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Sir William Coventry PC (4 October 1627 – 23 June 1686) was an English statesman.
Early life and Civil War
William was the son of the lord keeper Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, by his second wife Elizabeth Aldersley. Coventry matriculated at The Queen's College, Oxford, at the age of fourteen. Owing to the outbreak of the English Civil War he was forced to abandon his studies, but according to Sir John Bramston, the younger he had a good tutor,[1] and through travelling, he learned to speak the French language fluently. He was young at the time of the war, yet Clarendon wrote that he joined the army and had the command of a foot company and shortly afterwards went to France. Here he remained till all hopes of obtaining foreign assistance and of raising a new army had to be laid aside when he returned to England and kept aloof from the various royalist intrigues. When the prospect of a restoration appeared in 1660, Coventry hurried to Breda, was appointed secretary to James, Duke of York (who was Lord High Admiral of England) and headed the royal procession when Charles II entered London in triumph.[2]
Restoration of the monarchy
Coventry was returned to the Restoration Parliament of 1661 for Great Yarmouth, became commissioner for the navy in May 1662 and in 1663 was made Doctor of Civil Law at Oxford. His great talents were very soon recognised in parliament, and his influence as an official was considerable. His appointment was rather that of secretary to the admiralty than of personal assistant to the duke of York, and was one of large gains. Anthony Wood states that he collected a fortune of £60,000. Accusations of corruption in his naval administration, and especially during the Dutch war, were brought against him, but there is no real evidence for this. Samuel Pepys, in his diary, testifies to the excellence of Coventry's administration and to his zeal for reform and economy; his consistent praise for Coventry is in notable contrast to his strictures on his other colleagues, who are generally referred to as "knaves" or "old fools". Coventry's ability and energy did little to avert the naval collapse, owing chiefly to financial mismanagement and ill-advised appointments.[2]
1665–1669
Coventry denied all responsibility for the Dutch War in 1665, and his repudiation is supported by Pepys; it was, moreover, contrary to his well-known political opinions. The war greatly increased his influence, and shortly after the Battle of Lowestoft, on 3 June 1665, he was knighted and made a Privy Councillor (26 June) and was subsequently admitted to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. In 1667 he was appointed to the board of treasury to effect financial reforms. "I perceive," writes Pepys on 23 August 1667, "Sir William Coventry is the man and nothing done till he comes", and on his removal in 1669 the Duke of Albemarle, no friendly or partial critic, declares that "nothing now would be well done." His appointment came too late to ward off the naval disaster at Chatham the same year, the Raid on the Medway, and the national bankruptcy in 1672.[2]
Coventry's rising influence had been from the first the cause of increasing jealousy to the Lord Chancellor, Clarendon, who disliked and discouraged the younger generation. Coventry resented this. He became the chief mover in the successful attack on Clarendon, but refused to take any part in his impeachment, although Clarendon never forgave him for what he saw as Coventry's betrayal. Two days after Clarendon's resignation (on 31 August), Coventry announced his intention of terminating his connection with the navy.[2]
As a principal agent in effecting Clarendon's fall, he naturally acquired new power and influence, and was expected to be Clarendon's successor as first minister of the crown. Coventry retained merely his appointment at the treasury, and the brilliant but unscrupulous and incapable George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, a favourite of the king, succeeded. The relations between the two men soon became unfriendly. Buckingham ridiculed Sir William's steady attention to business, and was annoyed at his opposition to Clarendon's impeachment. Coventry rapidly lost influence and was excluded from the cabinet council.[2] His career depended now entirely on the support of the Duke of York: but ironically by bringing down Clarendon, Coventry had helped to weaken the influence of the Duke, Clarendon's son-in-law and principal defender.
