Continuing Political Preferment
Maynard was among the commissioners appointed to collect the quota of the Spanish war tax of 1657 payable by Devon. Thomas Carlyle is in error in stating that he was a member of Cromwell's House of Lords. He sat in the House of Commons for Plymouth during the Second Protectorate Parliament, and on the debates on the designation to be given to the 'other' house argued strongly for the revival of the old name (4 February 1657/8). Burnet states, and it is extremely probable, that he was also in favour of the revival of monarchy. On 1 May 1658 he was appointed Protector's serjeant, in which capacity he followed the Protector's bier on the ensuing 23 November. On the accession of Richard Cromwell he was made solicitor-general, and in parliament, where he sat for Newtown, Isle of Wight, lent the whole weight of his authority as a constitutional lawyer to prop up the Protector's tottering government.
Read more about this topic: John Maynard (MP)
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