William Second Lord Say and Sele was descended from John de Fiennes hereditary Governor of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports. William was constituted in the year 1461 vice admiral to the Earl of Warwick lord high admiral of England and was killed fighting for King Edward the fourth at the battle of Barnet 14th April 1471.

He suffered great calamities in the wars of York and Lancaster, and his estates being dissipated, the title remained dormant until it was confirmed to Richard fifth in descent by King James the first 9th August 1603.

William son of this Richard, was created by that monarch 7th July 1624 Viscount Say and Sele, and was constituted by King Charles the second, upon his restoration, lord keeper of the privy seal. He died 14th April 1662, having issue:

The Fiennes were Lord of the Manor of Froyle from 7th May 1653 to 4th June 1666. Like the Jephsons their predecessors William Viscount Say and Sele and his sons were promoters and ardent supporters of the rebellion against Charles the first. Of his sons, Nathaniel, John and Richard were those involved with the Manors of Froyilie and Hussey’s. The enormous influence the Fiennes exerted against the Royalist cause is well illustrated by the careers of Willian first Viscount Say and Sele and his favourite son Nathaniel.

Fiennes (William) Lord Say and Sele, a person of literary merit, but not so eminent for that, as for the part he played in the Great Rebellion. He was born at Broughton in the County of Oxford in 1582, being the eldest son of Sir Richard Fiennes to whom James the first had restored and confirmed the dignity and honour of baron Say and Sele: and after being “properly instructed in Wickham School near Winchester, was sent in 1596 to New College, Oxford”, of which, by virtue of his relationship to the founder, he was made a fellow. After he had spent some years there in study he travelled abroad, and then returned home with the reputation of a wise and prudent man.

When the war was carried on in the Palatinate he contributed generously to it, according to the measure of his estate which was highly pleasing to King James; but indulging his neighbours by leaving it to themselves to pay what they ‘thought fit’ on notice given to his majesty, committed to custody in June l622.  He was however, soon released and in July 1624, advanced from a baron to be Viscount Say and Sele.

At this time says Wood he stood up for the privileges of Magna Carta, but after the Rebellion broke out treated it with the utmost contempt and when the Long Parliament began in 1640 he showed himself so active therein, as Wood says, he and Hampden and Pym, with one or two more, were esteemed Parliament drivers or swayers of all the parliaments in which they sat. In order to reconcile him to the court he had the position of mastership of the Court of Wards given him in May 1641, but this availed nothing for when arms were taken up he acted openly against the King.

In February 1642, his majesty published two proclamations commanding all the officers of the Court of Wards to attend him at Oxford; but the Viscount refusing to come was outlawed and attainted of treason. In 1648 he opposed any personal treaty with his Majesty, yet the same year was one of the parliament commissioners in the Isle of Wight when they treated unto the King about peace, at which time he is said to have urged against the King this passage out of Hookers “Ecclesiastical Polity” that “though the King was singulis major, yet he was universis minor”, that is, greater than any individual, but less than the whole community. After the King’s death he joined with the Independents, as he had done before with the Presbyterians and became great with Oliver, who made him a member of his house of lords. “After the Restoration of Charles II when he had acted” says Wood, ‘‘as a grand rebel for his own ends almost twenty years, he was rewarded forsooth with the honourable office of Lord Privy Seal, and Lord Chamberlain of the Household; while others that had suffered in estate and body, and had been reduced to a bit of bread for his Majesty’s cause had then little or nothing to releive them; for which they were to thank a hungry and great officer, who, to fill his own coffers, was the occasion of the utter ruin of many”. Wood relates also, with some surprise, that this noble person, after he had spent eighty years mostly in an unquiet and discontented condition, had been a grand promoter of the Rebellion, and had in some respect been accessory to the murder of Charles 1 should die quietly in his bed, as he did, April 14th 1662; and be buried, as he was, with his ancestors at Broughton.

Whitlock says that “he was a person of great parts, wisdom and integrity” and Clarendon, though of a contrary party does not deny him to have had these qualities but only supposes them to have been wrongly directed and greatly corrupted. The Lord Say he calls, “a man of a close and reserved nature, of great parts, and of the highest ambition but whose ambition would not be satisfied with offices and preferments without some condescensions and alterations in ecclesiastical matters.

He had for many years been the oracle of those who were puritans in the worst sense, and had steered all their counsels and designs. He was a notorious enemy to the church and to most of the eminent churchmen, with some of whom he had particular contests. He had always opposed and contradicted all acts of state, and all taxes and impositions which were not exactly legal, etc. In a word, he had very great authority with all the discontented party throughout the kingdom, and a good reputation with many who were not discontented; who believed him to be a wise man and of a very useful temper in an age of licence and one who would still adhere to the law”.

The family motto: Fortem posce animum (JUV SAT. X. 35) “Wish for a strong mind”, would seem particularly associated with the first Viscount and his son Nathaniel “Let peace ne’er leave me, nor my heart grow cold, whilst life and sanity are mine to hold”. -Bloomfield.

Fiennes (Nathaniel), second son of Lord Viscount Say and Sele was born at Broughton in 1608 and as his father before him, after a proper education at Winchester College, was admitted to New College, Oxford. He was made a fellow in right of kinship to the founder. After spending some years there he traveled to Geneva and among the Cantons of Switzerland, where he improved that disaffection to the church, which had been infused into him with his milk.

From his travels he returned through Scotland at the time that the Rebellion was in the bud and in 1640 was elected to sit in Parliament for Banbury, when it was quickly discovered that as he was the darling of his father, so he was ready to join in all his measures. Afterwards he became colonel of horse under the Earl of Essex and was made Governor of Bristol when first taken over for the use of the Parliament, but surrendering it too easily to Prince Rupert in July 1643, he was thereupon tried by a council of war, and sentenced to lose his head. Fiennes refused Rupert’s first demand for surrender, but after the town had been heavily bombarded and the Cavaliers had captured part of it by storm, he agreed to capitulate. He could consider himself lucky, and so could the citizens of Bristol, that Rupert consented to treat, because it was accepted under the rules of war that if a demand for the surrender of a town was refused, and the besieging army had to lose men in taking it by storm, they were entitled to refuse quarter to the besieged garrison and to sack the town.

He had afterwards, by the interest of his father, a pardon granted him for life, but he could not continue any longer in the army; and the shame of it affected him so much that he went for some time abroad, “retaining still” says Clarendon, “the same full disaffection to the government of the church and state, and only grieved that he had a less capacity left to do hurt to either.”

When the Presbyterians were turned out of parliament, he became an Independant, took the engagement, was intimate with Cromwell; and when Cromwell declared himself Protector was made one of his privy-council, lord privy-seal in 1655, and a member of the then house of lords and although he had sufficiently shown his aversion to monarchical government, yet when he saw what Oliver aimed at he grew mighty fond of it: So that in 1660 he published a book with this title “Monarchy asserted to be the best, most ancient, and legal form of government, in a conference held at Whitehall in April 1657.” He published also several speeches and pamphlets, some of which were a defence of his own conduct at Bristol.

After the Restoration he retired to Newton Tony near Salisbury in Wiltshire, where he had an estate that came to him by his second wife, and here continued to his death which happened in 1669. Clarendon has spoken of his abilities in very high terms. “Colonel Fiennes,” says he, “besides the credit and reputation of his father, had a very good stock of estimation in the house of commons upon his own score: for truly he had very good parts of learning and nature, and was privy to, and a great manager in the most secret designs from the beginning; and if he had not incumbered himself with command in the army, to which men thought his nature not so well disposed, he had sure been second to none in those councils, after Mr Hampden’s death.”