was elected one of the members for the borough of Dorchester, and was returned by the borough of Newtown in the Isle of Wight to the succeeding parliament of 167 8-9. As there is no other description given in the list, and as the second return is obviously inaccurate, there is some doubt whether this was Sir John Churchill.
About 1674 he was created a king’s counsel and made attorney-general to the Duke of York. In May 1675 he was appointed by the House of Lords senior counsel or Sir Nicholas Crispe on his appeal from a chancery decree in favour of Thomas Dalmahoy, a member of the House of Commons. This was considered a breach of privilege by the commons, being in contravention of the resolution which it had recently passed, to the effect that ‘whosoever shall appear at the bar of the House of Lords, to prosecute any suit against any member of this house, shall be deemed a breaker and infringer of the rights and privileges of this house.’ On 1 June 1675 Churchill and the three other counsel who had appeared on behalf of Crispe were, by the order of the House of Commons, taken into custody by the serjeant-at-arms. After they had en released by the order of the House of Lords, it was resolved by the House of Commons on the 4th, by 152 to 147, that Sir John Churchill ‘should be sent to the Tower for his breach of privilege and contempt of the authority of this house,’ whereupon he was seized by the serjeant-at-arms while within the bar of the court of chancery, and committed to the Tower. The quarrel between the two houses was at length put an end to by the prorogation of parliament by the king on 9 June, when Churchill was immediately released. In 1683 he was chosen recorder of Bristol, in the room of Sir Thomas Atkins (Luttrell, 1857, i. 254), and on 12 Jan. 1685 he succeeded Sir Harbottle Grimston as master of the rolls. In March following he was elected member for Bristol, and he died during the succeeding summer vacation.
He married Susan, daughter of Edmund Prideaux, by whom he left four daughters. The manor of Churchill in Somersetshire, which he purchased from Richard Jennyns, was sold soon after his death for the payment of his debts.
[Foss’s Lives of the Judges of England (1864), vii. 217-19; Collins’s Peerage (1812), i. 365; Collinson’s Somerset (1791), iii. 579-82; Barrett’s Bristol (1789), p. 159; Shower’s Reports (1720). 2nd pt. p. 434; State Trials (1810), vi. 1144-70; Parliamentary History, iv. 722-40; Parliamentary Papers (1868), vol. lxii. pt. i.; Notes and Queries, 5th series, ii. 110, 173.]
CHURCHILL, JOHN, first Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722), was born in 1650 at Ashe in the parish of Musbury, Devonshire. Coxe, quoting the parish register of Axminster, says that he was born 24 June, and baptised 25 June. Marlborough himself (Coxe, ii. 240; mentions 6 June 1707 as his fifty-seventh birthday, and 26 May 1710 as his sixtieth (ib. iii. 192). The difference between old and new styles would reconcile the last two dates. Lord Churchill, quoting ‘family papers,’ gives the birthday as 24 May (Notes and Queries, 4th ser. viii. 492). Col ins says ‘17 minutes after noon on 24 May;’ and a horoscope (Egerton MS. 2378) gives the date as 25 May at 12.58 p.m. Another hour, it is said, must be a mistake, as it would have proved his stars to have been unfavourable at Blenheim. His father was Sir Winston Churchill [q. v.] He was educated at St. Paul’s School, and was a parently a scholar (Gardiner, Register of St. Paul’s School, p. 53). A doubtful story (Coxe, i. 2) tells of his reading or looking at the platesin ‘Vegetius de re Militari’ in his schooldays. His orthography was defective through life. After leaving the school he became page of honour to the Duke of York, and on 14 Sept. 1667 received his commission as ensign in the foot guards (Doyle, Baronage). Whether his sister Arabella [q. v.] was already mistress to the duke is uncertain, and it is therefore uncertain whether he profited by her interest. At any rate, he saw some service; he was for a time at Tangier. In June 1672 he became captain in a foot regiment, and in that year served under Monmouth with the English contingent of six thousand men in the French army in Flanders. Turenne is said to have distinguished him for his gallantry at the siege of Nimeguen, to have called him ‘the handsome Englishman,’ and to have won a bet that Churchill would recover a post with half the number of men who had failed to defend it. At the siege of Maestricht in June 1673 he was one of a dozen volunteers who supported Monmouth in a desperate and successful assault. Madgett (i. 739) mentions an official record of this feat. Monmouth presented him to Charles II, saying, ‘I owe my life to his bravery.’ On 3 April 1674 he received a commission from Louis XIV as colonel of the English regiment. It is probable that he served in later campaigns, and was present at the battle of Sinzheim and at the operations of 1675 and 1677. His personal beauty and charm of manner helped his promotion. Untrustworthy rumours are given that he had been sent to Tangier on account of the king’s jealousy of his favour with the Duchess of Cleveland. Mrs.
