PRAED, James I (d.1687), of Trevethoe, Lelant, Cornw.

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

Constituency

Dates

5 May - 16 July 1660

Family and Education

o.s. of James Praed of Trevethoe by Honor, da. of James Jenkyn of St. Columb Major. m. by 1656, ?Honor, da. of Arthur Gifford of Brightley, Devon, 3s. 5da. suc. fa. 1651.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Cornw. 1653-4, commr. for militia Mar. 1660, j.p. Mar.-July 1660, maj. of militia ft. Apr. 1660-d., commr. for assessment Aug. 1660-80; recorder, St. Ives ?1662-84; stannator, Penwith and Kerrier 1673; commr. for recusants Cornw. 1675.2

Biography

Praed’s grandfather acquired Trevethoe and two of the five manors in St. Ives in the reign of James I, serving as mayor of the borough in 1635. His father, a Royalist, served under Sir Francis Basset during the Civil War and compounded at £324 on the Truro articles. Praed acted as sheriff during the Commonwealth, and hence may have been considered within the qualifications imposed by the Long Parliament for the general election of 1660. He was involved in a double return with Edward Nosworthy I for St. Ives, five miles from his home, and seated on the merits of the return; but he was unseated on the merits of the election six weeks later, without leaving any other trace on the records of the Convention. As ‘the chief supporter of the Stuarts in the neighbourhood’, with an estate of £600 p.a., he was proposed for the order of the Royal Oak. There was another double return in 1661, but Praed’s name was on both indentures and he took his seat. He was probably appointed recorder of St. Ives by the commissioners of corporations; but he was an extremely inactive Member of the Cavalier Parliament. Apart from the committee of elections and privileges, to which he was added in three sessions, he was appointed only to the committees for securing the Bodvile inheritance to Robert Robartes (22 Nov. 1666) and for the prevention of illegal exactions (21 Oct. 1675). By this time he had gone over to the Opposition. Sir Richard Wiseman included him among the Cornish Members hostile to the Court, and Shaftesbury marked him ‘worthy’ in 1677. He was absent from the call of the House on 17 Dec. 1678 and was sent for in custody. Nevertheless he apparently stood again in February, being again marked ‘worthy’ on Shaftesbury’s list of the Commons. Presumably an exclusionist, he was not reappointed recorder under the new charter of 1684. He died in 1687.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Boase, Coll. Cornub. 756; PCC 125 Exton.
  • 2. Parl. Intell. 9 Apr. 1660; CSP Dom. 1679-80, p. 61; J. H. Matthews, St. Ives, 214, 443; Add. 6713, f. 377.
  • 3. Lysons, Cornw. 150; Cal. Comm. Comp. 117, 1935; Courtney, Parl. Rep. Cornw. 69, 424.