Background
Alford was the son of Edward Alford of Offington and his wife Judith Downing, daughter of Sir Edward Downing.
Alford was the son of Edward Alford of Offington and his wife Judith Downing, daughter of Sir Edward Downing.
He supported the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War. He martriculated at Street John"s College, Oxford, on 13 February 1607 aged 16. The manors of Hamsey and Offington both came into his possession on the death of his father in 1632.
In April 1640, Alford was re-elected Member of Parliament for New Shoreham in the Short Parliament and again in November 1640 for the Long Parliament and held the seat until 1648 when he was excluded in Pride"s Purge.
Alford died in 1649 and was buried at Broadwater, West Sussex where a monument in the South Transept Chapel was erected to his memory. "Here lyeth the body of the truly honourable and religious John Alford of Offington, Esquire, who having finished his career, exchanged mortality for glory, January
5, 1648. AEt. 59. "He left issue ye noble Lady Jane Eversfield, and the virtuous gentele woman Mistress
Elizabeth Alford."
Alford married Frances Bishopp, daughter of Sir Thomas Bishopp, 1st Baronet, of Parham, Sussex, Member of Parliament, and had two daughters Elizabeth, born 1620, who married Mr. Bickerstaff, and was Jane, who married Sir Thomas Eversfield.
His widow outlived him for eleven years.
Short Parliament; 2nd Parliament of King Charles I]
In 1626 Alford was elected Member of Parliament for New Shoreham and in 1628 was elected Member of Parliament for Arundel until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.