Col. Sir Matthew Appleyard, Kt., MP

Family and Education b. c.1607, 6th s. of Thomas Appleyard of Burstwick Garth by 2nd w. Elizabeth, da. of Marmaduke Monkton of Cavell, wid. of George Booth of Killingholme, Lincs., and of John Turner of Barton-on-Humber, Lincs. educ. Trinity, Camb. 1626, BA 1630. m. Frances (d. 29 Dec. 1683), da. of Sir William Pelham of Brocklesby, Lincs., 3s. (1 d.v.p.) 1da. Kntd. 2 June 1645; suc. bro. aft. 1658.1

Offices Held

Maj. of ft. 1640, lt.-col. (royalist) by 1643, col. 1644-5; lt.-gov. Leicester 1645; capt. regt. of Sir Henry Cholmley June-Oct. 1660; col. of ft. [I] 1662-d.; gov. Charlemont 1664-d.2

Customer, Kingston-upon-Hull July 1660-d.; lt.-col. of militia ft. Yorks. (E. Riding) July 1660, col. 1661-?d., j.p. July 1660-6, 1669-d., dep. lt. c. Aug. 1660-?d., commr. for assessment Aug. 1660-9, sewers Sept. 1660, capt. vol. ft. 1661, commr. for corporations 1662-3.3

MP [I] 1665-6.

Biography Although the Appleyard family had held estates in Lincolnshire since the 15th century, their main seat was at Burstwick Garth, which they acquired in Tudor times. A younger son of a large family, Appleyard was apparently intended for the Church; but he preferred to become a soldier of fortune. Like two of his brothers, he probably fought on the Continent in the Thirty Years’ war. In the second Bishops’ war he served as major to Sir Charles Vavasour. His brother claimed to have sat on the Yorkshire county committee in the Civil War, but Appleyard himself, ‘a soldier of known courage and experience’, distinguished himself in the royalist army. He led his regiment at the storm of Leicester in 1645, for which he was knighted and made lieutenant-governor. The position of the garrison became hopeless after the battle of Naseby, and in December he surrendered and petitioned to compound. His only property was £160 in the hands of his sister-in-law, on which he was fined £20. Roger Whitley listed him among the Yorkshire Royalists, and he was arrested early in 1658, but he was not brought to trial with Mordaunt, Sir Henry Slingsby and Dr Hewet. His elder brothers all died without male issue, and he probably succeeded to the estate and married about this time.4

At the Restoration Appleyard was appointed collector of customs at Hull, with reversion to his younger son. He was returned for Hedon, two miles from Burstwick, at the general election of 1661, and became the first of the family to enter Parliament. A court supporter, but an inactive Member, he was appointed to 19 committees in the Cavalier Parliament, including the committee of elections and privileges in three sessions. In the opening session he was also named to the committees for the security bill, for confirming public Acts, and for the execution of the remaining regicides. But from 1662 he was more concerned with Irish affairs. He was granted lands in counties Longford and Leitrim, and appointed to the standing committee for the Irish army. He was summoned to Westminster in 1664, but excused by the King from attending any further sessions on the ground of his military duties in Ireland. Though not listed as a court dependant, he was named to the committees to consider a petition from the loyal and indigent officers and the conventicles bill. He took no further part in the proceedings at Westminster, twice defaulting on calls of the House, though Sir Thomas Osborne included him among the court dependants in 1669. He died on 20 Feb. 1670, aged 63, and was buried at Burstwick. His epitaph ignores his Irish offices, recording only his service as ‘a Member of the honourable House of Commons of England for the corporation of Hedon’ and customer at Hull, and describing him as ‘a worthy favourite and assertor of the rights of the Church and the kingdom’.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690 Author: Paula Watson Notes 1. Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. l), 32-35. 2. CSP Dom. 1640, p. 446; 1660-1, p. 108; HMC Ormonde, i. 242, 248, 305, 308; information from Brig. P. Young. 3. Cal. Treas. Bks. i. 3; CSP Dom. 1661-2, p. 39; C181/7/44; HMC 8th Rep. pt. 1 (1881), 275. 4. CSP Dom. 1640, p. 464; G. N. Godwin, Civil War in Hants, 181; Clarendon, Rebellion, iv. 40; Cal. Comm. Comp. 1057, 3035; Thurloe, vii. 13. 5. CSP Dom. 1660-1, pp. 108, 157; 1661-2, p. 39; CSP Ire. Add. 1625-70, p. 485; 1663-5, pp. 357, 582; HMC 8th Rep. pt. 1 (1881), p. 520; G. R. Park, Hedon, 157.