Finally, in March 1669, Coventry challenged Buckingham for having written a play in which Sir William was ridiculed. Notice of the challenge reached the authorities through the duke's second, and Sir William was imprisoned in the Tower on 3 March and subsequently expelled from the privy council. He was superseded in the treasury on 11 March by Buckingham's favourite, Sir Thomas Osborne, and was at last released from the Tower on 21 March in disgrace. The real cause of his dismissal was the final adoption by Charles of the policy of subservience to France and desertion of the Netherlands and Protestant interests. Six weeks before Coventry's fall, the conference between Charles, James, Arlington, Clifford and Arundel had taken place, which resulted, a year and a half later in the Treaty of Dover. To such schemes, Sir William, with his steady hostility to France and active devotion to Protestantism, was doubtless a formidable opponent. He now withdrew definitely from official life, still retaining, however, his ascendancy in the House of Commons, and leading the party which condemned and criticised the reactionary and fatal policy of the government, his credit and reputation being rather enhanced than diminished by his dismissal.[3]
1670s
In 1673 a pamphlet entitled England's appeal from the Private Cabal at Whitehall to the Great Council of the Nation by a true Lover of his Country went through five editions. The anonymous work was universally ascribed to Sir William, and forcefully reflects his opinions on the French entanglement. In the great matter of the Indulgence, while refusing to discuss the limits of prerogative and liberty, he argued that the dispensing power of the crown could not be valid during the session of parliament, and criticised the manner of the declaration while approving its ostensible object. He supported the Test Act, but maintained a statesmanlike moderation amidst the tide of indignation rising against the government, and refused to take part in the personal attacks upon ministers, drawing upon himself the same unpopularity as his nephew, George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, incurred later. In the same year, he denounced the alliance with France.[4] He showed his appreciation for the loyalty Samuel Pepys had always displayed to him by vigorously supporting Pepys' right to sit in the House of Commons (to which he was elected in 1673), and ridiculing the claims (which were entirely unfounded) that Pepys was a Roman Catholic.
During the summer of 1674, he was again received at court. In 1675 he supported the bill to exclude Roman Catholics from both Houses, and also the measure to close the House of Commons to placemen; and he showed great activity in his opposition to the French connection, especially stigmatising the encouragement given by the government to the levying of troops for the French service. In May 1677 he voted for the Dutch alliance. Like most of his contemporaries, he accepted the story of the Popish Plot in 1678. Coventry several times refused the highest court appointments, and he was not included in Sir W. Temple's new-modelled council in April 1679.[4]
1680s
In the exclusion question he favoured at first a policy of limitations, and on his nephew Halifax, who on his retirement became the leader of the moderate party, he enjoined prudence and patience, and greatly regretted the violence of the opposition which eventually excited a reaction and ruined everything. He refused to stand for the new parliament, and retired to his country residence at Minster Lovell near Witney, in Oxfordshire. He died unmarried on 23 June 1686, at Somerhill near Tunbridge Wells, where he had gone to take the waters, and was buried at Penshurst, where a monument was erected to his memory at St John the Baptist, Penshurst. In his will he ordered his funeral to be at small expense, and left £2000 to the French Protestant refugees in England, besides £3000 for the liberation of captives held by the Barbary Pirates in Algiers. He had shortly before his death already paid for the liberation of sixty slaves. He was much beloved and respected in his family circle, his nephew, Henry Savile, alluding to him in affectionate terms as "our dearest uncle and incomparable friend".[4]
Assessment
Writing Coventry's biography in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Philip Chesney Yorke stated that "though Sir William Coventry never filled that place in the national administration to which his merit and exceptional ability clearly entitled him, his public life together with his correspondence are sufficient to distinguish him from amongst his contemporaries as a statesman of the first rank. Lord Halifax obviously derived from his honoured mentor those principles of government which, by means of his own brilliant intellectual gifts, originality and imaginative insight, gained further force and influence. Halifax owed to him his interest in the navy and his grasp of the necessity of a country of a powerful maritime force. He drew his antagonism to France, his religious tolerance, and wider religious views but firm Protestantism doubtless from the same source. Sir William was the original Trimmer".[4]
Writing to his nephew Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth, while denying the authorship of The Character of a Trimmer, he says, "I have not been ashamed to own myself to be a trimmer... one who would sit upright and not overturn the boat by swaying too much to either side." He shared the Trimmers' dislike of party, urging Halifax in the exclusion contest not to be thrust by the opposition of his enemies into another party, but that he keep upon a national bottom which at length will prevail. His prudence was expressed in his perpetual unwillingness to do things which he could not undo. A singular independence of spirit, a breadth of mind which refused to be contracted by party formulas, a sanity which was proof against the contagion of national delirium, were equally characteristic of uncle and nephew. Sir William Coventry's conceptions of statesmanship, under the guiding hand of his nephew, largely inspired the future revolution settlement, and continued to be an essential condition of English political growth and progress.[4]
Bibliography
Besides the tract already mentioned, Coventry was the author of A Letter to Dr Burnet giving an Account of Cardinal Pools Secret Powers... (1685). The Character of a Trimmer, often ascribed to him, is now known to have been written by Lord Halifax. Notes concerning the Poor, and an essay concerning the decay of rents and the remedy, are among the Malet Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm. Ser. 5th Rep. app. 320 (a)) and Add. MSS. Brit. Mus. (cal. 1882–1887); an Essay concerning France (4th Rep. app. 229 (b)) and a Discourse on the Management of the Navy (23ob) are among the MSS. of the marquess of Bath, also a catalogue of his library (233(a)).[4]
Notes
- ^ Bramston 1845, p. 252.
