William Strode

Colonel William Strode, Jr (11 January 1589, Shepton Mallet, Somerset – 20 December 1666, Barrington Court, Somerset) — called William Strode of Barrington to distinguish him from contemporaries of the same name, principally the Strodes of Newnham in Devon — was an English Parliamentarian officer and Member of Parliament (Ilchester; 1640, 1646–48). A wealthy cloth merchant, he acquired several estates in his native county of Somerset and was noted for his local philanthropy as well as his political and military opposition to King Charles I and Charles II. Biography Family and early life Strode was the youngest son of William Strode, Sr (1566-1592) of Shepton Mallet and of Elizabeth Upton (1570-1630), daughter of Geoffrey Upton of Warminster. This branch of the Strode family had long lived in Somerset and were long connected with other prominent families there. (William's great grand uncle was the martyred last abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, the Blessed Richard Whiting, executed by Henry VIII.) A successful clothier like his father, William had spent much of his youth in Spain where his father was a factor. In addition to inheriting his father's fortune, he married Joan Barnard, heiress to the Barnard family, in 1621. He purchased Barrington Court in 1625. (He, his son, and his grandson — all named William — lived there until 1745 when the estate passed out of the Strode family.) In 1635, he sat for a portrait by Gilbert Soest, which survives. In 1640, he was MP for Ilchester. Civil War At the beginning of the English Civil War, Strode opposed the king's Commission of Array in the county of Somerset and was one of the parliamentary deputy-lieutenants there in 1642. The Marquess of Hertford, heading up the Royalists' efforts headquartered at Wells (west of Shepton Mallet) issued warrants to several "Hundreds", requiring them to supply men and arms. The Marquess instructed Sir Ralph Hopton and other gentlemen, with 100 mounted Cavaliers, to ride to Shepton Mallet and publish the Commission of Array. In July 1642, Hopton arrived in Shepton Mallet and Strode publicly confronted him. A local historian relates the story in detail: