BAGOT, Sir Hervey, 1st Bt. (1591-1660), of Field, Staffs.

The Bagots, who perhaps originated in Brittany, were resident in Staffordshire from the time of the Conquest and are first recorded as serving in Parliament in the mid-fourteenth century. In the 1360s the family acquired the manor of Blithfield, about seven miles east of Stafford, which became their principal seat. Sir John Bagot, who sat for Staffordshire eight times in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, added the manor of Field, four-and-a-half miles west of Uttoxeter, to the family estates. G. Wrottesley, ‘Hist. of the Bagot Fam.’ Staffs. Hist. Colls. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. n.s. xi), 3, 6, 29, 35-7, 41, 42, 64-5. In the late sixteenth century the Bagots were among the most prominent adherents of Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, in Staffordshire. FSL, L.a. 81, 458-73. Bagot’s father, Walter, sat for Tamworth in 1586, probably thanks to Essex, and his uncle Anthony took part in Essex’s rebellion. Wrottesley, 84; HMC Hatfield, xi. 128. Walter was later closely connected with the 3rd earl of Essex, becoming one of the earl’s deputy lieutenants probably soon after Essex was appointed lord lieutenant in 1612. FSL, L.a. 554, 681-2, 684, 757; Staffs. RO, D(W)1721/1/4, f. 25v.

Bagot was born between two and three a.m. on 8 Feb. 1591 at Checkley in north Staffordshire, where his father had lived during his grandfather’s lifetime. W. Bagot, Mems. of Bagot Fam. 53; Staffs. RO, D3259/14/23/1. In 1608 he went to Trinity College, Oxford, where his tutor, Henry Slymaker, wrote that he lived ‘studiously’ and ‘carryeth himself virtuously, and is very religiously addicted’. FSL, L.a.859. It is unlikely that Bagot learnt much from Slymaker, whom Aubrey described as ‘of great impudence, and little learning’. Probably more influential was Trinity’s president, Ralph Kettell, a ‘right Church of England man’, who every Tuesday in term would expound the articles of the Church to undergraduates. J. Aubrey, Brief Lives ed. A. Clark, i. 18, 25. Bagot spent Christmas 1608 with Kettell at his Garsington parsonage, and may have lived with him for a time while at Oxford. FSL, L.a. 49, 51, 558.

By June 1610 Kettell and Slymaker were anxious that Bagot should leave Oxford and begin studying at one of the inns of court, but this did not suit his father, Walter, who evidently wished Bagot to graduate. Walter expected that Bagot, as a younger son, would ultimately have to earn his own living, particularly as the family finances were clearly straitened: in 1599 his father had complained of the debts he had inherited and that his 4,300-acre estate was so entailed that he could not make neither annuities for his younger sons nor portions for his daughters. HMC Hatfield, ix. 46. Consequently, Bagot returned to Oxford the following year, and remained at Trinity until at least April 1611. However, in June, Bagot’s fortunes changed: his elder brother Lewis died, thereby making him his father’s heir enabling him to cease his studies. FSL, L.a. 50-9, 62, 559, 859. Staffs. RO, D3259/14/23/1.

Bagot’s first marriage probably occurred in late 1612, for in November John Adderley, presumably a relation of Bagot’s wife, Katherine, was party to an indenture allowing Bagot and the latter’s father to settle the family estates. C54/2141/25; Staffs. Hist. Colls. ed. W. Boyd and G. Wrottesley (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. n.s. iv), 45. He initially lived at Blithfield, where his first son was born in March 1614, but in about 1620 he settled at Field, which was to remain his home for the rest of his life. After his father’s death in 1623, Bagot was consistently described as ‘of Blithfield’, but he never resided there. Instead, his mother occupied this property until her death in 1638, whereupon Bagot’s eldest surviving son, Edward, took up residence. D3259/14/23/1; Bagot, 58, 70.