- ^ a b c d e Yorke 1911, p. 341.
- ^ Yorke 1911, pp. 341–342.
- ^ a b c d e f Yorke 1911, p. 342.
References
- Bramston, John (1845). Griffin, Richard (ed.). The autobiography of Sir John Bramston: K.B., of Skreens, in the hundred of Chelmsford; now first printed from the original ms. in the possession of his lineal descendant Thomas William Bramston, Esq. Camden society. Publications.
Attribution:
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Yorke, Philip Chesney (1911). "Coventry, Sir William". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 341–342.
17 Annotations
First Reading
vincent • Link
NO adequate life of Sir William Coventry has been written; the most satisfactory appreciation of his character and abilities is to be found in the several passages relating to him see
http://49.1911encyclopedia.org/C/…
and..* /co/Coverdale .htm
read the father too THOMAS COVENTRY, 1ST BARON (1578-1640),
a little aside involving a plot of murder
Two days after this had been made public, a man named William Bedlow put himself in communication with Sir William Coventry, Secretary of State, declaring he had a certain knowledge of the murder in question.
http://www.worldwideschool.org/li…
Cumgranissalis • Link
LISTS OF APPOINTMENTS
SECRETARIES AND FIRST SECRETARIES
1660 July Coventry, Hon. W.
Between 1660 and 1664 the Secretary was entirely dependent on fees for his remuneration. In the latter year a salary of
Cumgranissalis • Link
He was made Extra Commissioner in June 62 ; Having the Ear of Prince James, Coventry as his secretary of the Navy, changed and charged the atmosphere in the Diary. Cat amongst the pigeons,
many references in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, he being an active person.
Barbara Hewitt • Link
"Sent to Coventry", which Lord was this associated with? His address, is this now known as "The Old Ship Inn, Mere in Wiltshire? Where can I find details of the Deed in which Lord Coventry handed over the House to the Town?
Pedro • Link
A part of Coventry's income?
Warrant, by the Duke of Ormond, made in pursuance of the King's letter of 16 December preceding
Written from: Dublin Castle Date: 21 January 1663
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 165, fol(s). 69
Document type: Copy
Warrant, by the Duke of Ormond, made in pursuance of the King's letter of 16 December 1662 [see MS. Carte 43, fols. 62-63], for the grant in due form of law to William Coventry, and William Legg, esquires, of certain profits accruing to the Crown by virtue of a proviso in the 'Act of Settlement', concerning the deduction of "fractions of odd pounds, shillings, and pence in the stating of sums of money, debentures, &c.", and also concerning deduction of "fractions of odd acres, roods, & perches, in the ascertaining of the respective proportions of lands, which shall be settled or granted in satisafction of" (certain) "particular interests" ...; reserving to the Crown certain yearly rents from the grantees aforesaid, ... "that is to say, for every acre of the said fractions of land that shall happen to be struck off and deducted in the Province of Leinster, three pence; ... for the like in Munster, twopence farthing; for the like in Connaught, one penny and one halfpenny; and for the like in Ulster, one penny"; the said reserved rents to be paid yearly into the Receipt of the Exchequer in Ireland, "by two even and equal payments". ...
