# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oglander, John

​OGLANDER, Sir JOHN (1585–1655), diarist, eldest son of Sir William Oglander (knighted in 1606) of Nunwell, near Brading, Isle of Wight, and West Dean, Sussex, by his first wife, Ann, daughter of Anthony Dillington of Knighton, Isle of Wight, was born on 12 May 1585, at Nunwell, where his family, which was of Norman origin, had been settled since the Conquest. He matriculated from Balliol College, Oxford, on 8 July 1603, and spent three years there without taking a degree. He also spent three years at the Middle Temple, but was not called to the bar. In 1608 he succeeded to the family estates, and was placed on the commission of the peace. On 22 Dec. 1615 he was knighted by James I at Royston. In 1620 he was appointed deputy-governor of Portsmouth, and in 1624 deputy-governor of the Isle of Wight. He sat for Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, in the parliaments of 1625, 1626, and 1628–1629, was commissioner of oyer and terminer for Hampshire in 1635, and sheriff of the same county from 1637 to 1639. During his shrievalty he displayed great zeal and activity in the collection of ship-money. On the outbreak of the civil war he adhered to the king, and was superseded in the deputy-governorship of the Isle of Wight by Colonel Carne, by whom, in June 1643, he was arrested as a delinquent and sent to London. There he was detained pending the investigation of the charges against him by the House of Commons, and eventually was released on giving a bond to remain within the lines of communication. From this bond he was discharged on 12 April 1645. A contribution of 500l. was levied upon his estate. He was among those who waited on Charles I to express their loyalty on the morrow of his arrival at Carisbrooke Castle, 15 Nov. 1647. He was again arrested and brought to London in January 1650–1 on suspicion of treasonable designs, and was again released early in the following February on giving security to remain within the lines of communication. He died at Nunwell on 28 Nov. 1655, and was buried in the family vault in Brading church, where his recumbent effigy, in full armour, was restored in 1874.
Oglander married, on 4 Aug. 1606, Frances, fifth daughter of Sir George More [q. v.] of Loseley, by whom he had issue one son only, William, created a baronet by Charles II on 12 Dec. 1665. The title became extinct by the death of Sir Henry Oglander, seventh baronet, in 1874; but the name Oglander was assumed by his son-in-law. Oglander's diary, containing much matter of historical and antiquarian interest, of which slight use was made by Sir Richard Worsley in his ‘History of the Isle of Wight’ (London, 1781), was edited in 1888 from a transcript in the possession of the Rev. Sir W. H. Cope, bart., of Bramshill, Hampshire, with introduction and notes, by W. H. Long.
[The Oglander Memoirs: extracts from the manuscripts of Sir J. Oglander, K.T., of Nunwell, Isle of Wight, ed. W. H. Long, London, 1888, 4to; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Berry's County Genealogies, ‘Hants;’ Addit. MS. 5524 f. 136; Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iii. pt. ii. pp. 492–3; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1628–31, 1634–5, 1637–40, 1644–5, 1651; Cal. Comm. for Advance of Money, pt. i. p. 444; Egerton MS. 2646, f. 277; Nichols's Progresses of James I, p. 95; Metcalfe's Book of Knights; Ashburnham's Narrative, ii. 108; Commons' Journals, iii. 245, 435; Addit. MS. 29319, ff. 69–73; Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep., App. p. 552; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. ix. 17. 2nd ser. vii. 66, 5th ser. p. 460; Coll. Top. et Gen. iii. 156; Hutchins's Dorset, i. 440; Manning and Bray's Surrey, i. 99; Woodward, Wilks, and Lockhart's Hampshire; Warner's Collections for the History of Hampshire.]
J. M. R.