Family and Education

b. c.1615, o.s. of John Trott, Haberdasher, of Broad Street, London and Laverstoke by Catherine, da. of Daniel Hills of London. educ. Clare, Camb. 1632. m. 6 Feb. 1638, Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Sir Edmund Wright of Swakeleys, Ickenham, Mdx., ld. mayor of London 1640-1, 4s. d.v.p. 2da. suc. fa. 1658; cr. Bt. 12 Oct. 1660.1

Offices Held

Member, Hon. Artillery Co. 1639; commr. for militia, Hants 1659, Mar. 1660, assessment Jan. 1660-9; j.p. Mar. 1660-d., lt.-col. of militia ft. Nov. 1660-?d.; freeman, Lymington 1661; dep. lt. Hants 1667-d.; commr. for inquiry, Finkley forest 1672.2

Biography

Trott’s father, a silkman, was reckoned among the wealthiest citizens in his ward in 1641. He fined for alderman in 1649, perhaps less out of antipathy for the regicide regime than because he had just purchased an estate in Hampshire, where he held local office under both Commonwealth and Protectorate. Trott himself paid £500 to the committee for the advance of money in 1643, and claimed in 1650 to have been ‘always well affected’ to the winning cause. He was returned for Andover, some nine miles west of Laverstoke, at the general elections of 1660 and 1661, being listed by Lord Wharton as a friend, but was an inactive Member of both Parliaments. In the Convention he was named only to the committee to bring in rates for the poll bill. Presumably he gave no offence to the Court, since he was created a baronet. But he probably retained nonconformist sympathies, employing an ejected fellow of All Souls as tutor to his son. In the Cavalier Parliament he was appointed to 18 committees, including that to inquire into miscarriages in the second Dutch war, and probably acted with the Opposition. He died on 14 July 1672, and was buried at Laverstoke. According to his epitaph, which has been sometimes ascribed to Andrew Marvell, he was ‘most faithful to his Prince ... a most prudent senator, a most ardent champion and adorer equally of the Christian religion and the laws of his native land’. It was perhaps his friendship with Marvell which led the courtly dramatist Etherege to portray him on the stage as an awkward Hampshire footman in The Man of Mode four years later. His widow married James Russell, but his only surviving daughter brought the estate to the Stewkeleys.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / Paula Watson

Notes

• 1. Vis. London (Harl. Soc. xvii), 297; Marvell ed. Margoliouth, i. 262-3.
• 2. Ancient Vellum Bk. of Hon. Artillery Co. ed. Raikes, 57; Cal. Treas. Bks. i. 82; iii. 1212; E. King, Old Times Revisited, 190; SP29/225/101; Lymington Recs. 8.
• 3. Misc. Gen. et Her (ser. 2), ii. 52; VCH Hants, iv. 200; Cal. Comm. Comp. 1086, 3017, 3219; SP23/124/509; J. W. Stoye, Eng. Travellers Abroad, 426; Marvell, i. 262-3; ii. 298-9; Woodward, Hants, iii. 246.