John Scudamore, 1st Viscount Scudamore was an English diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1629.
Background
Scudamore was the eldest son of Sir James Scudamore, of Holme Lacy, Herefordshire, and his wife Mary Anne Throckmorton, daughter of Sir Thomas Throckmorton. From November 1618, he travelled in France, and returned the following year after the death of his father.
Career
In 1628 he was created Viscount Scudamore in the Irish peerage. He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, on 8 November 1616 and was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1617. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1622.
One aspect of this was his restoration of the church of Abbey Dore, the church of the former Cistercian abbey, whose estates had come to his family at the dissolution.
He did this in full Laudian style. He also did work on other churches, and endowed some with impropriate tithes.
He was one of the Council of the Marches on 25 August 1623. In 1624, he was re-elected Member of Parliament for Herefordshire.
He was created Viscount Scudamore in the peerage of Ireland on 1 July 1628.
Also in 1628, he was elected Member of Parliament for Hereford and sat until 1629, when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. From 1635 to 1639, Scudamore was ambassador to France, and caused controversy by adorning the embassy chapel in Laudian style. Scudamore was not particularly active on his return to England and his early participation in the English Civil War was limited.
He was one of the "Nine Worthies" – nine justices who formed the royalist leadership in Herefordshire in the summer of 1642.
The other "worthies" were Sir William Croft, Wallop Brabazon, Thomas Wigmore of Shobden, Thomas Price of Wisterdon, William Smallman, Henry Lingen, William Rudhall and Fitzwilliam Coningsby. Partly as a result of his rivalry with Coningsby for control of Herefordshire, Hereford was surrendered to a small Parliamentarian force in 1643.
Scudamore was sent to London as a delinquent and remained there under house arrest until 1647. After the English Restoration, he resumed various local offices.
Scudamore died at the age of 70.
Membership
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In 1621, Scudamore was elected Member of Parliament for Herefordshire.