MAYNARD, William (1586-1640)

Maynard’s ancestral roots lay in Devon, but his father, who made his fortune as one of the principal secretaries to William Cecil^†, 1st Lord Burghley, built up an estate of some 10,000 acres in western Essex, centred on Little Easton.35 Wright, ii. 225; C142/319/195. As a young man Maynard enjoyed the patronage of Burghley’s son, Robert Cecil^*, 1st earl of Salisbury, who provided him with his first Commons’ seat at Penryn in 1610, and presumably arranged for him to join Prince Henry’s household around the same time.36 HMC Hatfield, x. 461; xx. 28. His marriage in 1608 to a daughter of William Cavendish^*, Lord Cavendish confirmed his rising social status, as did his purchase of a baronetcy three years later. However, following the deaths of both Salisbury and Prince Henry in 1612, Maynard withdrew from court, and instead developed a career in local administration, becoming particularly active as a deputy lieutenant. He acquired an Irish peerage in 1620, and during the following decade emerged as one of Essex’s leading figures, playing a key role in the implementation of controversial crown policies, notably the Forced Loan of 1626-7. In the face of intense local opposition to this arbitrary levy, largely mobilized by the powerful Robert Rich^*, 2nd earl of Warwick, his principal rival within Essex, Maynard employed personal pressure to raise a sizeable Loan contribution from his own neighbourhood. In return, however, he eased the impact of this taxation by declining to certify refusers, and obstructing the government’s simultaneous demands for money to pay for local ship levies. Thus his professions of loyalty to the regime were tempered by hard-nosed assessments of what he could realistically achieve.37 R. Cust, Forced Loan, 97, 143, 200, 245-6; CSP Dom. Addenda, 1625-49, p. 151. While this approach served to protect Maynard’s standing in Essex, Charles I evidently appreciated the good service that he had performed in very difficult circumstances. In March 1628 he was granted an English barony, reportedly without payment, and doubtless with a view to bolstering the crown’s support in the Lords ahead of the next Parliament.38 Strafforde Letters (1739) ed. W. Knowler, i. 44.

Considering that 14 years had passed since he last sat in the Commons, Maynard made a confident start to his Lords’ career. Present for just over two-thirds of the 1628 session, with most of his absences falling during its closing weeks, he made four speeches, and received 12 nominations. Maynard attended the state opening on 17 Mar., but had to wait another five days for his formal introduction, when Henry Grey^*, 2nd Lord Grey of Groby and Edward Montagu^*, 1st Lord Montagu acted as his supporters.39 Lords Procs. 1628, pp. 86, 91. Maynard’s initial appointments included a conference with the Commons about the proposed joint petition to the king for a general fast, and the committee for the estate bill concerning his brother-in-law, William Cavendish^*, 2nd earl of Devonshire. The topics of his other legislative committees included the maintenance of almshouses, fen drainage, episcopal leases, and the suppression of recusancy. He evidently impressed his fellow peers with his contributions, for on 28 May he was added to the standing committee for assessing petitions to the House.40 Ibid. 78, 104, 151, 371, 389, 550, 626.

However, Maynard’s personal priority was the poor state of the militia. Named to consider the bill to improve the kingdom’s military preparedness, he made ten recommendations in committee for improving the legislation, from the breeding of more suitable horses to tighter militia discipline. Dissatisfied with the report delivered on 7 Apr. by Francis Russell^*, 4th earl of Bedford, he again outlined his concerns about the militia, drawing on his experiences three years earlier when the Essex levies were called out to protect Harwich. The Lords accepted his request for the bill to be recommitted, but not his proposal for a fresh bill to be drafted jointly by both Houses, nor his suggestion for a committee to inquire into the state of the militia nationally. Undeterred, he ‘renewed his former motion touching the bill of arms’ on 18 Apr., only to be rebuffed once more, while his call on 9 June for a general review of militia funding also fell on deaf ears.41 Ibid. 88, 159, 265, 607, 726.

Unsurprisingly, Maynard was appointed to help consider the proposals by George Villiers^*, 1st duke of Buckingham to strengthen England’s naval capacity. While this initiative presumably met with his approval, he clashed with the duke on 24 May, when the latter made a last-ditch effort to stop the Lords endorsing the Commons’ Petition of Right in its unamended form. Disputing Buckingham’s assertion that the upper House had already accepted undertakings by the king concerning the royal prerogative, which were incompatible with the Petition, Maynard affirmed that the Lords had merely acknowledged Charles’s offer of 12 May. He then recommended that the upper House should both agree to the Petition, and draft an independent declaration to the king defending his due exercise of the prerogative. This compromise approach, which had already been suggested by Thomas Howard^*, 21st (or 14th) earl of Arundel, gradually found favour with the House, and was formally approved two days later, Buckingham having admitted defeat.42 Ibid. 146, 524-5, 527-8.

When Parliament resumed in 1629, Maynard was again present for two-thirds of the session, missing just seven consecutive days in late January and early February. However, he is not known to have spoken in the House, and although again appointed to the committee for petitions, he received just three other nominations, two relating to alleged breaches of privilege, and one to draft bills on decayed churches and curates’ stipends.43 LJ, iv. 6b, 31a, 35a, 37b.

