Sir John Salusbury, MP, 4th Baronet

Family and Education b. c.1640, 2nd s. of Sir Thomas Salusbury, 2nd Bt. of Llewenni by Hester, da. of Sir Edward Tyrrell, 1st Bt. of Thornton, Bucks., wid. of Sir Peter Lemaire. m. 29 Apr. 1664, Jane, da. of Edward Williams of Weige, Caern, s.p. suc. bro. 23 Mar. 1658.1

Offices Held

‘Alderman’, Denbigh 1654-5, 1661-3, 1683-d., recorder July 1660-d., ‘capital burgess’ 1661-d., coroner 1676-7; j.p. Denb. July 1660-d., Flints. 1672-d.; commr. for assessment, Denb. Aug. 1660-80, Flints. 1663-80, Merion. 1679-80; dep. lt. Denb. 1661-d., capt. of militia horse by 1666-d., jt. treas. 1673-4, commr. for encroachments 1684.2

Biography Salusbury’s ancestors were established at Llewenni early in the 14th century. One of them sat for Leominster in 1332, and they regularly represented the county from the enfranchisement of Wales under Henry VIII. Salusbury’s father served as commissioner of array at the beginning of the Civil War and led a local infantry regiment at Edgehill, but he died in the following summer, and the estate was never sequestrated. Salusbury was returned for the borough seat in 1661 soon after attaining his majority, and held it for the rest of his life. He was an inactive Member of the Cavalier Parliament, however, being appointed to only eight committees in 17 years, and he was clearly often absent from Westminster. On 29 Oct. 1667, John Wynne complained that it was time Salusbury ‘relieved’ those who had been on duty since the beginning of the session, and he defaulted on a call of the House in the following February. Although Sir Thomas Osborne included him among the Members who had usually voted for supply, he would have been charged double subsidy in 1671 if Lady Salusbury has not written to the Speaker to explain that he was prevented from either attending or apologising by a fall from his horse, in which he had crushed his shoulder. Sir Richard Wiseman had no doubt of his support for the Court in 1675, but noted him as absent from the autumn session. He was appointed to two committees in 1677, his attendance probably having been secured at the cost of an excise pension of £300 p.a. Shaftesbury marked him ‘doubly vile’, but he was not otherwise mentioned in opposition lists. His name appears on the government list of court supporters in 1678, and he was among those ordered to draw up an address for a commission of oyer and terminer to try a Roman Catholic priest in custody in Denbigh, but on 14 Dec. he was given leave to go into the country.3

Salusbury was marked ‘vile’ on Shaftesbury’s list for the first Exclusion Parliament, in which he was again inactive. He was appointed to the committee of elections and privileges, in which he apparently succeeded in stifling a complaint from Ruthin that the rights of the out-boroughs had been ignored, and also to the committee to investigate the decay of the woollen industry. He was absent from the division on the exclusion bill, and blacklisted in the ‘unanimous club’; but he defeated Edward Brereton at the general election in the autumn. He left no trace on the records of the second and third Exclusion Parliaments, and died on 23 May 1684. His heir was his sister Hester, who brought Llewenni to her husband Sir Robert Cotton, Bt..4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690 Author: A. M. Mimardière Notes 1. J. E. Griffith, Peds. of Anglesey and Caern. Fams. 222; W. M. Myddelton, Chirk Castle Accounts 1605-66, p. 91. 2. J. Williams, Recs. of Denbigh, 65, 134, 138, 140; Williams, Ancient and Modern Denbigh, 113, 121; CSP Dom. 1665-6, p. 541; Cal. Treas. Bks. vii. 1073. 3. DWB; A. H. Dodd, Studies in Stuart Wales, 190, 206; Cal. Wynn Pprs. 392, 402; CJ, ix. 540. 4. CJ, ix. 576, 639

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Dec 15 2016, 6:06:00 UTC