BAGENALL, Nicholas (1629-1712), of Plas Newydd, Anglesey.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. 9 Aug. 1629, o.s. of Arthur Bagenall of Plas Newydd by Magdalen, da. and coh. of Sir Richard Trevor of Trevalun, Denb. m. (1) 8 Aug. 1671, Sidney (d.1684), da. of Roger Grosvenor of Eaton Hall, Cheshire, 3da. d.v.p.; (2) 11 Feb. 1686, Lady Anne Bruce, da. of Robert Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury, 1s. d.v.p. 1da. suc. fa. 1643.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Anglesey 1647-8, Aug. 1660-80, Caern. Aug. 1660-3, 1664-80, Anglesey and Caern. 1689-90; j.p. Anglesey 1650-3, c. June 1660-Apr. 1688, Oct. 1688-d., Caern. by 1701-d.; sheriff, Anglesey 1661-2, dep. lt. 1661-?80, 1689-d., commr. for loyal and indigent officers 1662, custos rot. 1689-90.2

FRS 1664.

Biography

Bagenall’s grandfather lent money to the last Welsh owner of Plas Newydd, eventually foreclosing on the mortgage and sitting for Anglesey in the 1586 Parliament. Bagenall was born at Bath, probably prematurely, for he was hastily baptized by the curate of the abbey in the absence of the vicar and the intended godparents. Nevertheless, he lived to be an octogenarian. During his minority his mother added to the property, which included workable deposits of lead, and when he came of age it was second in the island only to the Bulkeley estate. Bagenall has sometimes been confused with an Irish cousin, a Roman Catholic; but he was clearly a Protestant, being appointed to local office by the Long Parliament and the Rump. In 1655 he was arrested on a charge of plotting to surprise the garrison of Beaumaris; his confession implicated nobody but his cousin, Nicholas Bayly, and then only after a promise of pardon. In 1658 he was granted a pass to go to France.3

Bagenall succeeded in breaking the Bulkeley monopoly of the representation of Anglesey in 1661, but he was not an active Member, serving on only three committees in 18 years. He was added to the committees for restraining leather exports in 1662 and suppressing rogues and vagabonds in 1663, but thenceforward, until the last session of the Cavalier Parliament, his name only appears in the Journals when requesting leave, and he made no recorded speeches. On 14 Jan. 1667, he obtained a pass ‘overseas’. Nevertheless, in 1677 Shaftesbury classed him as ‘thrice worthy’. On 26 Oct. 1678 he was added to the committee to search the papers of the Roman Catholic lawyer Langhorne, but his interest in the Popish Plot was short-lived, for on 18 Dec. he defaulted on a call of the House. He probably never stood again; he was removed from the lieutenancy, and in 1684 obtained a licence to travel to France for six months for his health and private affairs. He evaded the lord president’s questions on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws by pleading that he was ‘ill of the spleen to so high a degree that he could not come’, and was removed from local office. Presumably he welcomed the Revolution, after which he was appointed custos rotulorum. He died in 1712, leaving his estate to his cousin Edward Bayly, whose son Nicholas sat for Anglesey in several 18th century Parliaments as an independent Whig.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: A. M. Mimardière

Notes

  • 1. Bath Abbey (Harl. Soc. Reg. xxvii), 26; J. E. Griffith, Peds. of Anglesey and Caern. Fams. 57; W. M. Myddelton, Chirk Castle Accounts 1666-1753, 49; F. A. Blaydes, Gen. Beds. 4.
  • 2. CSP Dom. 1689-90, p. 27.
  • 3. Arch. Camb. xiv. 102-3; Cal. Wynn Pprs. 363; P. Bagenal, Vicissitudes of an Anglo-Irish Fam. 65; Thurloe, iii. 125, 128; CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 581.
  • 4. CSP Dom. 1666-7, p. 453; 1684-5, p. 141; Arch. Camb. (ser. 3), xiv. 113.