VERNON, Henry (1606-76), of Hodnet, Salop.

Vernon’s family, which came from Derbyshire, had settled in Shropshire in the fifteenth century, and had represented the county in Parliament since 1553.20HP Commons 1509-1558; HP Commons 1558-1603. Vernon’s father, Sir Robert Vernon†, a onetime ward and protégé of his kinsman Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, sat as a knight of the shire in 1621, and although this was his sole appearance in Parliament, he remained prominent in local government and society. When he settled his estates in 1634 he chose as his trustees Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, and his nephew-in-law William Spencer†, 2nd Baron Spencer; his last appointment was to a commission of oyer and terminer in Wales and the Marches in July 1640.21HP Commons 1604-1629; Coventry Docquets, 570, 662, 667, 685; C181/5, f. 185.

Sir Robert Vernon’s sister Elizabeth (Spencer’s mother-in-law) had married Henry Wriothesley, 3rd earl of Southampton (d.1624).22‘Henry Wriothesley, 3rd earl of Southampton’, Oxford DNB. This connection was to be the most important in the career of Henry Vernon the future MP. He may have been brought up at least partly in the company of Elizabeth’s sons of similar age, his cousins James Wriothesley† (1605-24) and Thomas Wriothesley (1608-67), 4th earl of Southampton.23Vis. Salop 1623, ii. 469-74. In July 1634 Vernon was in France with the 4th earl just before the latter’s wedding there, and it is conceivable, especially in the absence of other evidence of education appropriate to someone of his status, that he had accompanied one or other of the Wriothesley brothers on their previous trips abroad.24CSP Dom. 1634-5, pp. 166-7; ‘Thomas Wriothesley, 4th earl of Southampton’, Oxford DNB. On the other hand, it was almost certainly a namesake with whom he may otherwise be confused – his cousin Henry Vernon (d. 1656/7), father of Sir George Vernon† – who acted in the early 1630s as estate steward to his uncle Sir Thomas White of Farnham, Surrey.25Hants RO, 44M69/L30/135; 44M69/L25/5/1; PROB11/262/454; HP Commons 1660-1690.

When the death of Sir Henry Rainsforde* occasioned an order for a by-election at Andover (31 Mar. 1641), its other MP, Southampton’s brother-in-law Robert Wallop*, wrote the same day to the borough proposing Vernon as a candidate.26Hants RO, 37M85/11/PE/1. Wallop claimed that Vernon’s ‘worth and abilities will sufficiently commend themselves’ but also promised that, were the recommendation accepted, he himself would ‘be ever ready to acknowledge myself to be your very loving friend and servant’.27CJ ii. 114b; Hants RO, 37M85/11/PE/41. Both Southampton and Wallop wielded considerable influence in Hampshire affairs and, despite facing Sir William Waller* in the poll, Vernon was duly returned on 13 April.28Hants RO, 37M85/11/PE/1. However, by this time Southampton (although not Wallop) had abandoned his earlier opposition to crown policies and become identified with those peers who sympathised with the king, so his perceived support was a mixed blessing. By 30 April the Commons had received a complaint from Waller about the election, which was referred to a committee.29CJ ii. 130b; Procs. LP iv. 149, 153. While this was under consideration Vernon took his seat. He took the Protestation on 3 May and was recorded as having voted against the attainder of the 1st earl of Strafford (Sir Thomas Wentworth†), the lord deputy of Ireland.30CJ ii. 133a; Procs. LP iv. 172; Verney Notes, 59.

