John Trenchard 1649-1695

Sir John TRENCHARD 1649-1695

Biographical Note

Born at Lytchett Matravers, Dorset, son of Thomas Trenchard, and brought up in a family with strong nonconformist traditions. Matriculated New College, Oxford 1665, but did not graduate; entered the Middle Temple, called to the bar 1674. MP for Taunton 1679; developed an active political career as a leading spokesman for the exclusion of James II from the succession, on the grounds of his Roman Catholicism. Arrested 1683 after the Rye House Plot and imprisoned for 6 months. Fled to the Netherlands after Monmouth’s rebellion (1685) where he lived in exile until pardoned in 1687. MP for Thetford 1689, for Poole 1690. Knighted, and made chief justice of Cheshire, 1689. Secretary of State, 1693. Retired to Dorset in 1694, being ill with tuberculosis, where he died soon afterwards.

Books

Trenchard’s library, along with that of an (unnamed) recently deceased “eminent divine of the Church of England”, was auctioned in London by John Nicholson, 25 November 1695. The sale catalogue lists 2099 lots, divided into Latin theology (392), Latin history, philology, medicine and miscellaneous (489), French, Spanish, Italian and German books (312), Common and statute law (157), English divinity/history/miscellaneous (649). The catalogue does not distinguish the source of particular books although the legal material was presumably primarily Trenchard’s.

Characteristic Markings

None of Trenchard’s books have been identified.

Sources

• A catalogue of excellent books … being the libraries of … Sir John Trenchard [&c], 1695 (ESTC R222364).
• British Armorial Bindings.
• Clifton, Robin. "Trenchard, Sir John (1649–1695), politician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.