Sir John Danvers

Sir John Danvers (c. 1585–1655) was an English courtier and politician. He was one of the signatories of the death warrant of Charles I.

Danvers was third and youngest son of Sir John Danvers of Dauntsey, Wiltshire, by Elizabeth Neville. In his youth, he travelled through France and Italy, developing sophisticated tastes in gardening and architecture, which he indulged at his house in Chelsea. Danvers was knighted by James I of England; and under Charles I became a gentleman of the privy chamber.

He sat as a member of parliament for Arundel in 1610, Montgomery Boroughs in the Addled Parliament of 1614, Oxford University in 1621, Newport (Isle of Wight) in 1624 and again for Oxford University from 1625 to 1629.

Danvers was engaged in mercantile transactions, and in 1624 he learned that the government were contemplating a seizure of the papers of the Virginia Company. With the aid of Edward Collingwood, the secretary, he had the whole of the records copied out and entrusted them to the care of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, a family friend, who deposited them at his house at Titchfield, Hampshire.

Danvers fell into debt, and from 1630 to 1640 was apparently struggling with creditors. About 1640 he began an active political career in opposition to the king. He refused to contribute to the expenses of the king's expedition to Scotland in 1639, and was returned to the Short parliament of 1640 by Oxford University. In 1642 he took up arms for the parliament, and was granted a colonel's commission, which he held in command of the Wiltshire foot militia until 1650 but did not play a prominent part in military affairs. He gives an account of the opening incidents of the war in letters written to friends from Chelsea in July and August 1642.

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