Vernon made no further recorded impression on the proceedings of the House. His absence, together with his connection to Southampton, who was appointed lord lieutenant of Hampshire (June 1641) and a privy councillor (3 Jan. 1642), and who opposed both the abolition of episcopacy and the Militia Ordinance (5 Mar.), led to a concerted attempt to remove Vernon from the Commons. On 3 May 1642 Sir Henry Herbert* reported that, while 24 burgesses had the right of election at Andover, only 18 had appeared at the election, of whom nine voted for Vernon and nine for Waller, whereupon the bailiff, claiming the casting vote, chose Vernon. Having considered the evidence surrounding the remaining potential voters, the Commons concluded that the election had been improperly held and declared Vernon’s election void. A division over whether to accept Waller’s election then ensued in which two future parliamentarians (Sir Philip Stapilton* and John Moore*) represented the small majority who supported Waller (107 votes), and two future royalists (Edward Kyrton* and Sir Edward Alford*) represented the large minority who opposed him (102 votes).31CJ ii. 554a-b; PJ ii. 267. One of Vernon’s friends commented that he was removed from the House ‘very strangely, and but by three voices’.32Staffs. RO, D868/3/16. Shortly afterwards, the House summoned the bailiff of Andover to attend, and ordered the indenture to be amended in favour of Waller.33CJ ii. 568a.

Vernon was named by the king in August to the Shropshire commission of array, although there is no indication that he was active in the field.34Northants. RO, FH133. For most of the 1640s and 1650s his whereabouts are unknown. On 20 May 1643 the House of Lords gave ‘Mr Vernon’, plausibly the former MP, a pass to travel with Southampton’s son and daughter and five servants, but the destination does not appear in the Journal.35LJ vi. 55a. Conceivably he spent much of his time in the household of the earl, who proved an important royalist peer, but the Henry Vernon who, like Southampton, received a pardon from the king in 1644 was a Cheshire man.36Docquets of Letters Patent ed. Black, 229, 231. On the other hand, Vernon the erstwhile MP appears to have escaped sequestration, suggesting that he took care to keep a very low profile.

Following the Restoration Vernon profited from his connection to Southampton, who was made lord treasurer in August 1660. In July Vernon received a baronetcy and in August he was made receiver-general in Worcestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Staffordshire – perhaps indicating that he had managed some of Southampton’s estates – although he sold this office in March 1662.37CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 208; 1661-2, pp. 326, 491. By the following December he had been granted by the crown the post of commissioner for excise appeals (which was under the oversight of Southampton), in recognition of the fact that ‘in all times [he] hath singularly served us’.38CSP Dom. 1661-2, pp. 590, 598; Eg. 2543, f. 74. He also secured some of the estate forfeited to the crown by Robert Wallop, although this may not have been for his personal benefit.39VCH Hants, iii. 261; CSP Dom. 1667-8, p. 471; 1668-1669, p. 338.

Vernon was returned to the Convention as a knight of the shire for Shropshire, and although he narrowly failed to secure a seat at Lichfield in the Cavalier Parliament, he was returned in a by-election at West Looe, and remained a Member until his death.40Staffs. RO, D260/M/F/1/6/76; HP Commons 1660-1690. He was probably still identified with Southampton, living in his London residence at least until the earl’s death in 1667, and then acting with Sir Orlando Bridgeman* and Sir Philip Warwick* as his trustee and executor.41PROB11/323/623; Hants RO, 14M76/E/T2-6, 44M66/E/T37(39), 5M50/1912. In October 1666 the ejected minister Thomas Gilbert wrote to Vernon at Southampton’s house in Holborn, seeking the earl’s favour for a book, an ‘apology’ for dissenters. Gilbert hinted that Vernon was ‘not unfriendly to a liberty to be granted to sober and peaceable minded men who cannot comply with the ceremonies of the church in the worship of God’, and hoped that, since Vernon was an MP, he might ‘not lose such inclinations yourself but rub them rather upon others’. He had not approached Southampton directly because he could not do so ‘without the scan of such a judgement and mediation of such a hand as yours’.42Add. 4165, ff. 23-4. Vernon’s tolerance is not otherwise apparent: in 1660 he ejected from his parish at Hodnet one Samuel Campion, an Independent minister imposed by Parliament in 1654, and replaced him with Robert Powell, a royal chaplain who later became chancellor of St Asaph.43Calamy Revised, 100.

Vernon died in 1676, less than a year after his wife, and was buried at Hodnet on 21 April, leaving a son, Sir Thomas, and a daughter, Elizabeth.44Salop Par. Regs. Hodnet, 29; PROB11/353/28. No further family members are known to have sat in Parliament.