Dudley North, 4th Baron North

Sir Dudley North, painting circa 1628

Dudley North, 4th Baron North (October or November 1602 ; † June 24, 1677 ) was an English nobleman, politician and writer.

Origin and youth

North was the eldest son of Dudley North, 3rd Baron North († 1666), his mother was Frances Brockett (1583 / 4–1677), the youngest of the six daughters of Sir John Brockett of Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire . He was probably born in Charterhouse , his father's London town house. Before the investiture of the heir to the throne Charles as Prince of Wales , he was made Knight of the Bath on November 3, 1616 . Around this time he began his studies in Cambridge , where he probably studied at St John's College until 1619 without a degree. On August 10, 1619, he was admitted to Gray's Inn , where he continued to study without zeal. During the Bohemian-Palatinate War , he took part in 1620 as a lieutenant in Sir Horace Vere's campaign to Germany, which attempted to recapture the Electoral Palatinate . On his return he enrolled in the Inner Temple on May 12, 1622 , but soon asked his father for permission to travel abroad. From the beginning of 1623 he went on a grand tour to Italy, Spain and France. In 1624 he was approved by Henry de Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford , to set up a company in the Netherlands in English pay and served as their captain until 1627.

Political career

From 1628 to 1629 he was a Member of the House of Commons for Horsham , Sussex , during the Short and Long Parliament he was a Member of the House of Commons for Cambridgeshire from 1640 . In 1634 he became a Justice of the Peace for Cambridgeshire. He remained a supporter of the monarchy for a long time before reluctantly becoming a supporter of parliament to protect his family's interests. In 1642 he was a member of the parliamentary delegation who complained to Hampton Court about the king's policy. During the Civil War , he raised troops for Parliament in Cambridgeshire and disarmed Catholics or residents suspected of being monarchists. In 1648 he was expelled from parliament after Pride's Purge .

As early as 1637 and 1638 he was involved in the drainage of the Fens in Lincolnshire . After leaving parliament, he returned to the complex area of ​​drainage, hoping in vain to improve his income. He became a judge for Ely and Suffolk and had to deal with crimes frowned upon during the Commonwealth , such as gambling and alcohol consumption.

After the Stuart Restoration , he refused to fully stand up for the monarchy. Therefore, he was not elected as a candidate for Cambridgeshire in the general election in 1660, after which he ran for the city of Cambridge and was elected. In parliament, however, he was largely passive and did not run again in 1661. On June 5, 1660, he asked the king for a pardon, which was granted to him on September 3, 1660. After his father's death in 1666, he inherited the title of Baron North and became a member of the House of Lords .

Writing activity

As early as 1619 he had published poems for the first time in Lacrymae Cantabrigienses on the occasion of the death of Queen Anna . North, considered educated, later employed John Jenkins in his household as his own music master and owned a rich library. In addition to poems, after retiring from politics, he wrote autobiographical writings as well as books on theology and housekeeping.

family

The family fortunes had already shrunk under his father, and Dudley also had little income due to the consequences of the civil war. On April 24, 1632 he married Anne Montagu (1613 / 14–1681), the second daughter of Sir Charles Montagu, a younger brother of Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester , and of his second wife Mary Whitmore. After the death of his father-in-law, his wife became co-heir to a considerable fortune. North lived with his family at Kirtling Tower in Cambridgeshire, the home of the Norths, and in 1638 he bought a town house in Tostock , Suffolk . His strict father shaped his life until his death.

He and his wife had 14 children, 10 of whom reached adulthood, including:

• Charles North (1635-1691)
• Francis North (1637-1685)
• Dudley North (1641-1691)
• John North (1645-1683)
• Roger North (1653-1734)
• Montagu North
• Anne ⚭ Robert Foley of Stourbridge, Worcestershire
• Christian ⚭ Sir George Wenyeve of Brettenham, Suffolk
• Elizabeth

1. ∞ Sir Robert Wiseman
2. ∞ William Paston, 2nd Earl of Yarmouth

• Mary ⚭ Sir William Spring of Pakenham, Suffolk.

North was considered a decent and considerate man who had worked his life sometimes under difficult circumstances. He was buried in Kirtling Church. He was remembered less for his writings and political activities than for a strict but careful upbringing father, several of whose children made remarkable careers. Of his children, his eldest son was made Baron Gray of Rolleston in 1673 , three of his sons became MPs, of which Francis was made Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and Baron Guildford in 1682 . Dudley North became an economist, John North Masters from Trinity College , Cambridge.

Works (selection)

• Narrative of Some Passages relating to the Long Parliament , London 1670.
• Observations and advices oeconomical , London 1669.
• Light in the way to Paradise. With other occasionals . London 1682.

literature

• Dale BJ Randall: Gentle flame. The life and verse of Dudley, Fourth Lord North (1602-1677). Duke University Press, Durham, NC 1983. ISBN 0822304910 .

Web links

• Dudley North, 4th Lord North on thepeerage.com , accessed August 11, 2015.
• Dale BJ Randall: North, Dudley, fourth Baron North (1602–1677). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
• MW helms; ER Edwards; Geoffrey Jaggar: NORTH, Sir Dudley I (1602-77), of Kirtling, Cambs. in History of Parliament (period 1660–1690) (online)
• Alan Davidson: NORTH, Sir Dudley (1602-1677), of Kirtling, Cambs. in History of Parliament (period 1604–1629) (online)

predecessor	Office	successor
Dudley North	Baron North 1666-1677	Charles North