BLUDDER, Sir Thomas (d.1655), of Flanchford, Reigate, Surr.

Bludder’s father, a merchant of Lancashire origin who bought Flanchford in 1601, was a naval victualler, a tin patentee, a farmer of the imposition of sea coals, an alum contractor and an investor in the Virginia Company. Together with estates in Surrey, Bludder inherited several of these ventures, and also gained patrons and a position at court. These assisted him to seats in all the 1620s Parliaments, although he left little impression on the surviving record.25HP Commons 1604-1629. However, his speculations were not as successful as his father’s. For example, ambitious schemes related to the procurement of gunpowder led to a dispute with John Evelyn of Surrey*, which was pursued in the Commons in 1628, and Bludder was unable to hold on to his interest in the ordnance office, held with Harris and Brett kinsmen.26APC 1627-8, pp. 249-51, 383, 386; SP16/161, f. 109; SP16/341, f. 90; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), x. 88. Three times – in 1627, 1631 and 1632 – he was obliged to obtain royal protection against his creditors.27C66/2427; CSP Dom. 1629-31, p. 547; 1631-3, pp. 275, 282; SP16/211, f. 112.

Bludder’s second marriage, to the widow of the king’s printer, may have brought some temporary financial relief, as well as an extensive library.28CSP Dom. 1636-7, p. 267; Lievsay and Davis, ‘Cavalier Library’, 143, 145, 147-60. He was also part of a syndicate which in 1635 shared a grant of fines in the court of common pleas, but from the outset conflicting interests probably made this less profitable than anticipated.29Coventry Docquets, 201, 228, 356; CSP Dom. 1636-7, p. 273. He was apparently active as a justice of the peace in Surrey, but did not obey the summons to join the king in the north on the outbreak of the first bishops’ war in 1639.30CSP Dom. 1637, p. 110; 1637-8, p. 453; SP16/427, f. 38. By 1640 he and his wife were defendants in a case brought by the Stationers’ Company relating to her first husband’s estate.31HMC 4th Rep, 36.

Having been elected for Reigate to every Parliament since 1624, Bludder may have approached the polls in spring 1640 with some confidence. However, as the Commons noted on 20 April, three candidates appeared to have been returned for the two seats. Whereas the election of Edward Thurland* election looked ‘clear’, the cases of the other two, Bludder and Robert Goodwin*, were referred to committee.32CJ ii. 7a. No conclusion had been reached by the time the Parliament was dissolved three weeks later.

The result of the autumn election was similarly opaque. Bludder’s candidature was squeezed by the Howard interest, represented by Sir William Monson* and his brother-in-law, Sir Francis Howard†. There were three returns, in which Bludder was named with Monson, with Howard and separately.33C219/43/3/3. The case never came before the House but Bludder became recognised as the second Reigate Member.34A Catalogue of the Names of the Knights 13 April 1640 (1640), A5v (E.1091.4). He was not appointed to a single committee, however; nor, despite his court connections, was he listed among the Straffordians.

On the outbreak of civil war, Bludder and his step-son John Bill, who had become a gentleman waiter to the king, joined their master at Oxford.35M. Toynbee and P. Young, Strangers in Oxford (1973), 261. The parliamentarian committee in Surrey inventoried their valuable books, pictures and other items at Flanchford on 27 May 1643 (perhaps not co-incidentally on or about the day Bill attained his majority), although they failed to find plate which Bludder had buried in his park.36Lievsay and Davis, 141-60; CCAM 1205. Since neither Bludder nor Bill appeared ‘to clear themselves’, on 29 June the Commons ordered the sale of the seized goods.37CJ iii. 149a. While Bill joined the royalist army, Bludder resided in various garrisons held against Parliament.38CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 472. He sat in the Oxford Parliament and subscribed the letter to Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, on 27 January 1644, and as a consequence received a precautionary pardon from Charles I in March.39A Copy of a Letter (1644), 7; Black, Docquets, i. 205. He was therefore disabled on 3 September from sitting in the Long Parliament.40CJ iv. 262b.

Bludder’s fine was assessed on 12 November 1645 at £400, a sum agreed (with interest) following his petition to compound on the Oxford articles, lodged on 22 September 1646. He subsequently declared his interest in the sea coals, valued at £280 a year.41CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 472; CCC 1498; CCAM 633. His fine, by then standing at £947, was still outstanding on the outbreak of the second civil war in summer 1648, perhaps partly because of political defiance but perhaps partly also because of the continuing financial difficulty which had led to his mortgaging some of his Surrey lands to his younger brother Henry (bap. 1598). The disposition of Henry’s property following his death in 1645 was in dispute between Bludder and his brother-in-law Henry Peck*, a fact which complicated the seizure of some of his assets in lieu of fine payment.42SP23/208, ff. 388, 398-9.

In May 1648 Bludder was a ringleader of the royalist insurrection in Surrey and in July he joined with George Villiers, 2nd duke of Buckingham, and Henry Rich, 1st earl of Holland, in an attempt to raise the siege of Colchester. Surprised by parliamentary forces at St Neots, he managed to escape, only to be later arrested and confined to Peterhouse in Cambridge. From there in September he was ordered to be transferred to the custody of Samuel Warcupp, bailiff of Southwark and brother-in-law of Speaker William Lenthall*.43CSP Dom. 1648-9, p. 292; CCC 1498. On his release he was still under suspicion, being reported in August 1649 among ‘malignants’ in the eastern division of Surrey meeting under the pretext of sociability to plan similar activity to the previous year.44CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 269. Forced to compound again, he faced additional financial penalties, but these were discharged by the end of 1650, possibly partly in recognition of an inability to pay and partly in return for the confirmation of some of Peck’s claims, although these were still being settled in September 1655.45CCC 1498; CCAM 633; West Suss. RO, Add. MS 41,044.

Bludder was committed to Upper Bench prison on 16 February 1650 with debts of £4,000.46[J. Lenthall], A List of all the Prisoners in Upper Bench Prison (1653), 5 (E.213.8). He died in prison on 29 September 1655 leaving his Flanchford estate mortgaged and instructing that it be sold.47Surr. Arch. Coll. xi. 197; Manning, Bray, Surr. i. 316; PROB11/285, f. 317. His widow and executrix, who erected a monument celebrating his faithful service to the Stuart kings and his patience in adversity, petitioned the king for an annuity out of the imposition on sea coals, pleading that Bludder had lost ten years’ worth of profit during the wars and had to pay £1,193 18s in composition.48CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 390. He left no surviving children and none of his immediate kin sat in Parliament.