Coventry, SIR JOHN

Coventry, SIR JOHN, a staunch cavalier who had sat in the Long Parliament (1640), and who at the coronation of Charles II. was made a Knight of the Bath. Elected for Weymouth in 1667, he asked, during a debate on playhouses (October 1670), a question which reflected on the king's amours. Charles and his minions were furious, and one December night Coventry was pulled from his coach by Sir T. Sandys and other ruffians, and his nose slit to the bone. Parliament took notice of this atrocious outrage, and by its 'Coventry Act' made cutting and maiming a capital offence; but they had not the courage to bring the king's bravoes to trial. Coventry died in 1682.