John Scudamore, 1st Viscount Scudamore

Who was John Scudamore, 1st Viscount Scudamore?

John Scudamore, 1st Viscount Scudamore was an English diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1629. In 1628 he was created Viscount Scudamore in the Irish peerage.

Scudamore was the eldest son of Sir James Scudamore, of Holme Lacy, Herefordshire, and his wife Mary Anne Throckmorton, daughter of Sir Thomas Throckmorton. He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, on 8 November 1616 and was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1617. From November 1618, he travelled in France, and returned the following year after the death of his father. His grandfather Sir John Scudamore obtained a baronetcy for him on 1 June 1620, giving him precedence locally three years.

In 1621, Scudamore was elected Member of Parliament for Herefordshire. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1622. By 1622, he had a warm friendship with William Laud, and followed his religious views. One aspect of this was his restoration of the church of Abbey Dore, the church of the former Cistercian abbey, whose estates had come to his family at the dissolution. He did this in full Laudian style. He also did work on other churches, and endowed some with impropriate tithes.