Mordaunt, John, Viscount Mordaunt, of Avalon (1627 -1675)

Born in 1627, John Mordaunt was the second son of John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough, and Elizabeth, only daughter and heir of William Lord Howard of Effingham. He was educated in France and Italy, returning to England in time to join his brother Henry, 2nd Earl of Peterborough, in the insurrection of July 1648. During the Commonwealth, he married Elizabeth Carey, second daughter of Thomas Carey, and granddaughter of Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth. In 1657 he conspired with the Duke of Ormonde and the King to raise an insurrection in Sussex, but was betrayed by one of the messengers and committed to the Tower. Put on trial by the Parliament before a court of forty, sitting under a Lord Commissioner, he at first denied the jurisdiction of the court, but on the urging of his wife, who had been bribing them, he put in a plea of not guilty, and was exonerated by the casting vote of the Lord Commissioner. He continued to plot against Parliament, and was created Baron Mordaunt of Reigate and Viscount Mordaunt of Avalon 10 July 1659, the day on which with Charles Stuart, Earl of Lichfield, he attempted unsuccessfully to raise the royal standard at Guildford. At the Restoration he was knighted and made Governor of Windsor Castle, a post which he lost in 1667. He died 5 June 1675. His eldest son, Charles, was created Earl of Monmouth by William III, and succeeded his uncle as 3rd Earl of Peterborough in 1697. The stamp was identified by Clements as Walter Chetwynd, 1st Viscount, no doubt because of the name Chetwynd on the pastedown of the book. The arms of Chetwynd, however, are a chevron between three mullets and the stamp clearly has estoiles.