempt of me’ had led him to resolve ‘to have no more commerce with him by letters till he give me some better satisfaction of his son-ship’.35C108/188, pt. i, ‘correspondence 2’, unfol. In the autumn of the same year, Lloyd won the support of the Committee for Plundered Ministers in his attempt to secure the advowson of Chobham in Surrey, and was allowed to present Philip Smith as the new incumbent.36C108/189, pt. i, ‘miscellaneous’, unfol. In July 1657 Lloyd was involved in arranging the marriage of his step-son, Edward Zouche, to the daughter of John Lisle*. This appears to have been a money-raising venture, as the bride brought a portion of £3,000, but his wife’s refusal to release her interest over the Zouche estate led to a legal dispute with the Lisles which may have contributed to the couple’s subsequent financial problems, as in 1658 they were forced to sell land.37C108/18, unfol.; C108/187, pt. i, unfol. There are signs that Lloyd shared Annesley’s crypto-royalism in the later 1650s. In May 1657 he was in contact with the royalist agent, John Mordaunt, and in the same period he was on familiar terms with the earl and countess of Peterborough, as well as moderate Presbyterians such as the Surrey MP, Sir Richard Onslow*.38C108/189, pt. ii, ‘correspondence’, unfol.

Lloyd was restored to his seat on the return of the secluded Members in February 1660, and was soon afterwards named to two committees: one to consider the chamberlainship and seal for north Wales (24 Feb.) and the other to decide the fate of ‘delinquent’ prisoners newly released from prison (27 Feb.).39CJ vii. 851b, 854b. He was re-elected for Carmarthenshire in April 1660 but made way for a royalist candidate in the elections for the Cavalier Parliament the following year.40HP Commons 1660-90 ii. 755. By 1661 Lloyd had acquired a lease of the tithes of Meidrim, where the minister was the celebrated Stephen Hughes, ‘apostle of Carmarthenshire’, a Congregationalist. Hughes wrote guardedly to Lloyd in January 1661, ‘I question not but a preaching minister shall have as much encouragement from you … as may be afforded without prejudice unto yourself’, but Hughes was ejected shortly afterwards.41C108/188, unfol.; R.T. Jones, B.G. Owens, ‘Anghydffurfwyr Cymru 1660-1662’, Y Cofiadur xxxii, 35.

Annesley, now earl of Anglesey, was responsible for Lloyd’s subsequent elevation to the baronetage, confirmed in February 1662.42CB. In the previous December the earl had written to Lloyd, delighted that he had ‘at length compassed that for you which I desired long since’, and in September 1662 he lobbied the duke of Albemarle (George Monck*) in the hope that a knighthood might be added to the baronetcy.43C108/188, pt. i, ‘correspondence 2’, unfol.; C108/189, pt. ii, ‘correspondence 2’, unfol. According to his widow’s account, Lloyd suffered a fatal riding accident on 31 December 1663, when he ‘fell off a young horse and without speaking one word died’.44C108/188 pt. i, ‘legal’, unfol. He was buried at Woking.45CB. Lloyd’s financial affairs were left in a mess. He had not written a will and there were four attempts to pass the administration of the estate, from February 1664 until December 1676.46CB. In the meantime, his creditors began legal proceedings to seize his widow’s jointure lands.47C108/188, pt. i, ‘legal’, unfol. The widow went on to marry Sir Thomas Smyth of Hill Hall in Essex, and died in 1668.48Lodge, Peerage of Ireland ii. 283. His only surviving son, Sir John Lloyd, who succeeded to the baronetcy, died in 1674 without heirs.49CB.