Family and Education

4th s. of Thomas Pembridge of Mansell Gamage by Jane, da. of William Baskerville. educ. I. Temple 1585, called 11 May 1595. m. Anne, da. of John Breynton of Stretton, at least 4s. 2da.

Offices Held

Servant to the Earl of Essex by 1593; commr. recusancy Herefs. 1592-3, j.p. from c.1601.2

Biography

Pembridge was a lawyer on the Oxford circuit, who came into possession of the manor of Wotton through his maternal uncle Thomas Baskerville, and settled in the county. From about 1593 he was in receipt of an annuity from the Earl of Essex who no doubt returned him for Hereford in 1597 after he had asked the town for the nominations. In 1590, one Henry Scudamore had accused Pembridge and his wife of recusancy, and Essex had joined with Thomas Coningsby II, Gregory Price and Thomas Pembridge, one of the Queen’s chaplains, to assure the Council that the accusation was unfounded. The matter was dismissed as seeming ‘to proceed of evil will from the said Scudamore’, who had, in the same year, made ‘an outrage and riot’ against Pembridge. There may, however, have been some substance in the accusation, for in 1605 the bishop of Hereford included his name in a list of ‘justices unfit’ because his wife was ‘a recusant indicted’. In the 1597 Parliament he sat on committees concerned with benefit of clergy (7 Nov.), monopolies (10 Nov.), repairing bridges in Monmouthshire (29 Nov.), maltsters (12 Jan.), and the relief of soldiers and mariners, which he reported to the House, on 28 Jan. The printed D’Ewes makes more than usually heavy weather over his name, which apppears as ‘Bembridge’ and even ‘Peutridge’.3

In his will, dated 15 July and proved 10 Oct. 1610, Pembridge bequeathed his soul to God, praying that he might die a ‘true and faithful member of His Holy Catholic Church’, and, on the day of judgment, appear as ‘one of His elect’. He had previously made a settlement of his property in favour of his ‘dearly beloved wife’ Anne and his children, and he charged his eldest son to see to its administration. He left 20s. for the repair of the parish church of Willington, 40s. to the poor of Willington and 10s.to the vicar of the parish. His brother-in-law John Breynton, and his nephew Walter Pembridge, received 40s. each, and were appointed executors.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.J.C.

Notes

• 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
• 2. W. R. Williams, Parl. Hist. Herefs. 87; Vis. Herefs. ed. Weaver, 55-6; Vis. Glos. ed. Fenwick and Metcalfe, 133; HMC Bath, v. 255, 269; PCC 86 Wingfield.
• 3. J. Duncumb, Herefs. iii. 176; HMC 13th Rep. IV, 339; D’Ewes, 552, 555, 565, 578, 590; Townshend, Hist. Colls. 110; HMC Hatfield, vii. 477; xvii. 235; Neale, Commons, 239; APC, xx. 115, 116.
• 4. PCC 86 Wingfield.