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 a curtained interior

Sir John Penruddock (c.1591-1648) of Compton Chamberlayne, Wiltshire, came from a well established landed family in Wiltshire. He 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 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, was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 10 June 1648. In it he 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.

The other Penruddocks of some standing in c.1620 were the descendants of Sir John Penruddock (c.1542-1601). Sir John had four sons, Thomas, Antonio, William and Manwood. The eldest, Sir Thomas Penruddock (b.c.1577) was of Hale in Hampshire, and an old label on the reverse of the present portrait suggests incorrectly that the sitter was also of Hale.