Constituency Dates
Hedon 1701 – 1701
Family and Education
b. bef. 2 June 1637, 5th s. of John Bedingfield of Lincoln’s Inn and Halesworth, Suff. by Joyce, da. of Edmund Morgan of Lambeth, Surr.; bro. of Henry Bedingfield†. m. (1) lic. 22 Dec. 1662, Elizabeth (d. 1688), da. and coh. of Martin Harvey of Weston Favell, Northants., s.p.; (2) 10 Oct. 1689, Anne, da. and coh. of William Strode (d. 1661) of Newhouse, Warws., wid. of Nicholas Reynardson of London, s.p. Kntd. 18 Nov. 1697.1 A. Lumsden-Bedingfield, Bedingfield Peds. 37, 104, 168; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster 108; Mar. Reg. St. Dunstan’s Stepney, ii. 187; Frag. Gen. viii. 144.
Offices Held

Freeman, Merchant Taylors’ Co., master 1697; common councilman, London 1682–3, 1688–97, alderman 1697–d., sheriff 1702–3, ld. mayor 1706–7.2 J. R. Woodhead, Rulers of London (London and Mdx. Arch. Soc.), 28.

Address
Main residence: Ludgate Street, London.
biography text

A woollen-draper, Bedingfield was a strong Tory and had at one time been a crony of Judge Jeffreys. He was brought in at Hedon by Henry Guy*, though he may well have been recommended by the borough’s other patron, (Sir) Charles Duncombe*, with whom, as an alderman of London, he was presumably well acquainted. ‘An understanding and true man’, was how Guy described him. In May 1701 he petitioned the House for relief from the effects of the Act resuming forfeited estates in Ireland. Although generally inactive in Parliament, his single vote in the London common council forestalled a petition in support of the Kentish Petitioners. Having been blacklisted as one who had opposed preparations for war, he did not stand for re-election in November. In April 1702 the Commons rejected a motion for a private bill on his behalf pursuant to his petition. He was among six Tories named in October 1710 as colonels of the City militia, and supported the Tory candidates in the London parliamentary election a month later.3 Luttrell, Brief Relation, i. 9; iv. 95; Beaven, Aldermen, i. 291, 303; ii. 195; DNB (Bedingfield, Henry); De La Pryme Diary (Surtees Soc. liv), 244; HMC Portland, iii. 640; Boyer, Pol. State, i–ii. 10.

Bedingfield died ‘suddenly’ on 2 May 1711, leaving as his principal heir his nephew Thomas Bedingfield ‘of St. John’s, Oxfordshire’. Another nephew received by his will ‘the lease of my dwelling house and shop and the whole benefit and advantage of the same’.4Le Neve, Mon. Angl. 1700–15, p. 232; PCC 143 Young.

Author
D.W.H.
Volume
Commons 1690-1715
Notes
  • 1. A. Lumsden-Bedingfield, Bedingfield Peds. 37, 104, 168; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster 108; Mar. Reg. St. Dunstan’s Stepney, ii. 187; Frag. Gen. viii. 144.
  • 2. J. R. Woodhead, Rulers of London (London and Mdx. Arch. Soc.), 28.
  • 3. Luttrell, Brief Relation, i. 9; iv. 95; Beaven, Aldermen, i. 291, 303; ii. 195; DNB (Bedingfield, Henry); De La Pryme Diary (Surtees Soc. liv), 244; HMC Portland, iii. 640; Boyer, Pol. State, i–ii. 10.
  • 4. Le Neve, Mon. Angl. 1700–15, p. 232; PCC 143 Young.