the surrender of the town, and Monson and Philip Warwick were sent (11 May) to confer with him. Monson was one of the fourteen commissioners for Oxford who met the parliamentary commissioners at 'Mr. Crooke's house at Marston' on 18 May, and for a month was actively occupied in framing the articles for the surrender of the town (agreed to on 22 June). His conduct throughout gained for him the respect of both parties. Subsequently he applied for and was granted permission to compound for his estates on the terms granted by the Oxford articles, according to which the fine should not exceed two years of the revenue. But he failed to pay the composition, and the estate was ordered to be sequestered on 8 March 1648. Sir Thomas Fairfax and Cromwell both deemed his usage needlessly severe, but it was not until July 1651 that parliament removed the sequestration. In December 1652 Monson signed the engagement to the Commonwealth. He was again in difficulties at the end of 1655, when he refused to pay the decimation tax, levied to meet insurrection, and was imprisoned in his own house, but he was discharged from further proceedings on 22 Jan. 1656–7.
During the civil wars Monson's drainage works were injured and neglected. On his petition (15 Dec. 1654) the business was referred to the committee for the Fens, without result, but he petitioned again on 14 May 1661, and, despite the opposition of two of the Fen towns—Winterton and Bishop Norton—a bill confirming Monson's former privileges was passed by parliament early in 1662. As guardian and trustee for John Sheffield, third earl of Mulgrave and duke of Buckinghamshire (1649–1720), Monson undertook in December 1663 to farm the earl's alum mines at Mulgrave in Yorkshire, allowing the king almost half the profits. He died on 29 Dec. 1683, and was buried at South Carlton. He built and endowed a free school in South Carlton and a hospital in Burton, and left money to the towns in Lincolnshire of which he was lord.
Monson married Ursula, daughter of Sir Robert Oxenbridge of Hurstbourne in Hampshire. Through his wife he became possessed in 1645 of the manor of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, which was the seat of the family for many years. His widow died in December 1692. His only son, John (1628–1674), M.P. for Lincoln from 1660 till his death, and made K.B. 20 April 1660, was father of both Henry (1653–1718), third baronet, who was M.P. for Lincoln from 1675 to 1689, and high sheriff for the county in 1685 and 1688; and of William (1654–1727), fourth baronet, who was M.P. for Lincoln and high sheriff of the county in 1695. The fourth baronet's nephew and successor, John Monson, first baron Monson, is separately noticed.
Monson published: 1. ‘A Short Essay of Afflictions. Or, Balm to Comfort if not Cure those that Sinke or Languish under present Misfortunes,’ London, 1647 (anon.). Monson's name can be spelt out from a curious monogram on the title-page. It was written as advice to his son while he was in the garrison at Oxford. After the Restoration it was reprinted. 2. ‘An Antidote against the Errors and Opinions of many in their days, concerning some of the Highest and Chiefest Duties of Religion’ (anon.), London, 1647, 1661–2. 3. ‘A Short Answer to several Questions proposed to a Gentleman of Quality by a great Minister of State’ (anon.), London, 1678. 4. ‘A Discourse concerning Supreme Power and Common Right. By a Person of Quality,’ London, 1680.
[Jacob's Peerage, ii. 531; Visitation of Lincolnshire, Harl. MS. No. 1550, f. 69; Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1611–66; Metcalfe's Knights, p. 186; Official Returns of Members of Parliament, pt. i. pp. 464, 470, 525, 536, 542, 543, 560, pt. ii. pp. 46, 53, 64; Dugdale's Imbanking and Draining, pp. 151–3; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), vol. ii. cols. 40–1; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Lords' Journals, iv. 254, vi. 806, x. 222–5, xi. 395, 397, 398, 399, 406, 473; Commons' Journals, vi. 610–11, vii. 402, viii. 186, 248, 252, 257, 296, 374; Rushworth's Hist. Collections, ii. 416 et seq.; Hacket's Life of Williams, pt. ii. pp. 123, 128; Rossingham's News Letter; State Papers, Car. I, 1637, vol. ccclxiii. f. 119; Lambeth MS. 1030, ff. 39, 40, 41, 42, 48; The Passage of the Treaty for the Surrender of Oxford, pp. 1–3 (E. 337 [30]); The Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer, 12–19 May 1646; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. x. 64–5, 95–6, 136; Cal. of the Committee for the Advance of Money, pp. 745, 1047; Cal. of the Committee for Compounding, pp. 623, 1431–3, 2047–8; contemporary sheet respecting Monson's bill (816, m. 8 [20]); Foster's Peerage; Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. pt. ii. pp. 74–5; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, ii. 55; Chauncey's Antiquities of Hertfordshire, pp. 289–90; Kennett's Reg. p. 410; Tables of the High Sheriffs of the County of Lincoln, p. 38; Harl. Soc. Publications, x. 12, xxiv. 132, 189, xxxi. 134, 254; P. C. C. 6 Hare, 81 Tenison, 68 Farrant, 247 Straham, Admon. Act Book, 1674; information from the Rev. John Salwey of Broxbourne.]
MONSON, Sir JOHN, first Baron Monson (1693–1748), son of George Monson of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, by Anne, daughter of Charles Wren of the Isle of Ely, was born in 1693. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 26 Jan. 1708. On 4 April
