MRP: Francis Coventry
= Francis Coventry =
(b. ca.1612, d. 1699)
Francis Coventry was the third son of Thomas, 1st Baron Coventry, and the second son by his father's second marriage to Elizabeth Aldersley, daughter of John Aldersley of Spurstow, Cheshire. Francis was thus a cousin of Sir Edmund (Edmond) Hoskins, whose widow he married, since the mother of Sir Edmond was Dorothy Aldersley of Cheshire.
By his father's second marriage his elder brother, the Honourable Henry Coventry, predeceased him (1619-1686), as did his younger brother, John Coventry (?-1652), and his youngest brother Sir William Coventry (ca. 1628-1686). Francis Coventry (senior) had a son and heir, Francis Coventry, referred to sometimes as Francis Coventry junior.
Francis father, Thomas, 1st Baron Coventry (1578-1640), was a prominent lawyer of the Inner Temple. After entering Balliol in 1592, Thomas entered the Inner Temple in 1594, being appointed bencher in 1615, reader in 1616, and treasurer in 1617. He was appointed recorder of London in 1616 and solicitor-general in 1617, when he was knighted. He was MP for Droitwich 1626 and appointed attorney-general in the same year. He was lord keeper of the Great Seal from 1625 till his death. He accumulated considerable wealth during his life. His legal contemporaries were largely favourable as to his abilities and impact. Clarendon thought well of his abilities and noted that he spoke largely on legal matters, rather than politics.
Francis was resident in Carshalton during the 1660s, and married the widowed Lady Hoskins (nee Elizabeth Harby) in January 1665/66, when he was ca. fifty-four and she was ca. forty-six. He was thus just slightly younger than Elizabeth Dalyson. Supposedly he also married Elizabeth Manning of London & Warbleton, Sussex, whose husband Robert Casar, Esq., one of the Six Clerks, had predeceased her. DETAILS?
Francis Coventry's memorial is at Mortlake, Surrey, designed and executed by the sculptor Kidwell. The inscription records his birth at Croome, Worcestershire, and that he was eighty-seven years of age at his death in 1699. A similar design was used for the memorial to his elder brother, Henry Coventry (d. 1686), which is in Croome, Worcestershire. A further monument, that to an apparent third brother, William Coventry (d. 1686) is at Penhurst, Kent
Primary sources
Letter from Elizabeth Hoskins to Sir GO, ?April 1667, ff. 91-92
Letter from Francis Coventry to Sir GO, April 10th 1667, ff. 95-96
Letter from Elizabeth Hoskins to Sir GO, October 13th 1667, ff. 52-53
Letter from Sir George Smith to Sir GO, ?November 1667, ff. 47-51
Will of Sir Edmund Hoskins, Serjeant at Law 07 February 1665 PROB 11/316 Hyde 1 - 56
Secondary sources
- Anderson, John Eustace, History of the parish of Mortlake, in the county of Surrey, p. 89
The Burlington Magazine: Vol. 114, No. 837, Dec., 1972, p. 867 AUTHOR?
- 'Thomas, 1st Baron Coventry' - wikipedia entry
- 'Henry Coventry' - wikipedia entry
- 'Sir William Coventry' - wikipedia entry
