WARRE, Sir John (1636-69), of Hestercombe, Kingston, Som.

The Warres had been in Somerset since the 13th century and Hestercombe, near Taunton, had been their seat since the reign of Richard II. The first of the family to enter Parliament, however, was returned for Wiltshire in 1449. Warre was left an orphan at an early age, and brought up in the strongly royalist household of Francis Wyndham. At the Restoration he was knighted and appointed to the commission of the peace, of which he was an active member until his death. He was particularly hostile to nonconformists, and in April 1663 he presented the wife of his neighbour George Speke as the leader of a conventicle. He regarded such meetings as seditious and suppressed them whenever possible. He was also prominent in recruiting for Tangier and the second Dutch war, and in 1665 contributed £100 to furnish a company of horse that he had raised himself. In November he defeated Sir John Sydenham in a county by-election, but he was not active in the Cavalier Parliament. Of his nine committees, the most important was to prepare a bill for redressing abuses in the militia. In September 1669 Sir Thomas Osborne listed him among those to be engaged for the Court by the Duke of York but crossed his name out on hearing of his death. The writ for a by-election was ordered on 19 Oct.Collinson, Som. iii. 259, 262-3; PCC 25 Coventry; CSP Dom. 1663-4, p. 116; 1665-6, pp. 67, 69-70, 74, 95-96.