When Monmouth landed in the west of England in June 1685, Trenchard fled from England to Groningen, Netherlands. Around 1687–1688, he was pardoned through the good offices of William Penn, and able to return home. Again he entered parliament, but he took no active part in the Revolution of 1688, although he managed to secure the good will of William III. On 29 October 1689, he was knighted by the king, and made Chief Justice of Chester. In 1692, he was appointed Secretary of State. He and the government incurred much ridicule through their failure to prove the existence of a great Jacobite plot in Lancashire and Cheshire in which they had been led to believe.