Scudamore, John, Viscount Scudamore (1601 -1671)

John Scudamore of Holme Lacy was the eldest son of Sir James Scudamore and Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Throckmorton. He married, 12 March 1615, Elizabeth daughter and heir of Sir Andrew Porter. He was educated by a private tutor at his grandfather's seat of Holme Lacy, and at Magdalen College, Oxford, which he entered 8 November 1616. He was made an M.A. in 1642. He is said to have entered the Middle Temple, but immediately went abroad. On his return he was appointed by the Earl of Northampton to be Captain of Horse in Herefordshire, his family being noted for their horsemanship and their breeding of horses. He was created a baronet, 1 June 1620, when only nineteen years of age, and succeeded his grandfather, Sir John Scudamore of Holme Lacy in 1623. He was Member of Parliament for Herefordshire in 1621 and 1624, and for Hereford in 1625 and 1628. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Dromore and Viscount Scudamore of Sligo 2 July 1628. In 1635 he was sent as ambassador to the court of France, returning at his own request in 1639. At the beginning of the Civil War he was surprised in Hereford by Sir John Waller and sent a prisoner to London, his house in London at Petty France was sequestered, and his estates at Llanthony and Holme Lacy were subjected to various outrages. He was imprisoned for three years, compounded with Parliament, gave himself to study and supported secretly many of the suffering clergy. He gave books to the Dean and Chapter of Hereford Cathedral. The title died with the third Viscount, whose daughter, Frances (1711 1750) married, as her second husband, Charles Fitzroy, natural son of the 1st Duke of Grafton. Through their daughter, another Frances, the estates passed to Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk.