Individual Notes

Note for: Michael Throckmorton, ABT 1510 - 1 NOV 1558 Index

Individual Note:

Michael : A follower of Cardinal Reginald Pole, a Yorkist heir.
His son Francis: was " long known at Mantua Italy by his hospitable entertainment of English visitors".

Individual Notes

Note for: Francis Throckmorton, - 1617 Index

Individual Note:

Was " long known at Mantua Italy by his Hospitable entertainment of English visitors".

Individual Notes

Note for: Robert Throckmorton, ABT 1510 - 12 FEB 1581 Index

Individual Note:

Robert of Coughton, ( Sir Knight ).

Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton (Knight)

Born Abt. 1510, Coughton, Warwickshire, & Weston Underwood, Bucks.
Died 12 February 1581, Coughton, Warwickshire.
Father: George Throckmorton of Coughton (Sir Knight).
Mother: Catherine Vaux.
Married 1: Muriel Berkeley 1527, Married 2: Elizabeth Hussey (B. Hungerford of Heystesbury) 1542.
Born by 1513, first son of Sir George Throckmorton, & brother of Anthony, Clement, George, John, Kenelm, and Nicholas. Educated Middle Temple. Married firstly 1527 Muriel, daughter of Thomas,
5th Lord Berkeley; and secondly 1542 Elizabeth (died 23rd January 1554), daughter of Sir John Hussey,
Lord Hussey, widow of Walter, Lord Hungerford, at least 2 sons, 5 daughters, succeeded his father
6 August 1552. Knighted by 25 September1553. Jointly with his father steward, Evesham abbey 1527, Claverdon Warwickshire1531, Maxstoke Warwickshire 1535, Balsall Warwickshire1539, bailiff Warwickshire 1544-5; Justice of the Peace Warwickshire from 1547. Sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire 1553-4; Constable Warwick castle September1553 to 1558; steward lands of Bishop of Worcester in 1564.

Robert Throckmorton may have trained at the Middle Temple, the inn attended by his father, at least three of his younger brothers & his own eldest son, but as heir to extensive estates, he had little need to seek a career at court or in Government. He was joined with his father in several stewardships from 1527 and was perhaps the servant of Robert Tyrwhitt, a distant relative by marriage of the Throckmortons, who in 1540 took an inventory of Cromwell's goods at Mortlake. He attended the reception of Anne of Cleves and with several of his brothers served in the French war of 1544. Three years later he was placed on the Warwickshire bench and was thus suitably qualified for the knighthood of the shire which fell to him almost as though it were a part of his inheritance in March 1553: three of his brothers sat in the same Parliament, Nicholas as knight for Northamptonshire.

Throckmorton's role in the succession crisis of 1553 is unknown but his standing with Queen Mary is shown by her reputed answer to the news of King Edward VI's death sent her by four of his brothers:
    'If Robert had been there she durst have gaged her life and hazarded the hap'.

In the autumn of 1553 Throckmorton was knighted and appointed constable of Warwick castle & only his (shrievalty = the tenure of a sheriffs office or jurisdiction) prevented him from continuing to sit for the shire until in 1558 he gave way to his eldest son.

His Catholicism explains his disappearance from the Commons in the new reign, although the most Catholic of his brothers, Anthony, was to sit in the Parliament of 1563. Judged an 'adversary of true religion' in 1564, Robert remained active in Warwickshire until his refusal to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity led to his removal from the commission of the peace.

In 1577, the bishop of Worcester listed Throckmorton as a Catholic and reckoned him to be worth 1,000 marks a year in lands and Ł 1,000 in goods.

He died on 12th February 1581, six days after making a will in which he styled himself of Weston Underwood but asked to be buried at Coughton, where an alabaster and marble tomb was accordingly erected to his memory: there is a portrait at Coughton. He named as executors his eldest son Thomas and his sons-in-law Sir John Goodwin and Ralph Sheldon, and as overseers another son-in-law Sir Thomas
Tresham and his 'loving friend' Edmund Plowden.

Sir Robert Throckmorton continued the family in the Catholic tradition. He married his children into the leading Catholic families, and in these generations, the increased persecution of the Catholic spawned many relatives who became involved in plots against the throne. The sons of daughters Anne & Muriel, were Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham, and a third daughter Mary was married Edward Arden, who was also convicted of treason and executed for his part in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth in 1583.
This daughter kept an excellent record of a woman persecuted for (recusancy= one who refused to attend services of the Church of England), documenting the fines and searches made at Coughton Court, that is still in the family archives.
A nephew, Francis Throckmorton, was executed in 1584 for acting as a Go-between for Mary Queen of Scots and the Spanish Ambassador in an attempt to invade England and place Mary on the throne.
A niece Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Nicholas & Lady -in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth, also got into trouble by secretly marrying Sir Walter Raleigh.

