Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mauleverer, Thomas
MAULEVERER, Sir THOMAS (d. 1655), regicide, was son of Sir Richard Mauleverer, knt., of Allerton Mauleverer, Yorkshire, by his second wife, Katharine, daughter of Sir Ralph Bourchier, knt. (Thoresby, Ducatus Leodiensis, ed. Whitaker, pp. 118, 190). He was admitted of Gray's Inn on 22 Oct. 1617, and during the Long parliament sat for Boroughbridge, Yorkshire. Though he signed the petition of the Yorkshire gentry (28 July 1640) against the oppressive billeting of soldiers (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640, p. 523), Charles, hoping to gain his interest in the county, which was considerable, made him a baronet on 2 Aug. 1641. Mauleverer, however, preferred to take sides with the parliament, for whose service he raised two regiments of foot and a troop of horse (Commons' Journals, iii. 68). His conduct, always brutal and vindictive, was on one occasion brought before the notice of the house (ib. iii. 125; Lords' Journals, vi. 54). In 1643 he fought under Fairfax at the battle of Atherton Moor, and just escaped being made prisoner (Life of Duke of Newcastle, by the Duchess, ed. Firth, p. 376). Having represented to the parliament that he had expended in their behalf some 15,000l., it was resolved in October 1647 to allow him 1,000l. out of the excise in part satisfaction of his arrears, while a committee was appointed to consider how the remainder might be paid (Commons' Journals, v. 323, 330, 362, 374). Upon being placed on the commission to try the king he attended every day, and signed the warrant. He was also a committee man for the East Riding of Yorkshire. Mauleverer died about June 1655 (Administration Act Book, P. C. C. 1655, f. 126). He married, first, Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Hutton [q. v.], justice of the common pleas, by whom he had no issue; and secondly, Elizabeth (d. 1653), daughter of Thomas Wilbraham, of Woodhey, Cheshire, by whom he had a son, Richard, and two daughters, Grace (1622–1646), married in 1644 to Colonel Thomas Scot, M.P., the regicide, and Elizabeth, wife of Richard Beverley. In 1654 he engaged himself to Susanna Raylton, a widow of Fulham, but the marriage does not appear to have taken place. Though dead, he was ordered at the Restoration to be excepted out of the bill of pardon as to pains and penalties (Commons' Journals, viii. 61).
His son, Richard Mauleverer (1623?–1675), royalist, born about 1623, was admitted of Gray's Inn on 12 July 1641 (Harl. MS. 1912, f. 128), and on the king's coronation day, 27 March 1645, was knighted in Christ Church, Oxford (Symonds, Diary, Camden Soc., p. 162). In 1649 he was fined 3,287l. 13s. 4d. for being in arms against the parliament in both wars, and in 1650 the estate settled on him by his father was ordered to be sequestered (Cal. of Committee for Compounding, pt. iii. p. 2030). In 1654 he was declared to be an outlaw. He was out in Lord Wilmot's rising in 1655 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1655, passim), was taken prisoner, and confined at Chester, whence he escaped in the most daring fashion on 26 March (Thurloe, State Papers, iii. 304), and reached the Hague in June (Nicholas Papers, Camden Soc., vol. ii.) His wife was allowed by Cromwell to occupy the house at Allerton Mauleverer, but the commissioners for Yorkshire had to complain of her activity on the king's side (Thurloe, v. 185). Mauleverer returned to London in 1659, and was forthwith committed to prison, but was liberated on giving security in September (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1659–60, pp. 44, 179), and was one of the first who flocked to the king at Breda before the restoration (Pepys, Diary, 3rd ed. i. 60). Charles confirmed him in his titles and estates, and in April 1660 appointed him gentleman of the privy chamber (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1659–62). On 8 April 1661 he was elected M.P. for Boroughbridge, which he represented until his death. In 1663 he was nominated a commissioner to put in execution the laws against regrators, forestallers, and engrossers of corn, and sellers of live fat cattle contrary to the act, and was empowered to receive all forfeitures incurred for five years to come (ib. 1663–4, pp. 372, 642). He was captain in the horse regiment commanded by Charles, lord Gerard of Brandon (ib. 1665–6, p. 577), and in the same year was reconstituted a commissioner for licensing and regulating hackney coaches (ib. 1666–7, p. 358). Mauleverer was buried in Westminster Abbey on 25 July 1675. By his marriage, on 10 July 1642, to Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Clerke, knt., of Pleshey, Essex, he had issue.
His eldest son, Sir Thomas Mauleverer (1643?–1687), born about 1643, represented Boroughbridge in parliament from 14 March 1678–9 until his death. In 1678 he was second to Sir Henry Goodricke in a duel, and ran his adversary through the body; and in 1685 he had a command of a troop in Monmouth's rebellion. Reresby says he was hated as a reputed papist (Memoirs, ed. Cartwright, pp. 152, 292). He sold his estate of Armley Hall, Yorkshire, to the widow of Sir William Ingleby of Ripley in the same county. He was buried on 13 Aug. 1687 in Westminster Abbey. With his wife Catherine, daughter of Sir Miles Stapilton of Myton, Yorkshire, he lived very unhappily, and after his death she married her cousin, John Hopton of Ingerskill there, and died without issue on 31 Jan. 1704 (Yorkshire Archæolog. and Topogr. Journal, v. 456).
There was also John Mauleverer (d. 1650), eldest son of John Mauleverer of Lettwell, Yorkshire, by Margaret, daughter of John Lewis of Marr, in that county (ib. xi. 86, 457; cf. also Administration Act Book, P. C. C. 1651, f. 29). He was among the first of the Yorkshire gentry to declare for the parliament, became a colonel in the army, and after the disgrace of Sir John Hotham and his son was made governor of Hull. There is a curious letter from Ferdinando, lord Fairfax, to him, dated 13 June 1646, thanking him for not allowing Mrs. Hotham, who had made certain inconvenient demands for the restitution of property which Fairfax desired to keep, to search Sir John Hotham's house at Hull (Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. p. 438). In May 1650 he was appointed colonel of one of the five regiments of foot for the war in Scotland (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1650, pp. 95, 141), but he died from fatigue at Edinburgh in December following. Cromwell wrote to Speaker Lenthall, asking parliament to make adequate provision for Mauleverer's ‘sad widow (Dorcas) and seven small children’ (Letters and Speeches, ed. Carlyle, 1882, v. 242–3). After receiving a report from the committee of the army, the house ordered Mauleverer's debts to be paid, and voted 100l. for his widow's immediate relief, and on 20 July 1652 passed a resolution for settling lands in Scotland of 400l. a year on her, her children, and their heirs (Commons' Journals, vi. 575–6, vii. 155–6).
The Colonel James Mauleverer alluded to in Rushworth's ‘Historical Collections’ (pt. ii. vol. i. p. 216) was apparently a brother of the above Colonel John Mauleverer, and, like him, was a staunch parliamentarian. On 11 March 1642–3 he was commissioned by the Earl of Essex to raise a troop of horse in Yorkshire, an order renewed by parliament on 10 May (Lords' Journals, vi. 40). He may have been the ‘Col. Mauleverer’ who was killed at the first siege of Pontefract Castle on 1 March 1645; another Colonel Maleverer, however, was present with his regiment of foot at the third siege of Pontefract in 1649 (Surtees Soc. Miscellanies, App. pp. 15, 100, 101, 110).
[Noble's Lives of the English Regicides, ii. 34; Chester's Registers of Westminster Abbey, pp. 140, 146, 186; Yorkshire Archæolog. and Topogr. Journal, vi. 93–4, viii. 440.]