John Gurdon (1595-1679)

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John Gurdon (3 July 1595-9 September 1679), of Assington in Suffolk, was an English politician.

Gurdon was the son of a country gentleman, Brampton Gurdon, with estates in both Norfolk and Suffolk. He was elected to the Short Parliament and Long Parliament in 1640 as Member for Ipswich, and supported the parliamentary cause on the outbreak of Civil War. In the internal dissension between the parliamentarians he supported the Army party and remained in the Commons after Pride's Purge, but when named one of the Commissioners for the trial of the King he refused to attend. Nevertheless, he was chosen a member of the council of State in 1650, 1651 and 1652. After the expulsion of the Long Parliament, he sat for Suffolk in the First Protectorate Parliament (1654) and for Sudbury in the Convention Parliament of 1660. He was not re-elected after the Restoration.

He married Anne Parker, daughter of Sir Calthorpe Parker of Erwarton. His children included Philip Gurdon (c. 1630-1690), who was also MP for Sudbury, and the Reverend Nathaniel Gurdon, DD (died 1696), Rector of Chelmsford, who survived his brother and inherited Assington on his death.

[edit] References

• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Burke’s Landed Gentry (4th edition, London: Harrison, Pall Mall, 1862-3)
• Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [1]
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page