Sir John Corbet, 1st Baronet of Stoke upon Tern (baptised 20 May 1594 – July 1662) was an English politician who represented Shropshire in the House of Commons of the long Parliament. As a moderate Puritan, he was noted before the English Civil War for his campaigns against extra-parliamentary taxation, and for waging a long running dispute over control of his parish church at Adderley which led to his imprisonment. He was a notable member of the Shropshire county committee, responsible for pursuing the war against the royalists. As a part of a Presbyterian middle group in Parliament, he was one of those secluded from parliament by Pride's Purge, and was stripped of his remaining public offices after the Restoration.
Background
John Corbet's background was in the landed gentry of Shropshire, a county which had no resident aristocracy in the 16th century.Coulton, p.40 Both his parents were drawn from sections of the Protestant gentry enriched by the law, commerce, and contacts at Court. They were:Burke, p.132,
Richard Corbet of Stoke upon Tern and Adderley, Shropshire. The Stoke and Adderley branch of the Corbet family was descended from the Corbets of Moreton Corbet Castle, Shropshire.Rylands and Grazebrook, p.137-138 It was founded by the important judge, Reginald Corbet (c.1513-1566), Richard's father and John's grandfather. Reginald had secured the material prosperity of his family not only through his legal practice but by marrying a niece and heiress of the immensely wealthy businessman Rowland Hill (MP), the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London.Corbet, p.268. The major family holdings in north Shropshire all came from Hill's bequest.
Anne Bromley, daughter of Sir Thomas Bromley, who was from Hodnet, also the birthplace of Rowland Hill. Bromley was another distinguished lawyer, Lord Chancellor from 1579 to 1587, who presided over the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. He became very rich and bought large estates in Montgomeryshire and Worcestershire, as well as in his native county.P.W. Hasler (editor): History of Parliament Online: Members 1558-1603 - BROMLEY, Thomas (1530-87), of Rodd Castle and Hodnet, nr. Oswestry, Salop. - Author: W.J.J., accessed 3 October 2013.
The family tree below shows Sir John Corbet's immediate ancestry and relationship to other Corbet family members of political importance from the English Reformation to the Civil War.Grazebrook and Rylands,
Early life and education
John Corbet was baptised at Stoke upon Tern on 20 May 1594. He was his parents' second son.Corbet, p.350 His elder brother, Richard, was his father's heir, and he had also a younger brother, Thomas.
Their father died in 1601 and Richard, the eldest, succeeded to the family estates. John was probably given the education traditionally afforded by the Corbets to younger sons: university followed by legal training. A John Corbet is known to have graduated BA at Cambridge University in 1612, and this may be him. He was certainly a student at Lincoln's Inn in 1615.
Richard, John's elder brother, had married Anne Weld, a daughter of Humphrey Weld, a powerful merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1608. They had two sons before Richard died in 1615: Richard and Humphrey. Richard survived his father but Humphrey seems to have predeceased him. The inquisition post mortem, held at Bridgnorth, noted that should the young Richard die without heirs, the estates would go to his uncle John or, failing that, his uncle Thomas. However, by the terms of the will, dated 2 May 1612, the estates were put into trust. The proceeds were to be used primarily to settle his debts and the administrators should "at the end of the seven years, give an Accompt unto such person or persons as shall stand and be rightfullie seized of my Estate". Young Richard was granted an annuity of £50 for life, "provided that he surrender all his Claime to the lands and hereditaments aforesaid." The reasons for this unusual provision are unknown, although some form of congenital disability is a possible explanation. John was the sole executor of the will and by 1618 had emerged as successor to his brother's estates. Neither his nephew Richard, who lived until 1649, nor Anne Weld, who subsequently remarried, ever challenged John Corbet's succession.
In 1620 John Corbet married Ann Mainwaring of Ightfield, an estate to the west of Adderley. It is not known when Corbet was knighted, but he was created a baronet on 19 September 1627. He was made a justice of the peace and was pricked High Sheriff of Shropshire for 1628 to 1629. However these were years of increasing political tension and Corbet moved decisively into opposition to the absolutist policies of Charles I and his ministers.
