Family and Education

b. 3 July 1595, 1st s. of Brampton Gurdon^† of Assington by 1st w. Elizabeth, da. of Edward Barrett of Belhus, Aveley, Essex. educ. Emmanuel, Camb. 1611; G. Inn 1614. m. Anne, da. of Sir Calthorpe Parker of Erwarton, Suff., 7s. 5da. suc. fa. 1648.1

Offices Held

Commr. for sewers, Suff. 1634, dep. lt. 1642, commr. for assessment 1643-52, 1657, Jan. 1660, 1679, sequestration 1643, defence, eastern assoc. 1643, new model ordinance, Suff. 1645, Westminster Abbey 1645, drainage of the fens 1649; j.p. Suff. 1649-July 1660, commr. for poor prisoners 1653, scandalous ministers 1654, militia 1659, Mar. 1660.2

Commr. for regulating excise 1645, exclusion from sacrament 1646, scandalous offences 1648, high court of justice 1649, obstructions 1651-2; Councillor of State 1650-2.

Biography

Gurdon’s great-grandfather, of Essex origin, acquired the manor of Assington, five miles from Sudbury, early in the 16th century. His father, a parliamentary supporter and a Presbyterian elder, represented the borough in 1621. Gurdon, also an active Parliamentarian, inherited estates in Suffolk and Essex worth £1,400 p.a. A conformist Rumper, he absented himself from the King’s trial but served on the Council of State.3

Gurdon was involved in a double return for Sudbury at the general election of 1660, and allowed to sit on 3 May. An inactive Member of the Convention, he was marked as a friend on Lord Wharton’s list, but expressed his opposition to the Court by shaking his head, since he ‘durst not speak’, and was named to only three committees, including those to cancel all grants of offices and titles since 1642 and to establish a Post Office. He retired from public life at the dissolution. Assington Hall was licensed for Presbyterian worship in 1672. Gurdon was buried at Assington on 9 Sept. 1679.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / Paula Watson

Notes

• 1. DNB; J. J. Muskett, Suff. Manorial Fams. i. 282; Add. 19077, f. 78.
• 2. HMC 9th Rep. pt. 1, p. 312.
• 3. Copinger, Suff. Manors, i. 17-18, 98, Keeler, Long Parl. 199-200; Suff. and the Gt. Rebellion (Suff. Rec. Soc. iii), 16; Add. 19077, ff. 70, 72.
• 4. Voyce from the Watch Tower, 121; CSP Dom. 1671-2, p. 414; Vis. Eng. and Wales Notes ed. Crisp, ix. 108.