PIERREPONT, Henry (1607-1680), of Holme Pierrepont, Notts. and Dean’s Yard, Westminster; later of Worksop Manor, Notts. and Charterhouse Yard, London

Pierrepont’s ancestors acquired Holme, four-and-a-half miles from Nottingham, under Edward I, and regularly represented the county from 1417. J.T. Godfrey, Notes on Churches of Notts. 238; Thoroton, Notts.(1790), i. 176-80. Thanks to careful estate management and parsimonious living his father was able to invest over £50,000 in purchasing land, predominantly in Nottinghamshire, where he became the single largest landowner, but also in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Oxford DNB sub Pierrepont, Robert. Early in 1627, prodded by Buckingham, Pierrepont’s father opened negotiations for the purchase of a peerage, with his cousin William, Viscount Mansfield (Sir William Cavendish II*) acting as an intermediary. In June he was created Viscount Newark. C.R. Mayes, ‘Sale of Peerages in Early Stuart Eng.’, JMH, xxix. 32.

According to Charles Godall, who wrote a biography of him in the early eighteenth century, Pierrepont was ‘from his youth always much addicted to books’ and ‘never was delighted with those pleasures and recreations that almost all young noblemen and gentlemen affect; but all was swallowed in study’. Munck, i. 282, 289. Like his father and grandfather, who had both been returned for Nottinghamshire at a young age, Pierrepont sought election to Parliament shortly after coming of age, but was unable to obtain a county seat. On rumours of a forthcoming Parliament in the autumn of 1627 he, together with Mansfeld’s brother, Sir Charles Cavendish*, approached the corporation of Nottingham. On 20 Nov. the common council agreed that if the rumours turned out to be true they would elect them ‘for easing the town’s charges’ and to ‘gain the friendship and favour of those two noble families and have their assistance to the town when any occasion shall be offered’. Recs of Bor. of Nottingham, v. 129. He left no trace on the surviving records of the third Caroline Parliament. During the recess his father purchased a promotion in the peerage, becoming earl of Kingston, whereupon Pierrepont assumed the courtesy title of Viscount Newark. Mayes, 32.

Pierrepont was prosecuted in Star Chamber at the instance of William Noye* for an assault in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey during the Ascension Day service in 1632. But after the victim had spent £600 in legal expenses, Pierrepont received a free pardon. CSP Dom. 1637-8, p. 16; 1638-9, p. 412. He was called to the Lords in the opening months of the Long Parliament, where he defended the temporal power of bishops. However in 1662 Benjamin Denham, a church of England minister who may have formerly been in Pierrepont’s service, alleged that he was a Catholic and that he had only defended episcopacy out of enmity towards Presbyterianism. Oxford DNB; CSP Dom. 1661-2, pp. 255-6. Certainly his parents were repeatedly presented as recusants in the parliaments of the 1620s. CJ, i. 776b; Procs. 1626, iv. 213; CD 1628, iv. 319.

Pierrepont was a royalist during the Civil War and, after succeeding his father as 2nd earl of Kingston in 1643, was created marquess of Dorchester as a reward for his loyalty. By then the parliamentarians had sequestered his estate, and in 1647 he was ordered to compound for his delinquency in the sum of £7,467. However, his parliamentarian brother William† arranged to have the fine assigned to himself as compensation for his losses during the war. CCC, 1473.

During the Interregnum Pierrepont practiced as a lawyer and a physician. In 1659 he quarrelled with his son-in-law John Manners†, Lord Roos, who wrote to him, ‘if by your threatening to ram your sword down my throat, you do not mean your pills ... I am safe enough’. True and Perfect Copy of Lord Roos his Answer to Marquesse of Dorchester’s Letter Written 25 of February 1659 (1660). Roos appears to have employed the poet and satirist Samuel Butler to draft his answer. Oxford DNB sub Butler, Samuel. Pierrepont died of gangrene on 8 Dec. 1680 and was buried at Holme Pierrepont. His will, drafted on 22 Mar. 1680, was proved on 1 Feb. 1681. Lacking a male heir the marquessate became extinct, and his great nephew Robert Pierrepont succeeded him as 3rd earl of Kingston. Munck, i. 290-1; PROB 11/365, ff. 185v-6.