Background
Trumbull was born at Easthampstead Park in Berkshire on 8 September 1639. He was the son and heir of William Trumbull and grandson of William Trumbull, the Jacobean period diplomat.
Trumbull was born at Easthampstead Park in Berkshire on 8 September 1639. He was the son and heir of William Trumbull and grandson of William Trumbull, the Jacobean period diplomat.
He received his early instruction in Latin and French from his maternal grandfather, and was sent in 1649 to Wokingham School. He matriculated from St John's College, Oxford on 5 April 1655, being entered as a gentleman-commoner under Thomas Wyatt.
He was made chancellor of the diocese of Rochester and was sent to Tangier on public business in 1683, one of his companionson this errand being the diarist Pepys. In 1684 Trumball was knighted by Charles II and in 1685 he was sent as envoy to France, where he worked hard on behalf of the English Protestants there who were threatened by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In 1685 he became a member of Parliament, in 1687 he went as ambassador to Constantinople, and in 1694 he was made a lord of the treasury. From May 1695 until December. 1697 he was a secretary of state under William III. He died on the 14th of December 1716. His son, William Trumball (1708 - 1760), had an only daughter, who became the wife of Martin Sandys. She was thus the ancestress of the later marquesses of Downshire. Many of Trumball's letters are in the British Museum and in the Record Office, London. Trumball was on friendly terms with Pierre Bayle and with Dryden, whom he advised to translate Virgil. He was also very intimate with Pope, whom he influenced in several ways, especially in urging him to make a translation of Homer.
In 1670, Trumbull married Katherine, daughter of Sir Charles Cotterell, Master of the Ceremonies; she died in 1704, they having had no children. In Scotland in October 1706, he married Judith, daughter of Henry Alexander, the 4th Earl of Stirling. They had two children, Judith (1707–1708) and William (1708–1760).
