William Trumbull

Sir William Trumbull, PC (8 September 163914 December 1716) was an English diplomat and politician who was a member of the First Whig Junto.

Early life Trumbull was born at Easthampstead Park in Berkshire and baptised on 11 September 1639. He was the son and heir of William Trumbull (1594–1668) and grandson of William Trumbull, the Jacobean period diplomat. His mother was Elizabeth Weckerlin (c. 161911 July 1652), only daughter of George Rudolph Weckerlin, Latin Secretary to Charles I, King of England. He received his early instruction in Latin and French from his maternal grandfather, and was sent in 1649 to Wokingham School. He matriculated from St John's College, Oxford on 5 April 1655, being entered as a gentleman-commoner under the Rev. Thomas Wyatt, and in 1657 was elected to a fellowship at All Souls' College, Oxford, which he probably retained until his marriage in 1670. In the same year he was entered at the Middle Temple. He graduated Bachelor of Civil Law on 12 October 1659. After completing his degree, he visited France and Italy, where he met several distinguished persons, such as Lords Sunderland and Godolphin, Algernon Sidney and Henry Compton. In 1664 and 1665 he travelled in company with Sir Christopher Wren and Edward Browne. In 1666, Trumbull returned to college and in 1667 he was awarded a Doctorate of Civil Law.

Professional life He was admitted an advocate in Doctors' Commons in London on 28 April 1668 and began practising in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts. He would remain for the next 15 years, becoming a lawyer of high repute. Through the offices of his father-in-law, Sir Charles Cotterell, he was appointed chancellor of the diocese of Rochester in 1671 by its bishop, John Dolben, the future archbishop of York, and benefited much from 'the friendship and patronage of that great and good man'.

In 1683 he was appointed Judge Advocate of the Fleet by Lord Dartmouth, George Legge, in an expedition to evacuate the British colony at Tangier, where he was to act as commissioner for settling the leases of the houses between the King and the inhabitants. Samuel Pepys, who was also on the expedition, was unimpressed – "Strange to see how surprised and troubled Dr. Trumbull shows himself at this new work put on him of a judge-advocate; how he cons over the law-martial and what weak questions he asks me about it." Later Pepys calls him "a man of the meanest mind as to courage that ever was born." Dryden records, in the postscript to his translation of Virgil, that "if the last Aeneid shine amongst its fellows, it is owing to the commands of Sir William Trumbull, who recommended it as his favourite to my care." It was Trumbull who, admiring Pope's translation of the "Epistle of Sarpedon" from the Iliad urged him to translate the whole of Homer's works, and Pope's "Spring" was dedicated to him.

Family life In 1670, Trumbull married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Charles Cotterell, Master of the Ceremonies; she died in 1704, they having had no children. In Scotland in October 1706, he married Judith (died 1724), daughter of Henry Alexander, the 4th Earl of Stirling. They had two children, Judith (1707–1708) and William (1708–1760).

Trumbull died on 14 December 1716. He was buried on 21 December at Easthampstead church. His funerary monument in the south transept proclaims that 'he maintained the character of an able statesman'.