Family and Education

b. c.1643, 1st s. of John Trafford of Walthamstow by Margaret, da. and h. of Simon Wood of Dunton Hall. educ. Trinity Coll. Camb. 1663. m. (1) lic. 30 Apr. 1679, aged 36, Susanna (d. 30 Mar. 1689), da. of one Idell of Dalston, Mdx., wid. of Robert Orme, merchant, of London, 1da. d.v.p.; (2) 19 Jan. 1692, Anne (d. 12 Sept. 1706), da. and coh. of Sir Edward Monyns, 2nd Bt., of Waldershare, Kent, wid. of Sir Roger Pratt of West Ryston, Norf., s.p. suc. fa. 1666.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Lincs. 1674-5; commr. for assessment, Lincs. and Ely 1679-80, Essex, Lincs. and Lynn 1689-90, Ely 1690; freeman, Lynn Oct. 1688; dep. lt. Cambs. 1689-bef. 1701, Ely 1701-?d.; j.p. Lincs. (Holland) and Norf. by 1701-?d.2

Biography

Trafford was descended from an old family, one of whom had represented Lancashire in 1312. His great-grandfather, however, was a younger son, and his more immediate forebears had been London merchants. His father had acquired a house in the Essex suburbs before the Civil War, and served on local commissions during the Protectorate. Trafford was still living there when he was pricked as sheriff; but he inherited Dunton Hall, about six miles from Lynn, and in the eighties he rebuilt the house at the cost of £22,000 and took up residence. He became a freeman of Lynn on the return of the charter in October 1688, and was elected to the Convention for the borough. An inactive Member, he was named to only three committees, those to inquire into abuses in the alnage, to hear a petition against the East India Company, and to consider a general oath of allegiance. Although probably a Whig, he did not support the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations, and never sat again. The last of his family, he died at the age of 80 on 11 July 1723 ‘after an elegant and well-spent life’, and was buried at Walthamstow, where he had erected an imposing memorial to his first wife.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. The Gen. ii. 155-6; London Mar. Lic. 1354; Mar. Lic. (Harl. Soc. xxxiii), 234.
• 2. Lynn Freemen, 199.
• 3. Blomefield’s Norf. Supp. ed. Ingleby, 193; W. Rye, Norf. Fams. 938; CSP Dom. 1673-4, p. 432; Mems. St. Mary’s Church (Walthamstow Antiq. Soc. xxvii), 19.