MONSON, John (1600-1683), of Burton, nr. Lincoln, Lincs.; later of Broxbourne, Herts.

Monson’s father, a courtier, was an adherent of the Howard faction at Court, and suspected of Catholicism. Her. et Gen. ii. 124. Although there is no record of Monson’s entry to Gray’s Inn in or before 1617, when his three younger brothers were admitted, he apparently did study the law, was later praised for being ‘as good a lawyer as any’, and was awarded an honorary DCL at Oxford in 1642. Wood, Fasti, ii. 40-1. His education was completed by a European tour, when he was described as a ‘very honest and discreet’ gentleman. SP77/14, f. 461. Upon his return in 1623 it was agreed that he would take over his father’s receivership for the duchy of Lancaster’s lands in Lincolnshire, but in the event his appointment was delayed by the death of James I. CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 606; 1625-6, p. 565; Duchy of Lancaster Office-Holders, 188-9.

Monson was returned to the first Caroline Parliament for Lincoln, some two miles from his home. He left no trace on its records. A year later he was elected knight of the shire for Lincolnshire, and may have helped his uncle, Sir Robert*, to obtain a seat in his former constituency. Ahead of the opening of the Parliament, he received a knighthood of the Bath at Charles I’s coronation. On 17 Feb. 1626 he moved for an inquiry into the case of Sir Robert Howard*, who had been excommunicated notwithstanding his parliamentary privilege, and was named to the ensuing committee. Procs. 1626, ii. 61, 64. Monson’s only other appointments were to consider two private estate bills concerning one Giles Sewster (13 Mar.) and the 2nd earl of Exeter (William Cecil†) (24 May). Ibid. ii. 271; iii. 317. He did not stand for Parliament again.

During the 1630s Monson formed a consortium to drain the Ancholme level, ‘in such indifferent ways as will rather advantage the country than bring any benefit to himself’, a statement not easy to credit since he was able to add 5,827 acres to his estate. C. Holmes, Seventeenth-Cent. Lincs. 127-8, 226-8; CSP Dom. 1637-8, pp. 157-8; 1639-40, p. 403; HMC Cowper, ii. 225; PC2/46, pp. 128-9; K. Lindley, Fenland Riots, 44-6, 113, 146, 164, 227-9. In May 1631 the Privy Council ordered Monson to be imprisoned in the Fleet for unspecified offences; but his petition for discharge on the grounds of ill health was probably successful. APC, 1630-1, p. 337; CSP Dom. 1631-3, p. 63. The episode may have related to an ongoing quarrel between the Monsons and John Williams, bishop of Lincoln. Monson and his father enlisted the support of Archbishop Laud to win a Star Chamber case, after which Monson received 1000 marks in damages in 1637. CSP Dom. 1635, pp. 405, 513; 1637, pp. 309, 415; 1637-8, p. 61; Hill, 122-4. He was appointed to collect money for the repair of St. Paul’s Cathedral, but wrote to Laud apologizing for the poor returns from Lincolnshire, explaining that the people were not ‘so much frozen in their zeal to so good a work, as deterred with a more near approaching mischief in the decay of their own mother church’. CSP Dom. 1637, p. 512. He later became involved in a monopoly of alum on behalf of the under-age 3rd earl of Mulgrave, who owned alum mines at Whitby in Yorkshire. R.B. Turton, Alum Farm, 177-8; CSP Dom. 1663-4, pp. 365-6; 1665-6, pp. 79, 372; 1667-8, pp. 142, 408; 1670, p. 686.

Monson spent the Civil War almost entirely at the royalist headquarters in Oxford, and helped to negotiate the surrender in 1646. Hill, 150-2, 161; Holmes, 151, 156; CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 486; HMC 7th Rep. 23; N and Q, (ser. 2), x. 64-5, 136. In the following year he published, in thinly veiled anonymity, A Short Essay of Afflictions and another work to correct common errors about religious duties. Wing M2464. He compounded for his delinquency with a fine of £1,338, but later calculated his total losses at £30,000. CCSP, v. 112; CCC, 1431-3. After the Restoration, when his son John and his grandson Henry sat successively for Lincoln, he petitioned unavailingly for reparation and a peerage, which he alleged Charles I had promised him. CSP Dom. 1661-2, p. 213; 1667-8, pp. 109-10; HMC 3rd Rep. 91. He relocated to Hertfordshire when his wife inherited Broxbourne on the death of her stepfather Sir Richard Lucy† in 1667, and improved the estate with the addition of a park stocked with deer. VCH Herts. iii. 432-3; Chauncy, Herts. i. 567; CSP Dom. 1670, pp. 337, 563.

During the exclusion crisis Monson published A Discourse Concerning Supreme Power and Common Right. Wing M2462. He died on 29 Dec. 1683 and was buried with his ancestors at South Carlton in Lincolnshire. In his will, dated 24 June 1678, he left extensive charitable bequests, including £200 to provide an income for the teacher of the school which he had built at South Carlton. Among numerous personal bequests he left £1,000 and an annuity of £500 to his wife, and £2,500 apiece to his five grandsons. PROB 11/375, f. 46. The eldest, Henry, represented Lincoln in four Parliaments from 1675.