LUTTRELL, Francis (1628-66), of Dunster Castle, nr. Minehead, Som.

Francis Luttrell, as his father’s youngest son to survive infancy, could not have anticipated becoming head of the Luttrell family. Since the eldest son, Alexander*, died during their father’s lifetime, the second son, George, inherited the family estates on Thomas Luttrell’s death in early 1644, although not without problems.15Dunster par. reg.; PROB11/198/44; Som. RO, DD/L(P), 38/100, 15/34b. The family seat, Dunster Castle, was once again a fortress of some potential military significance. Twice, assaults on it by the royalist army under the 1st marquess of Hertford (Sir William Seymour†) were repulsed, first in September 1642 by Thomas Luttrell’s wife and then in January 1643 by Thomas in person.16Speciall Passages and Certain Informations no. 8 (27 Sept.-4 Oct. 1642), 57-8 (E.119.24); H.C. Maxwell Lyte, Dunster and its Lords 1066-1881 (1882), 86-7; Som. RO, DD/L 2/49/37; Trevelyan Letters, ed. M. Siraut (Som. Rec. Soc. lxxx), 126. On 7 June 1643 Francis Wyndham* persuaded Luttrell to hand the castle over without a fight.17Clarendon, Hist. iii. 78; Bellum Civile, 47-8. During the final year of his life Thomas Luttrell cooperated with these royalist occupiers.18Som. RO, DD/L 2/49/37. The royalists’ hold on the castle was considered so secure that in May 1645 the prince of Wales spent two weeks there to escape the plague at Bristol.19Clarendon, Hist. iv. 48; Maxwell Lyte, Hist. of Dunster, i. 186-7. Even when the parliamentarians re-conquered most of Somerset during that summer, Wyndham stubbornly held out at Dunster.20Perfect Passages no. 63 (31 Dec. 1645-6 Jan. 1646), 501 (E.314.20); no. 68 (4-11 Feb. 1646), 543 (E.322.15); The Cities Weekly Post no. 9 (10-17 Feb. 1646), 5 (E.322.30); J.R. Powell, Robert Blake (1972), 65-7. Only in April 1646 did he finally agree to surrender.21Foure strong Castles taken by the Parliaments Forces (1646), 11-13 (E.334.8); Mercurius Civicus no. 152 (23-30 Apr. 1646), 2222-3( E.335.3); Lttrs. of Robert Blake, 3-4. The castle was then used to house a parliamentarian garrison.22CSP Dom. 1650, p. 550; Som. RO, DD/L(P), 40/1. On 10 August 1650 the committee for martial affairs in London decided the castle was too expensive to maintain and that its fortifications should be slighted.23CSP Dom. 1650, pp. 60, 271, 281, 294; Perfect Diurnall no. 38 (26 Aug.-2 Sept. 1650), 472 (E.780.1); Maxwell Lyte, Hist. of Dunster, ii. 367. According to William Prynne*, who had been imprisoned there, the resulting damage amounted to £3,000.24Som. RO, DD/L(P), 38/100. It was not until the following May that the control of the castle was transferred to George Luttrell.25CSP Dom. 1651, p. 220.

George Luttrell had never been a royalist and from at least 1646 he had been willing to support Parliament.26Moderate Intelligencer no. 50 (12-18 Feb. 1646), 301 (E.322.35); C231/6, p. 51; CSP Dom. 1648-9, pp. 31-2. This helped ensure that no member of the family was required to compound for delinquency. In 1652 he became sheriff of Somerset. Meanwhile, his more immediate concern was to produce an heir. Two marriages in quick succession failed to do so.27Dunster par. reg.; Som. RO, DD/L(P), 38/100. When he died in 1655, aged only about 30, he was therefore succeeded by his only surviving brother, Francis.28PROB11/246/446.

Francis had been admitted as a student at Lincoln’s Inn on 18 April 1646, the day before Wyndham had agreed to surrender Dunster Castle.29LI Admiss. i. 252. Seven years later he was called to the bar.30LI Black Bks. ii. 398. But any plans he may have had to practise as a barrister were abandoned after his brother’s death. George had previously granted him some lands close to Taunton at Heathfield and Bishop’s Lydeard.31Som. RO, DD/L(P), 15/34b. He now inherited the rest of the family’s extensive estates as well and thereby became one of the richest men in Somerset.32Som. RO, DD/L(P), 30/91; DD/L(P), 29/48; Documents and Extracts illustrating the Hist. and Honour of Dunster ed. H.C. Maxwell Lyte (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxiii), 335-7. Five years later he would place those lands into the hands of trustees.33Maxwell Lyte, Hist. of Dunster, i. 202. In October 1655, at about the time he succeeded his brother, he married Lucy Symonds, one of the granddaughters of John Pym*.34Maxwell Lyte, Hist. of Dunster, i. 201-2.

Francis Luttrell gave every appearance of being a political novice. That may have been deceptive. A letter of October 1655 intercepted by the English government reported that Luttrell, together with Thomas Trevillian, had been involved in royalist plotting, possibly in connection with Penruddock’s rising earlier that year.35TSP iv. 87. However, his youth and lack of experience, combined with his family name, probably worked to his advantage when he stood in the Somerset election for the second protectorate Parliament in 1656. The 1,888 votes he received in the county poll at Wells on 20 August was a solid result which put him in fifth place and gained for him one of the 11 available seats.36Som. Assize Orders ed. Cockburn, 77. His participation during the first session of this Parliament (between September 1656 and June 1657) was probably very limited. On 6 October 1656 Parliament gave him permission to travel to the country for three weeks.37CJ vii. 434b. He was still absent when the House was called on 31 December. The explanation then given was that his wife was ill.38Burton’s Diary, i. 286. As a local MP, it was unsurprising that from 1657 he was included on the Somerset commission of the peace and on the assessment commission.39C231/6, p. 360; A. and O. He was slightly more visible at Westminster when Parliament reassembled there in January 1658, as he was named to the committees on the bill concerning the Huntingdon parishes (26 Jan.) and to ask Oliver Cromwell* that his speech to MPs on 25 January be printed (28 Jan.).40CJ vii. 588a, 589a.

Rather surprisingly, given how his family had traditionally dominated its affairs, Luttrell did not seek election at Minehead when the old franchises were restored in 1659. However, his name was mentioned during debates in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament. On 15 July 1659, when the Commons were asked to approve the list of new militia commissioners for Somerset, someone seems to have objected to the inclusion of Luttrell’s name. The House declined to vote on whether Luttrell should be deleted, but another list, evidently omitting him, was immediately submitted and accepted.41CJ vii. 720a. Once again, the suspicion dating back to the civil war that the Luttrells could not be entirely trusted, had resurfaced.

Those who objected presumably felt vindicated by subsequent events. Luttrell adjusted to the Restoration without much difficulty. His royalism was, in retrospect, deemed sufficiently strong to place him among the 15 Somerset gentlemen nominated in 1660 for the proposed order of the Royal Oak.42Burke Commoners, i. 692. He was easily elected as MP for Minehead in 1660 and 1661, sitting in the former along with his wife’s uncle, Charles Pym*. His impact in both Parliaments was as limited as it had been in 1656-8. Following his death in 1666, the family estates passed first to his short-lived eldest son, Thomas (d. 1670), and then to the second son, Francis†. The third son, Alexander†, succeeded the younger Francis as MP for Minehead in 1690. Luttrell’s widow outlived him by half a century, dying in 1718.43Maxwell Lyte, Hist. of Dunster, i. 204.