Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/65

Rh good advice,’ Lenthall sent the king a paper of instructions (28 March). Instead of treating with the presbyterians, he urged Charles to make proposals such as the people would accept, ‘but would have them proceed from the king as a free act of grace, which he offers to confirm to them by a free parliament, legally convened by a special commission, which the king must empower to issue out writs in his name,’ and proceeded to suggest the nature of these proposals (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 711–14, 720). Guizot describes Lenthall's counsels as remarkable for their impartiality and farsightedness (Richard Cromwell, ii. 191).

When the Convention parliament was summoned, Lenthall became a candidate for the representation of the university of Oxford, but in spite of two pressing letters from Monck he was not elected (, Life, ed. Clark, i. 311;, Register, pp. 100, 111, 112). Nor, though he sent 3,000l. to Charles II at Breda, could he succeed in retaining his office of master of the rolls (, iii. 16). The House of Commons resolved on 11 June 1660, by 215 to 126 votes, to include Lenthall among the twenty persons to be excepted from the act of indemnity for penalties not extending to life. But Monck drew up a strong certificate in his favour, stating his services in forwarding the Restoration, and the Earl of Norwich also exerted his influence for Lenthall. The House of Lords accordingly moderated the penalty, and merely incapacitated him from any office of trust in the three kingdoms (Old Parliamentary History, xxii. 347, 403; Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. p. 122). But, forgetful of his famous words to Charles I, he disgraced himself by appearing at the trial of the regicides as a witness against Thomas Scot, for words spoken in the House of Commons during his tenure of the chair (State Trials, v. 1003;, iii. 66). For the rest of his life he lived in retirement at Burford. He died on 3 Sept. 1662, and was attended in his last moments by Ralph Brideoake [q. v.], then vicar of Witney, to whom he confessed his penitence for his political career (Lenthall's ‘Confession’ was first printed in a letter in the Kingdom's Intelligencer, 8–15 Sept. 1662; it is reprinted in the Old Parliamentary History, xxiii. 371, and in the Memoirs of the two Last Years of the Reign of Charles I., 1702, and incorporated in Athenæ Oxonienses, iii. 608). In his will he directed that he should be buried ‘without any pomp or state, acknowledging myself to be unworthy of the least outward regard in this world, and unworthy of any remembrance that hath been so great a sinner. And I do farther charge and desire that no monument be made for me, but at the utmost a plain stone, with this superscription only, “Vermis Sum”’ (Wills from Doctors Commons, Camden Society, 1863, p. 111). Lenthall was buried ‘in a little aisle on the north side of Burford Church.’ ‘As yet,’ wrote Wood in 1691, ‘he hath no monument, nor so much as a stone over his grave’ (Athenæ Oxonienses, iii. 608).

A portrait of Lenthall in his robes as speaker is in the National Portrait Gallery. A number of engraved portraits are contained in the illustrated copy of Clarendon, known as the Sutherland Clarendon, in the Bodleian Library.

Lenthall was capable of behaving with dignity and courage in critical moments, and so long as deportment was sufficient he made an excellent speaker. But when circumstances thrust on him the part of a statesman, he had not sufficient strength of character to sustain it with credit. Contemporaries regarded him as a mere time-server. ‘He minded mostly the heaping up of riches,’ writes Wood, ‘and was so besotted in raising and settling a family that he minded not the least good that might accrue to his Prince.’ Rumour, however, greatly exaggerated Lenthall's gains as speaker (Old Parliamentary History, xxiii. 370; Somers Tracts, vii. 103). He is said to have added to them by receiving bribes for his parliamentary influence, and Lady Verney gave 50l. to his sister-in-law in hope of obtaining his support to a petition (, Great Civil War, iii. 317). Sir John Lenthall, the corrupt and extortionate keeper of the King's Bench prison, was reputed to have too great power with his brother (, England's Birthright, 1645, p. 28; but see Commons' Journals, iv. 274). The evidence is scarcely sufficiently conclusive to prove that the speaker himself was corrupt.

Lenthall married Elizabeth, daughter of Ambrose Evans of Loddington, Northamptonshire, who died in April 1662 (, Visitations of Oxfordshire, p. 318). His only son, (1625–1681), matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 12 Sept. 1640, entered Lincoln's Inn the same year, and was elected member for Gloucester in 1645 (, Alumni Oxonienses, iii. 902). He was knighted by Cromwell on 9 March 1657–8, and by Charles II 13 March 1677 (, Pedigrees of Knights, p. 324; Mercurius Politicus, 4–11 March 1657). On 18 Jan. 1659–60, he was made colonel of a regiment of foot and governor of Windsor (Commons' Journals, vii. 814). Lenthall was returned to the Convention parliament for Abingdon,