BOURCHIER, Edward (1590-1637)

Bourchier’s elder brothers both died as infants, and he himself suffered poor health as a child. Although educated at the same Cambridge college as his father, he was evidently a man of feeble intellect. Apart from a brief appearance at court in 1610, when he was created a knight of the Bath at Prince Henry’s investiture as prince of Wales, he made no mark on public life until he succeeded his father as 4th earl of Bath in 1623.11 HMC Bath, ii. 54; HMC Downshire, ii. 316. Even then, he held few local offices, his appointment as a magistrate being the bare minimum that a man of his status could expect. Unlike the 3rd earl, who had been a linchpin of Devon administration, Bath did not even secure the recordership of his local borough of Barnstaple, while his application in 1626 to become vice admiral of north Devon was rejected. He was probably viewed with contempt by the county gentry, and complained in 1628 that the local subsidy commissioners had overcharged him, his assessment representing half of his annual rental income of £800.12 C.F. Patterson, Urban Patronage, 36; CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 479; 1628-9, p. 160.

Given this context, it is not surprising that Bath never took his seat in the House of Lords. In January 1624 he successfully requested leave of absence, prudently giving his proxy to the royal favourite, George Villiers^*, 1st duke of Buckingham.13 HMC 2nd Rep. 61; LJ, iii. 205a-b. He adopted the same approach in 1625, his proxy for Buckingham being noted during the call of the House on 23 June.14 Procs. 1625, pp. 45, 590. In 1626 the duke personally authorized the issuing of Bath’s dispensation on 31 Jan., but although he initially received the earl’s proxy it was subsequently transferred to Edward Sackville^*, 4th earl of Dorset, presumably in response to the vote on 25 Feb. limiting the number of proxies held by an individual peer.15 CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 560; Procs. 1626, i. 70; iv. 10. Bath was again granted leave of absence in March 1628, his proxy for both sessions of the 1628-9 Parliament being given to his cousin Francis Russell^*, 4th earl of Bedford.16 CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 15; Lords Procs. 1628, pp. 26, 87; LJ, iv. 3b. Bath’s brother-in-law, Sir Alexander St John^‡, secured a Commons’ seat at Barnstaple in 1626 and 1628, but this success may have owed as much to St John’s own local standing as it did to the earl’s patronage.17 Vis. Beds. (Harl. Soc. xix), 194; HP Commons, 1604-29, ii. 91.

Bath’s first marriage was clearly arranged during his father’s lifetime, as the wedding took place just two days after the 3rd earl’s death. Dorothy St John was reputedly a ‘wise and virtuous lady’, and she and Sir Alexander seem to have managed Bath’s affairs until her death in 1632. Certainly it was St John who in 1628-9 challenged claims by the earl’s heir apparent, his cousin Sir Henry Bourchier^* (later 5th earl of Bath) that Bath was illegitimate, with no rightful claim to his title.18 Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 508; C115/106/8410; HMC 11th Rep. VII, 162. Within months of the countess’s demise, the earl was taken under the wing of his cousin the earl of Bedford, then lord lieutenant of Devon. Whatever his personal defects, Bath was now an eligible widower, and in May 1633 Charles I personally proposed that he marry one of the queen’s ladies in waiting, Dorothy Seymour. To the king’s surprise, Bath turned down this potentially lucrative offer, pleading that he was still in mourning. Tellingly, though, Charles blamed Bedford for the failure of this scheme, reportedly recognizing that Bath was ‘in his [Bedford’s] tuition’. The situation was not improved when, just a few months later, the earl married into a Buckinghamshire gentry family, doubtless with Bedford’s approval.19 C115/106/8423; CSP Dom. 1633-4, p. 64; SP16/239/54; HMC Cowper, ii. 14; Strafforde Letters, i. 165; R. Cust, Chas. I and the Aristocracy, 88.

Bath died at his family seat of Tawstock, in north Devon, on 2 Mar. 1637, having made his will on the previous day. The bulk of his estate was already entailed, with arrangements in place for his three daughters to receive dowries totalling £4,000. Accordingly, he now merely bequeathed each of them additional sums of £100, also distributing £150 among ten of his servants. The residue of his goods and chattels were left to his wife, whom he appointed his sole executor. At his own request he was buried in Tawstock church.20 PROB 11/174, f. 359r-v; C142/407/69. His only son having died young, Bath’s earldom passed to Sir Henry Bourchier, while the barony of FitzWarin fell into abeyance. Bath’s widow remarried, taking as her next husband Baptist Noel^†, later 3rd Viscount Campden, while his daughters’ husbands included Basil Feilding^*, 2nd earl of Denbigh, Thomas Grey^‡, Lord Grey of Groby, and James Cranfield^†, 2nd earl of Middlesex.21 CP, ii. 18-19; Vivian, 107.