George Peard (1594–1645) of

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

in Devon, England, was a politician who sat in the

House of Commons of England The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England (which incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of ...

from 1640 to 1645. He supported the Parliamentarians in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. His uncle

George Peard George Peard (1594–1645) of Barnstaple in Devon, England, was a politician who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1640 to 1645. He supported the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War. His uncle George Peard (1548-1621) was als ...

(1548-1621) was also twice a Member of Parliament for

, in 1597 and 1604.

Career

Peard was a lawyer and a member of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

.DNB Epitome In April 1640 he was elected as one of the two Members of Parliament for

, for the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Aft ...

. He was re-elected in November 1640 for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

and remained a Member until his death in 1645. Peard was active in the proceedings against Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford in 1641. He assisted in the unsuccessful defence of

in 1643, during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Death and monument

Peard died in 1645 at the age of 51. His monument with alabaster effigy was said in 1882 to survive in St Peter's Church in Barnstaple, as did several others of the Peard family. He is shown as an effigy in half-figure, "very quaintly attired" and wearing the black tasseled gown of the period, exactly as worn by the Town Clerk of Barnstaple in 1882.Chanter, 1882, p.37 His right arm rests on a skull, his left on a closed book, a common pose for several contemporaneous effigies in that church. The effigy was sculpted from white Derbyshire alabaster, which had been "daubed thickly with paint" but was stripped back to the white stone during the church restoration shortly before 1882. The Latin inscription was translated as follows:Chanter, p.37
:Here lieth the body of George Peard, a soldier of Christ, under whose banner he fought against the world, the flesh and the Devil, who having finished his warfare, under a Captain who was witness of the battle and Author of the victory, now lives crowned with happiness, supplicating for a victory to the arms of his fellow soldiers in the flesh, that in their success his joy might be perfected. He put on his triumphal robe in the year of his Captain, 1644, of his warfare, 50.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Peard, George 1594 births 1645 deaths Roundheads English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Barnstaple