By now Maynard was taking a less active role in local government. In October 1628 he resigned as a deputy lieutenant, citing ‘three desperate burning fevers’ in the preceding months that obliged him to seek a change of air outside Essex. As he had lately become disillusioned with the trouble and expense of his office, he possibly welcomed this excuse to step down. Nevertheless, he remained a conscientious magistrate, helping the earl of Warwick to disperse a rising by Essex clothiers in April 1629, earning the Privy Council’s commendation the following year for his management of a grain shortage, and playing a leading role in the Essex commission for knighthood compositions.44 Maynard Ltcy. Bk. 241, 243, 280; CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 524; E178/5287, ff. 4v, 9v, 13v. Maynard’s compliance with government policy remained somewhat selective. In June 1634 he fell foul of the regulations for new buildings in the London suburbs, being fined £500 on account of some houses he had erected in Tothill Street, Westminster. Four months later he also combined with Warwick and other Essex notables to resist the government’s efforts to expand the geographical scope of forest law within the county.45 Strafforde Letters, i. 263; C115/106/3438. Even so, he retained the basic trust of the crown, and when Richard Weston^*, 1st earl of Portland died in the following year Maynard was chosen to succeed him as joint lord lieutenant of Essex. Admittedly he was assigned the office only during the minority of George Villiers^†, 2nd duke of Buckingham, but the appointment was still a considerable promotion, and was generally seen as a check on Warwick, his fellow lieutenant, who resented having to share the role.46 CSP Dom. 1635, p. 385; Strafforde Letters, i. 462; Sainty, 20.

Maynard possibly owed his promotion to the lord keeper, Thomas Coventry^*, 1st Lord Coventry, whom he was to thank three years later for his ‘many singular favours’. However, he may also have benefited from the patronage of his friend William Laud^*, archbishop of Canterbury, whom he had probably known for around five years. While Maynard was generally on cordial terms with his puritan neighbours, he had inclined towards Arminianism for much of his adult life. The private chapel he constructed at Little Easton in 1621 boasted a painted glass window with scenes from the life of Christ, including the Crucifixion, one of its earliest representations in post-Reformation England. In 1636 he built another chapel at Waltons, his recently acquired seat on the Essex-Cambridgeshire border, which was consecrated by Francis White^*, the Arminian bishop of Ely. These structures were not created merely for Maynard’s personal convenience; he noted in his will that since their consecration he had ‘evidently perceived the favour and blessing of Almighty God to have increased’ towards him, a clear endorsement of Arminian thinking on the spiritual efficacy of good works. By 1634 Maynard was also patron to the like-minded John Browning, rector of Rawreth, Essex, an outspoken critic of puritanism. Moreover, by the end of this decade he was evidently on friendly terms with the earl of Arundel, a Catholic sympathizer, to whom he loaned £40. However, while such theological leanings worked in Maynard’s favour at court, they would ultimately count against him at local level.47 PROB 11/185, ff. 193v-4v; N. Tyacke, Anti-Calvinists, 192-3; Maynard Ltcy. Bk. p. lvi; Morant, Essex (1768), ii. 433; Arundel Castle, ms A1307.

The great test of Maynard’s abilities as a lord lieutenant came with the Bishops’ Wars of 1639-40. Mobilization of the English militia began in November 1638, and by the following February he was feeling under pressure. Having initially planned to join the king at York, he was persuaded by Laud to continue with his duties in Essex, and instead contribute financially to the war effort. Complaining that he had already given Charles £900 in the previous three years, and that his ‘fortunes be far less than haply they may be esteemed’, he eventually provided £400.48 PC2/49, ff. 268v-70; CSP Dom. 1638-9, pp. 446-7, 451-2; E401/2461. In March 1639 he was instructed to recruit 1,100 foot soldiers, but without adequate funding. When Tilbury fort also had to be reinforced between April and June, he and Warwick informed the Council that the costs of that operation could not be met locally.49 PC2/50, ff. 87v-8, 110, 204v; CSP Dom. 1639, p. 115.

Tensions increased in the spring of 1640 with the elections for the Short Parliament. Maynard opposed the two reforming candidates put forward by Warwick as Essex knights of the shire, and was given a rough ride at the poll, subsequently complaining that he ‘found the rude, vulgar people to grow to that insolency as … to fall to menacing of us all to pull us in pieces’.50 CSP Dom. 1639-40, pp. 608-9; Eg. 2646, f. 142. During this brief parliamentary session, he backed the king’s request for supply to be given priority over redress of grievances. Following the dissolution, he lent Charles a further £500 towards the war effort.51 Procs. Short Parl. 76; M.C. Fissel, Bps’. Wars, 129. Over the next few months Maynard was again fully occupied with mustering troops in Essex, his efforts hampered by both persistent ill health and local unrest. Admitting that he was unable to quell this disorder, he complained that he himself was being ‘scandalized by false and unjust reports’, apparently concerning his Arminian leanings. In June 1640, he was appointed lord lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, and barely a week later had to suppress a mutiny at Cambridge.52 PC2/51, ff. 192-3v; 2/52, ff. 217v, 358v; PRO 30/5/6, p. 631; CSP Dom. 1640, pp. 83, 163, 195, 301, 336, 516-17.

That September, Maynard travelled to York for the Great Council of peers, where he argued that the final decision whether to pay maintenance to the occupying Scots rested with Parliament, not the assembled noblemen.53 Misc. State Pprs. 1501-1726 (1778) ed. Hardwicke, ii. 261. He attended the opening stages of the Long Parliament, but died on 19 Dec. 1640, his body being taken back to Little Easton for burial. His demise was clearly not anticipated, as he had been appointed to the Cambridgeshire bench only four days earlier. Maynard’s titles descended to his son William^†, 2nd Lord Maynard.54 LJ, iv. 83b-4a, 92a, 108b; CSP Dom. 1640-1, p. 323; CP, viii. 600-1.