Portrait of Sir John Penruddock (d. 1648), full-length, in a dark pink doublet and hose and lace collar, his hat on a draped table, in front of a curtain

Sir John Penruddock (c.1591-1648) of Compton Chamberlayne, Wiltshire, matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford on 1 July 1608 aged seventeen and was admitted at Gray's Inn on 18 March 1608⁄9. He was Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1635, and was appointed a Commissioner of Array by King Charles I to muster a Royalist Army in Wiltshire for the Civil War. He married Joan Meade and had four sons. Sir John received the Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) from Oxford in 1643, the year in which he was knighted. He was a recusant and is now best known as the father of Colonel John Penruddock (c.1620-1655), who led a rising against Oliver Cromwell and was executed at Exeter in 1655.

Sir John's will, dated 1 January 1647⁄8, describes his son John as his son and heir, so his elder son George Penruddock must have predeceased him. He also had younger sons, Thomas and Edward. His widow died shortly after, and her will was proved on the same day as that of her husband.

Penruddock is portrayed in an elaborate costume; his love lock trails over his falling ruff, he wears a slashed doublet revealing his linen shirt below with winged sleeves and trimmed with ribbons around the waist, breeches trimmed with a decorative fringe and shoes with roses made of gold lace-edged ribbons.