Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dove, John (d.1665?)
DOVE, JOHN (d. 1665?) regicide, an alderman of Salisbury, Wiltshire, was elected member for that city 16 Oct. 1645, in room of Serjeant Robert Hyde, ‘disabled to sit,’ a position he continued to hold until the dissolution of the Long parliament (Lists of Members of Parliament, Official Return, pt. i. p. 496). He was named one of the commissioners to try the king, but beyond attending on 26 Jan. 1648–9, when the sentence was agreed to, he took no part in the trial. During the Commonwealth he served on several parliamentary committees. He contrived, too, to amass considerable wealth; at the sales of bishops' lands in 1648, 1649, and 1650 he became the purchaser of the manor of Fountell, Southampton, of Blewbury manor, Berkshire, and of that of Winterbourne Earls, Wiltshire (Nichols, Collectanea, i. 126, 290, 291). He acquired other lands in Wiltshire by the most contemptible practices (Hoare, Wiltshire, ‘Elstub and Everley,’ p. 17, ‘Underditch,’ p. 138). Appointed colonel of the Wiltshire militia, 10 Aug. 1650 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1650, p. 508), he, along with his brother Francis, persecuted the royalists with great severity. He was chosen high sheriff of the county in 1655, the year of the abortive royalist rising (Jackson, Sheriffs of Wiltshire, p. 33). On 14 March Sir Joseph Wagstaffe, accompanied by Colonel John Penruddocke, with many neighbouring gentlemen and others, to the number of nearly three hundred horse, entered Salisbury early in the morning, and seized in their beds Dove, Chief-justice Rolle, and Mr. Justice Nicholas, who were at the time in the city on a commission of assize. After the royal proclamation had been read, Wagstaffe, with the view of rendering the party desperate, urged the expediency of hanging both judges and sheriff on the spot. This violent proposal was overruled, but Dove, for refusing to read the proclamation, was reserved for future punishment. He was carried as far as Yeovil, but after two days was suffered to return to Salisbury, where he found that Major Boteler had freed the city of the conspirators. A commission was forthwith issued to try the persons who had been concerned in this rebellion (Hoare, Wiltshire, ‘Sarum,’ pp. 425–6). Dove's recent fright and escape had not dulled his rancour against the royalists. Writing to Thurloe 29 March, he says he is resolved ‘that not a single man shall be nominated for either jury but such as may be confided in, and of the honest and well-affected party to his highness’ (Thurloe, State Papers, iii. 319). At the Restoration he made an abject submission, and was suffered to depart unpunished (Commons' Journals, viii. 60). Thereafter he retired to an estate which he had acquired at Ivy Church in the parish of Alderbury, Wiltshire, where he died in either 1664 or 1665. His will, bearing date 22 Oct. 1664, was proved on 9 March 1664–5 (registered in P. C. C. 24, Hyde). He left two sons, John and Thomas, and two daughters, Mrs. Bellchamber and Mary, a spinster.
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