Parliament, and during the Long Parliament, in the proceedings of which
he took an active part, he sat for Great Wenlock. He was one of the
Commissioners selected to treat with Charles in 1642, and after the
failure to open negotiations he was anxious to retire from public
affairs. However, he was persuaded not to resign, and in 1644 was
appointed one of the Committee of both Kingdoms. He became a leader of
the independent party, and did not always see eye to eye with Cromwell.
He quarrelled with his party, disapproving of its attitude towards
Purge's Pride and the trial of the King. After this he took little part
in politics, though the Protector sought, and he gave on occasions, his
advice. In February, 1660, he was elected to the new Council of State at
the head of the list, and in the Convention Parliament represented
Nottingham. In the negotiations with Charles II he was a moderating
influence. Afterwards, he retired into private life. He died in 1678 or
1679. His eldest son, Robert, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir
John Evelyn, pre-deceased his father, dying in 1666, and the earldom
passed to his eldest son, Robert, who died unmarried in 1682. The title
then went to his next brother, William, who died without issue eight
years later.

A younger brother of Robert and William, Evelyn Pierrepont, now
succeeded as (fifth) earl. He was the father of Lady Mary. Born in 1665,
he was returned to Parliament for East Retford in 1689, but his stay in
the House of Commons was brief, for in the following year the peerage
descended to him. In December, 1706, the higher dignity that had once
been in his family was revived in his favour, and he was created Earl of
Dorchester, with a special remainder, failing heirs male of his body, to
his uncle Gervase Pierrepont, who had himself been raised to the peerage
as Lord Pierrepont of Ardglass in Ireland and later was given the
dignity of Lord Pierrepont of Hanslope in Buckinghamshire. Lord