Bagot’s first wife died shortly after the birth of their sixth child in January 1623. Staffs. RO, D3259/14/23/1. Following his father’s death in March, Bagot was appointed to the Staffordshire bench, and by 1625 he also commanded a company in the militia. The commission, granted by Essex, demonstrated the continuing connection between the Bagots and the Devereuxs. In 1625 Bagot remarried, taking as his wife Lady Anne Dilke. The Dilkes were also connected to the Devereuxs: Lady Anne’s eldest son, Thomas Dilke, was married to the daughter of (Sir) Edward Devereux† of Castle Bromwich. Staffs. RO, D(W)1721/3/227. Aged about 55 at the time of their marriage, Lady Anne owned as part of her jointure Maxstoke in Warwickshire, worth at least £200 a year. SP23/201, pp. 471, 482.

In 1626 Bagot was appointed sheriff of Staffordshire. He was also made a commissioner for the Forced Loan. He may have disapproved of the Loan, as he did not sign any of the Staffordshire commissioners’ few surviving letters, but he presumably paid it himself as he was not removed from the commission or summoned by the Privy Council. During the midst of the Loan’s collection Bagot obtained a baronetcy. This was not a mark of royal favour, however, as the honour was almost certainly purchased from a courtier, possibly Sir Francis Browne, a former royal servant, to whom £300 was paid on Bagot’s behalf on 5 June. Certainly no money was ever paid into the Exchequer. Nevertheless, Browne would hardly have been allowed to nominate anyone known to have failed to co-operate with the collection of the Loan. Staffs. RO, D986/88/1; SCL, EM1284(b). For Browne, see Procs. 1626, i. 388.

Bagot probably shared the earl of Essex’s hostility to the duke of Buckingham as he copied a widely circulated manuscript satire on the duke from the period of the 1628 Parliament entitled ‘Rodomontados’. In 1628 he was returned as senior knight for Staffordshire, probably through the influence of Essex, who remained influential despite having been dismissed as lord lieutenant in 1627 for opposing the Loan. Staffs. RO, D(W)1721/3/228; CD 1628, vi. 243-5; R. Cust, Forced Loan, 109. Bagot’s only appearance in the surviving parliamentary records was on 29 Jan. 1629, when he was granted privilege in connection with a case involving himself and Sir Edward Littleton II*. The Commons ordered the Speaker to instruct Chancery to suppress depositions taken in Staffordshire during his absence at Westminster. CJ, i. 924a; CD 1629, p. 115.

In the 1630s Bagot strengthened his connections with Essex, who had been reappointed lord lieutenant in 1629. By 1633 he was one of the earl’s deputy lieutenants, and in 1636 he became one of the trustees for Essex’s second wife. HMC Bath, iv. 350. However, Bagot was not only connected with Essex. In 1638 (Sir) Walter Chetwynd*, one of the most prominent Staffordshire men outside the earl’s circle, bequeathed him a memorial ring. Staffs. RO, D4038/I/14.

By the end of the 1630s Bagot enjoyed a substantial income. Indeed, in 1639 his annual rents alone were worth more than £1,400, and the wood on his estate was valued at £10,000. Staffs. RO, D4038/E/11/2. Re-elected for Staffordshire after the death of Sir William Bowyer II* in March 1641, he was a royalist during the Civil War and lived to see the Restoration. M.F. Keeler, Long Parl. 94. He died at Field on 27 Dec. 1660 and four days later was buried between his two wives in the chancel of Blithfield church, where a mural tablet was erected to their memory. Staffs. RO, F5192/1, f. 87; Murray, 82-1. His son and heir, (Sir) Edward Bagot†, who was elected to the Convention Parliament for Staffordshire, proved his will of 11 Aug. 1659 at Lichfield on 4 June 1661. Staffs. RO, D4038/I/14. A three-quarter length portrait of Bagot, with his third son Hervey, hangs at Blithfield. Bagot, 149.