CGS • Link
summary in
Grey's Debates of the House of Commons: volume 1 (1769)
Sir Wm. Coventry, (the youngest son of Lord Keeper Coventry) was a man of the finest and best temper that belonged to the Court. The Duke of Buckingham and he fell out, and a challenge passed between them, upon which Coventry was forbid the Court. He was offered after that the best posts in the Court oftner than once; but he would never engage again. He saw what was at bottom, and was resolved not to go through with it, and so continued to his death in a retired course of life. Burnet. A very different character is given of him by Lord Clarendon, whom he constantly opposed, being, as he says, "a declared enemy to all Lawyers and to the Law itself." See Lord Clarendon's life, p. 183 and 300.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Christopher Squire • Link
‘ . . He died [aged 59] unmarried at Somerhill, near Tunbridge Wells, on 23 June 1686 . . [his] political views are best known from their affectionate portrayal in The Character of a Trimmer, which came out in 1688 with a title-page ascribing it to ‘the Honourable Sir W. C.’. It was printed from a copy found among Coventry's papers, but the author was George Savile, marquess of Halifax, Coventry's nephew.
This is a vindication of the presence of a middle political party, unconnected with either of the two recognized parties in parliamentary warfare. During his life Coventry admitted himself to be a trimmer, a title which he defines as ‘one who would sit upright and not overturn the boat by swaying too much on either side’ [DNB]
cum salis grano • Link
Sir William was the original Trimmer [see wiki]
The Character of a Trimmer,
"The 'trimmer' is one who disposes his weight so as to keep the ship upon an even keel. And our inspection of his conduct reveals certain general ideas at work...Being concerned to prevent politics from running to extremes, he believes that there is a time for everything and that everything has its time -- not providentially, but empirically. He will be found facing in whatever direction the occasion seems to require if the boat is to go even."
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic…
cum salis grano • Link
OED trimmer
5. One who trims between opposing parties in politics, etc.; hence, one who inclines to each of two opposite sides as interest dictates.
Applied orig. in this sense to Lord Halifax and those associated with him (1680-90), but by him accepted in the sense ‘one who keeps even the ship of state’; hence ‘one who changes sides to balance parties’ (J.).
1682 DRYDEN Dk. Guise Epil. 33, 38 We Trimmers are for holding all things even.{em}Yes{em}just like him that hung 'twixt Hell and Heaven... You Trimmers shou'd, to poize it, hang on t'other.
1682 Character of a Trimmer 2 A Trimmer, one neither Whigg nor Tory, is a Hater of Anti-christ, an Abominator of Enthusiasm.
1685 EVELYN Mem. 7 May, Those whom (by way of hateful distinction) they call'd Whiggs and Trimmers.
1704 Faction Displ. xiv, The Patriot's Soul disdains the Trimmer's Art.
Second Reading
Bill • Link
COVENTRY, Sir WILLIAM (1628?-1686) politician: a younger son of Thomas, first baron Coventry; entered Queen's College, Oxford, 1642; captain of foot in Charles I's service; withdrew to France; secretary to the Duke of York, 1660-7; M.P., Great Yarmouth, 1661-1679; commissioner of the navy, 1662, and so friend of Samuel Pepys; knighted, 1605; spoke against Clarendon, 1667; quarrelled with Buckingham; Imprisoned, 1668; published pamphlets, 1673 and 1685; reputed author of 'Character of a Trimmer,' published 1688.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.
Bill • Link
William Coventry, to whom Pepys became so warmly attached, was the fourth son of Thomas, first Lord Coventry, the Lord Keeper. He was born in 1628, and entered at Queen's College, Oxford, in 1642; after the Restoration he became private secretary to the Duke of York, his commission as Secretary to the Lord High Admiral not being conferred until 1664; elected M.P. for Great Yarmouth in 1661. In 1662 he was appointed an extra Commissioner of the Navy, an office he held until 1667; in 1665, knighted and sworn a Privy Councillor, and, in 1667, constituted a Commissioner of the Treasury; but, having been forbid the court on account of his challenging the Duke of Buckingham, he retired into the country, nor could he subsequently be prevailed upon to accept of any official employment. Burnet calls Sir William Coventry the best speaker in the House of Commons, and "a man of the finest and best temper that belonged to the court," and Pepys never omits an opportunity of paying a tribute to his public and private worth. He died, 1686, of gout in the stomach.
