Sir George Trenchard, Kt., MP

Family and Education

b. c.1575, 1st s. of George Trenchard I of Wolveton by his 1st w. educ. Magdalen Coll. Oxf. 1588; M. Temple 1594. m. (1) Elizabeth, [SIC: Bridget] da. of John Whitson, alderman of Bristol, s.p.; (2) 11 June 1610, Penelope, da. of Thomas Darcy, 3rd Baron Chiche, later Earl Rivers, s.p. Kntd. 1603.

Biography

Trenchard’s father wished ‘to train up and make serviceable to her Majesty’ his eldest son, who thus found himself taking the family’s turn as knight of the shire at the age of 26. In this capacity he may have served on the main business committee (3 Nov.) and the committee on monopolies (23 Nov.). But he got into debt in London, confessing in his last illness, 25 June 1610, that his extravagance had almost broken his father’s heart: ‘and so there is an end of too much because it will wear now very deep (as I know) into your estate’. His widow remarried on 8 July 1611.

Hutchins tells that Penelope Darcy, his second wife, had been courted by three suitors: Sir George Trenchard, Sir John Gage and William Harvey. The three suitors became quarrelsome but Penelope put an end to it by saying in in jest that if they were patient she would marry all three which she proceeded to do.[3] (this story was used as the basis for a story by Thomas Hardy, the Dorset author 'The Lady Penelope' The Trenchards becoming 'the Drenkhards' and Wolveton, their house clearly recognisable from it's situation as the ivied manor-house, flanked by battlemented towers, and more than usually distinguished by the size of its many mullioned windows which he describes,as to be found on the right hand side of the low road from Casterbridge (Dorchester) to Ivell (Yeovil).)

Biography

• History of Parliament Online
• https://bristolha.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/bha025.pdf

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