only child, Thomas, was admitted on the foundation of Winchester College, became fellow of New College, Oxford, and vicar of Writtle-cum-Roxwell (d. February 1851). He wrote ‘Sketch of the Lives and Writings of Dante and Petrarch’ (anon.), 1790.
Penrose is described as possessing learning, eloquence, and good social qualities, and as being ready with pencil and pen. His chief productions are mainly imitative of Collins and Gray; but several of his poems deal in a natural vein with his disappointments in life. A poetical essay, ‘On the Contrarieties of Public Virtue,’ shows powers of irony and satire. Mathias, in the first dialogue of ‘The Pursuits of Literature’ (1798 edit. p. 54), says:
Have you not seen neglected Penrose bloom,
Then sink unhonour'd in a village tomb?
Content a curate's humble path he trod,
Now, with the poor in spirit, rests with God.
His chief works were: 1. ‘Flights of Fancy,’ 1775. 2. ‘Address to the Genius of Britain,’ 1775, a poem in blank verse, proposing a limit to our ‘civil dissensions.’ 3. A posthumous volume of poems, 1781, with a biographical introduction by James Pettit Andrews [q. v.], who had married his sister Anne. His productions were included in Anderson's ‘Collection of the Poets,’ vol. xi.; Park's ‘British Poets,’ vol. xxxiii.; Pratt's ‘Cabinet of Poetry,’ vol. v.; in the Chiswick edition of the ‘British Poets,’ vol. lxiii.; and several of his poems are in Bell's ‘Fugitive Poetry,’ vols. xii. and xiii. A sprightly poem by Penrose on the ‘Newberry Belles,’ signed ‘P., Newbury, 8 May 1761,’ is in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ 1761, pp. 231–2, the characters in which are identified by Godwin; and two more of his poetical pieces are in the same periodical for 1799, pt. ii. pp. 1177–8. Campbell included two of Penrose's pieces—‘The Helmets’ and ‘The Field of Battle’—in his ‘Specimens of the British Poets;’ and Peter Cunningham, in his edition of that work, adds that Campbell, in ‘“Adelgitha,” and, above all, in “The Wounded Hussar,”’ has given a ‘vigorous echo’ of ‘The Field of Battle,’ a poem ‘which wants little to rank it high among our ballad strains.’
Penrose's portrait, from a drawing by Farrer in the possession of the Rev. Dr. Penrose, was engraved by W. Bromley.
[Godwin's Newbury Worthies, pp. 52–3, 66–7; Boase's Collect. Cornub. p. 715; Life in Anderson's Poets.]
PENRUDDOCK, JOHN (1619–1655), royalist, born in 1619, was the eldest son of Sir John Penruddock, knight, of Compton-Chamberlayne, Wiltshire. He was educated at Blandford School, matriculated from Queen's College, Oxford, on 20 Jan. 1636, and became a student of Gray's Inn in 1636 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.; Gray's Inn Register, p. 211). In 1639 he married Arundel, daughter of John Freke of Ewerne's Courtenay and Melcombe, Dorset. Sir John Penruddock was high sheriff of Wiltshire by the king's appointment in 1643–4, and his sons fought on the royalist side throughout the civil war (Black, Oxford Docquets, pp. 130, 222). Henry, the second son, was killed in 1643, and another son also lost his life in the king's service (Ludlow, Memoirs, ed. 1894, i. 83; Wiltshire Archæological Magazine, December 1853, p. 397). Sir John Penruddock was fined 890l. (afterwards reduced to 490l.), and his son 1,000l., while the debts of the latter—contracted during the six years' sequestration of his estate—amounted to 1,500l. (ib. xiii. 123; Cal. of Committee for Compounding, p. 1054). John Penruddock was nevertheless resolved to risk the loss of the remainder of his fortune in the king's cause, and took up arms in the abortive insurrection of March 1655. With about two hundred followers, commanded by himself and Sir Joseph Wagstaffe, he occupied Salisbury on 12 March 1655, seized the judges Rolle and Nicholas who were then on circuit, and proclaimed Charles II. Wagstaffe wished to hang the judges and the sheriff, but was prevented by Penruddock (Clarendon, Rebellion, xiv. 132). They then marched into Dorset, proclaimed Charles II at Blandford, and, not finding themselves joined by the country people as they expected, endeavoured to make their way into Cornwall, which was reported to be in arms for the king. At South Molton in North Devon they were surprised in their quarters on the night of 14 March by Captain Unton Croke of Colonel Berry's regiment, and Penruddock, with about sixty of his followers, was taken prisoner. The rest were scattered, but succeeded in escaping. The Protector issued a commission of oyer and terminer for the trial of the prisoners. At Exeter, where Penruddock was tried, Serjeant Glynne presided, and among the commissioners were also Justices Rolle and Nicholas and Serjeant Steele. Penruddock argued, first, that his offence was not legally high treason, and, secondly, that he had surrendered on articles promising him security for life and estate. But his plea was overruled, and Croke denied the engagement he was alleged to have made. Penruddock was condemned to death, and was beheaded at Exeter on 16 May 1655, in company with Colonel Hugh Grove. The
