John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough

From http://www.thepeerage.com/p7594.htm#i75931

John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough was baptised on 18 January 1598/99. He was the son of Henry Mordaunt, 4th Lord Mordaunt and Hon. Margaret Compton.2 He married Elizabeth Howard, daughter of William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Effingham and Hon. Ann St. John, before 7 April 1621.2 He died on 19 June 1644 at age 45.3

He succeeded to the title of 5th Lord Mordaunt [E., 1532] on 13 February 1608/9.3 He was invested as a Knight, Order of the Bath (K.B.) in 1616.3 He was created 1st Earl of Peterborough, co. Northampton [England] on 9 March 1627/28.3 He gained the rank of Colonel of Infantry.3 He held the office of Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire between 1640 and 1642.3 He gained the rank of Captain of Cavalry and General of Artillery in 1642 in the service of the Parliamentary Army.3 He held the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Northamptonshire from 1642 to 1643, appointed by Parliament.3

Children of John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough and Elizabeth Howard

1. Lady Sophia Mordaunt+1
2. Lady Elizabeth Mordaunt+4 d. c 9 Aug 1716
3. Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough+4 b. 18 Oct 1623, d. 19 Jun 1697
4. John Mordaunt, 1st Viscount Mordaunt of Avalon+5 b. 18 Jun 1626, d. 5 Jun 1675

biography

From http://mordauntfamilyhistory.com/earls.html

The 1st and 2nd Earls of Peterborough

John Mordaunt (1598/99 - 1642), (5th Baron and later 1st Earl of Peterborough), son of Henry Mordaunt, 4th Baron, was forcibly taken from his Catholic family as a child on the death of his father and placed with the Anglican Bishop of London to be brought up in the protestant faith. "Neither did James minimize the importance of education as a means of counter­acting the instruction of young noblemen in the Catholic faith. In the case of the 11 year old John Mordaunt, heir of Henry Mordaunt, Lord Mordaunt, who had been suspected of complicity in the Gun­powder Plot and imprisoned in the Tower, the King did not hesitate to separate him from his mother and entrust him and his education to the Bishop of London. " It is no smale parte of our care," he wrote to the Bishop, " that the nobilitie of this realme be bred both in such sort as becometh their ranck and in so good instruction of the religion established in our kingdome, as that by receiveing the corruption of superstitious and daungerous opinions they be not made unservicable." (Calender of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, Volume 24).

Now raised to be a faithful courtier, he was created 1st Earl of Peterborough on 9th March 1628.

Notwithstanding, he "took the Parliamentarian side in the early days of the Civil War. He was made General of Ordnance and Colonel of a Regiment of Foot under the command of the Earl of Essex in 1642, and died in the same year."

He had married Elizabeth Howard (1603 - 1671), daughter of William, Lord Howard of Effingham, by 1721 and, among anyone else, had two sons who, opposite from their father, were staunch royalists in the Civil War: A more complete account of his life is given in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as well as by Halstead, page 404.

As a footnote, John Ford dedicated his drama "Tis a Pity She's a Whore" to "the truly noble John, Earl of Peterborough, Lord Mordaunt, Baron of Turvey"

• http://www.mordaunt.me.uk/biographies.html#honharry