Campaigns against absolutism
In 1627 Corbet led the opposition within Shropshire to the Forced Loan imposed by the King. The parliament of 1625, dubbed by Court circles the Useless Parliament had refused fully to underwrite the cost of the Anglo-Spanish War of 1625–30. As Buckingham's inept diplomacy turned it into a war also against France, Charles imposed a levy without parliamentary consent. Corbet was outspoken in his attacks on the Forced Loan. The collection in Shropshire was carried out by the commissioner Sir Andrew Corbet of Moreton Corbet, under the direction of William Compton, 1st Earl of Northampton, president of the Council in the Marches of Wales, and was remarkably successful. By promising to use some of it to pay arrears of "coat and conduct" money, already owed to local gentry and their retainers for military service, Corbet overcame their initial reluctance to pay.Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris (editors): History of Parliament Online: Constituencies 1604-1629 - Shropshire - Author: Simon Healy, accessed 4 October 2013. Shropshire paid the Exchequer £2,997 - 82% per cent of its quota, compared with the national average of 72%. However, Sir John Corbet's agitation seems to have struck a chord with his cousin, Sir Andrew. His compliance ended with the collection of the Forced Loan and he joined Sir John in opposition, voting for the Petition of Right in the parliament of 1628.Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris (editors): History of Parliament Online: Members 1604-1629 - CORBET, Sir Andrew (1580-1637), of Moreton Corbet and Acton Reynell, Salop - Author: Simon Healy, accessed 4 October 2013.
Corbet took up essentially the same issue during the 11-year period of absolute monarchy, known as Thorough, which succeeded Charles I's resolution to do without parliament. In 1634 he strongly criticised the levying of Ship money, another tax imposed by the king without parliamentary consent. A vigorous debate took place on 7 April 1635 at the quarter sessions in Shrewsbury over the issue of the Crown's right to levy charges to pay the muster-master, who trained the county militia. The grand jury described the charges as "a great greevance and oppression".Coulton, p.87 This was immediately countered by Timothy Tourneur, a Gray's Inn barrister, Master in Chancery, and steward to John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater the Lord Lieutenant of Wales, whose office covered Shropshire. Tourneur condemned the grand jury for meddling in matters beyond their remit. Corbet and Robert Charlton of Apley intervened to defend the jury and to attack Tourneur. Corbet demanded that Clerk of the Peace read out the section of the statute book referring to the Petition of Right. Although Corbet's stand had the support of most of the justices present, it was reported to the Privy Council of England through Bridgewater. Corbet was summoned before the council and accused of "making speeches to his Majesties disservice and the animating of others to refuse the payment of the muster master's fee." As he maintained his stand, he was imprisoned on 10 June, pending trial in Star Chamber. However, he was incarcerated in the Fleet Prison for six months but never brought to trial. Charlton, his fellow dissident, escaped with two days in gaol.
Corbet's determined opposition to extra-parliamentary taxation earned him the sobriquet "the Patriot".Corbet, p.312 In June 1641 the Commons vindicated Corbet's position, resolving:
The Adderley church dispute
Corbet pursued a dispute over many years with his neighbours, the Needhams of Shavington Hall, involving control and use of St Peter's Church, Adderley. Although generally treated as "a quarrel over honour and precedence", in line with its treatment by the ardently royalist family biographer Augusta Corbet, there were underlying issues concerning the direction of developments in the Church of England. In the absence of parliamentary politics, the royalist, High Church Needhams contested the parish church with the parliamentarian and Puritan Corbets.
There was a history of ill-will between Corbet and Robert Needham, his neighbour. Needham's estates were centred on Cranage in Cheshire, although he had a holdings also in Shropshire, which he represented in parliament twice and where he was politically active.Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris (editors): History of Parliament Online: Members 1604-1629 - NEEDHAM, Sir Robert (1567/8-1631), of Shavington Hall - Author: Simon Healy, accessed 6 October 2013. His seat was at Shavington Hall, which is between Adderley and Ightfield, just inside Shropshire and in the parish of Adderley, where Corbet was lord of the manor and held advowson of the church. Needham had served in Ireland during the Nine Years' War and married four times - on the last two occasions to very wealthy widows who brought him a huge fortune. On the accession of Charles I in 1625, he was elevated to the Peerage of Ireland as the 1st Viscount Kilmorey. Issues between Needham and Corbet initially centred on rights of way and small pockets of land. However, Needham was discontented with his status in the parish church, where Corbet, as patron, had a pew in the chancel, facing the rector, while he, as a parishioner, was expected to sit in the nave. The rector gave up his pew to accommodate the Needhams, as he was unmarried. When he later married, his wife accepted the arrangement.Corbet, p.352