---Wheatley, 1896.
Terry Foreman • Link
Portrait of Sir William Coventry by Mary Beale (attributed to)
Parliamentary Art Collection
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpai…
San Diego Sarah • Link
On January 7, 1663/64 we hear Sir William Coventry has a mistress. L&M says she has never been identified. He died a bachelor.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sir William Coventry was an active and eloquent member of Parliament as well as being Secretary to James, Duke of York and a member of the Navy Board. Bottom line, he seems to have come to the conclusion that Chancellor Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (James' father-in-law) was not the man for the job, and in the end wasn't able to ethically and harmoniously play his Court hand, his M.P.'s hand, and his Naval hand without hurting himself.
His Parliamentary biography is worth reading, with good quotes which explain some substories more clearly than I can:
http://www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/…
San Diego Sarah • Link
William Coventry MP resigned from James, Duke of York’s service ‘that he might be the more free to prosecute the Earl of Clarendon’, and took up residence in a new house in Pall Mall which he bought from Sir Thomas Clarges MP for £1,400.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
San Diego Sarah • Link
John Evelyn's Diary – he and Mary Browne Evelyn live at Saye's Court, Deptford.
http://brittlebooks.library.illin…
@@@
11 October, 1659.
Came to visit me Mr. William Coventry (since secretary to the Duke), son to the Lord Keeper, a wise and witty gentleman.
@@@
Another example of how Evelyn went through and edited his entries years later. And another example of how Pepys and Evelyn could have been introduced and met many more times than reflected in the Diary.
His good opinion of Sir William Coventry opinion hadn't change with the years.
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
The correspondence of the Coventry brothers is available:
Henry Coventry, 4th son of Lord Keeper Coventry, was born in 1619, ... With the rest of his family, he was a Royalist and shared in the exile of the party.
At the Restoration he was made Groom of the Bedchamber to Charles II; ...
FOR THE REST OF HENRY'S BIO, SEE
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Sir William Coventry, 5th son of Lord Keeper Coventry, was 10 years younger than his brother Henry, and entered Queen's College, Oxford, art. 14, in 1642 (Foster, loc. cit.). He did not take a degree, but was created D.C.L. in 1663.
Shortly before the Restoration he was appointed Secretary to the Duke of York. He retained this post until Sept. 1667, and as the Duke during the time held the office of Lord High Admiral, he took an important part in naval affairs.
From 1661 to 1679 he represented Great Yarmouth in Parliament, being one of the leading members of the House. In 1662 he was appointed a Commissioner for Tangier, and from May, 1667 to April, 1669, he was also a Commissioner of the Treasury.
On 26 June, 1665 he was knighted and sworn a member of the Privy Council (XCVIII. f.162), but he was dismissed from the Council on 5 Mar. 1668-1669 (CI. f.62) for Challenging the Duke of Buckingham, and was for a short while confined in the Tower.
On his release (20 Mar.) he retired into the country, and lived chiefly at Minster Lovel, co. Oxon until his death on 23 June, 1686. Like his brother, he was unmarried.
His official correspondence (vol. XCV. seqq.) relates almost entirely to operations against the Dutch, to charges made against him of selling places, and to naval business generally, a large number of lists of ships and officers, draft-instructions, estimates, accompts, etc., being included. Among his correspondents are Prince Rupert, George Monck, Duke of Albemarle, and Samuel Pepys. His more miscellaneous papers include drafts of Addresses from the House of Commons to the King and Bills in Parliament, political memoranda, etc., together with autograph "observations on the Navy and Naval Warfare" written in 1666 (CII).
The Coventry Papers came to Longleat through Henry Frederick Thynne, third son of Sir Henry Frederick Thynne, Bart., by Mary, daughter of Lord Keeper Coventry, and grandfather of Thomas Thynne, 2nd Viscount Weymouth (1714).
H. F. Thynne was Secretary to his uncle Henry Coventry, when Secretary of State, and also his co-heir (CVI. f.352); he was executor to his uncle Sir William Coventry.
https://discovery.nationalarchive…