EURE (EVERS), Sampson (c.1592-by 1659), of Gray’s Inn, London; later of Gatley Park, Herefs.

Though his father was chief justice of the Anglesey circuit, it was probably Eure’s stepmother whose influence secured his return to the third Jacobean Parliament for Beaumaris. Her grandfather, Sir William Maurice*, initially agreed to support (Sir) Richard Wynn* in the Caernarvonshire election of December 1620, but Lady Eure canvassed him vigorously on behalf of John Griffith III* of Llŷn, a relative of her first husband, John Owen†. In return, Griffith’s supporter and uncle (Sir) William Jones I*, whose ambitions were now focused on acquiring an English judgeship, stood down at Beaumaris in favour of Eure, who left no trace upon the records of the 1621 Parliament.Cal. Clenennau Pprs. ed. T. Jones Pierce, 114-15; NLW, 9057E/921, 923; J.E. Griffith, Peds. Anglesey and Caern. Fams. 136, 144, 169. In 1624, with his father and Maurice both dead, Eure did not seek re-election at Beaumaris, the seat instead going to Jones’s son Charles. He remained on good terms with his stepmother, who threatened Sir John Wynn† with intervention over the continuing feud with the Llŷn faction, and he secured the administration of his stepbrother’s estate.NLW, 9058E/1018; PROB 11/137, f.266v.

Appointed attorney-general of the Council in the Marches in 1622, Eure clearly prospered, paying £3,450 to (Sir) William Croft* for an estate at Gatley Park, Herefordshire in 1632.HMC Portland, iii. 28; Add. 70002, f. 64. He claimed to be resentful of the rapid promotion of his counterpart at the ‘inferior’ Council in the North, (Sir) George Radcliffe*, two years his junior at Gray’s Inn, whose career flourished under the patronage of Lord Deputy (Sir Thomas) Wentworth*, and in 1635 he proposed to sell his Welsh attorneyship to Bulstrode Whitelocke*. As he explained to lord keeper (Sir Thomas) Coventry*, ‘the thing most desired is to be the king’s serjeant’ or at least a serjeant-at-law and solicitor to the queen or prince; he had also been in contention for the attorneyship of the Court of Wards. Nothing came of these plans, but three years later he was tipped to succeed Sir John Bridgeman as chief justice of Chester, which may explain why he chose this moment to surrender the attorneyship of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire, which shires formed part of the Chester assize circuit.Herefs. RO, F76/IV/7; SP16/257/51.I; Whitelocke Diary ed. R. Spalding, 100, 106; Strafforde Letters, i. 506; ii. 152

Eure finally secured the post of king’s serjeant in 1640. He was also returned to the Long Parliament for Leominster, but failed to avert the abolition of the Council in the Marches in 1641. Named as a commissioner of array at the outbreak of the Civil War, he did not serve, and was not expelled from the Commons until named as Speaker of the royalist Parliament at Oxford in January 1644.Salop RO, 212/364/30; Herefs. RO, F76/IV/9; HMC Hastings, ii.118. He compounded in 1646, and was fined the trivial sum of £185, later reduced even further to £110. He drafted his will shortly thereafter, leaving the bulk of his estate to his wife and son, and hoping that his unpaid fees as king’s serjeant and a royal grant of £2,000 dating from 1645 would cover his debts. The will was never proved, presumably because of his son’s early death, and administration was granted to his chief creditor on 5 Dec. 1659.CCC, 1510-11; Herefs. RO, F76/IV/1; PROB 6/35, f. 292. His nephew George, 6th Baron Eure was returned to Parliament three times as a Member for Yorkshire in the 1650s.