Individual Notes

Note for: Kenelm Throckmorton, ABT 1512 - UNKNOWN Index

Individual Note:

Kenelm Throckmorton

Born Abt 1512, Coughton, Warwickshire, England.
2nd son of Sir George Throckmorton . Educated Middle Temple. Servant of THOMAS CROMWELL by 1538, Sir WILLIAM PARR, Earl of Essex and later Marquees of Northampton by 1547-80; keeper,
Little Easton Park, Essex by 1552; Justice of the Peace, Essex 1558/1559-1582.
It was while he and his brother Nicholas were serving with some distinction on the Scottish border that his new master's sister CATHERINE PARR became HENRY'S VIII's sixth Queen. He was thus well placed to benefit from the distribution of monastic lands and in August 1544 he partnered Sir William Barentyne, his father's old Parliamentary colleague, and Henry Aveton in the purchase for Ł671 of Newcastle nunnery and lands in several counties: the nunnery they promptly sold to the Newcastle merchant Robert Brandling and one of the Warwickshire properties soon afterwards passed to Clement Throckmorton. At court Throckmorton moved in Protestant circles and in 1546 he and his brother Nicholas visited Anne Askew in prison.

Throckmorton's parliamentary career began with his return for Warwick to Henry VIII's last Parliament.
His father had long wielded influence in the borough and between 1542 and 1554 Throckmorton's brothers Clement, George and John all sat for it in turn. In 1545 he had three of his brothers in the House, Clement sitting for Devizes, John for Leicester and Nicholas for Maldon; two years later the quartet reappeared, although with a re-arrangement of seats, and were joined by their cousin Thomas Throckmorton. In this Parliament, it was Clement who sat for Warwick and Kenelm who migrated to the Wiltshire borough of Westbury. His election there marks an exception to the rule by which Westbury was represented throughout the period either by townsmen or by gentlemen living within easy reach of the town; it is therefore to be explained only by the intrusion of a powerful influence from outside, and that influence can scarcely have originated elsewhere than in the circle of Catherine Parr and her new husband ADMIRAL SEYMOUR. Its exercise in favour of Throckmorton is to be accounted for by his dependence upon the Queen's brother.

It was at the close of Queen MARY'S reign that he began to build up the estate in Essex which qualified him for appointment to the bench of that county: in doing so he was following his master, who had lands and offices there and who for two years had been Earl of Essex.
Throckmorton had already parted with the lands in Warwickshire which he had either inherited or acquired and had thus cut his links with his native county. Judged by the Bishop of London in 1564 to be a 'favourer' of religion, he was spared the troubles which their recusancy was to bring to others of his family and continued to be re-appointed to the Essex bench until his death, becoming a member of the quorum in 1583. He died between that year and 1587 when his name was removed from the liber pacis for Essex.

Sources:
M. L. Robertson, 'Cromwell's servants' 1975.
D. M. Loades, Two Tudor Conspiracies, 95-97, 188-230.

Individual Notes

Note for: Nicholas Throckmorton, 1515 - 12 FEB 1570 Index

Individual Note:

Sir Nicholas Throckmorton.

Individual Notes

Note for: John Throckmorton, BEF 1524 - 22 MAY 1580 Index

Individual Note:

Sir John Throckmorton born before 1525, died 22 May 1580

Seventh son of Sir George Throckmorton, and brother of Anthony, Clement, Nicholas, George, Kenelm, and Robert. Educated Middle Temple. Married Margaret Puttenham by whom he had at least four sons and two daughters. Knighted 1565.
John's mother was an aunt by marriage to Queen Catherine Parr, and several of his brothers, especially Nicholas, were to be involved in affairs of state : thus although he had little material expectation from his father he was not without prospects. He pursued them by going to court, where he may for a time have held a position in Catherine Parr's household. He also received training at the Middle Temple, which was to help him in his official career. When he came to marry, his bride supplied a link with the Grey family, powerful in Leicestershire.
It seems clear that Throckmorton prospered during Northumberland's years of power, as indeed is implied by his continuing association with Northumberland's leading supporters, among them his own cousin the Marquess of Northampton: as well as engaging in land transactions with Northumberland, Throckmorton received his first public appointment, as attorney to the council in the marches of Wales.
What his role was during the succession crisis would be simply a matter for speculation but for the testimony of two men. Both Sir William Cecil, in his own justification of his behaviour during the crisis, and his servant Roger Alford, in a later report based upon conversations with Cecil, describe Cecil's refusal to draft the proclamation of Queen Jane, a task which was therefore passed to John Throckmorton, 'whose conscience', Cecil himself added 'I saw was troubled therewith, misliking the matter'. Apart from the anachronism of Throckmorton's being called master of requests, an appointment which he received only from Queen Mary, there is nothing intrinsically improbable about the episode.
If Throckmorton discharged the unwelcome and fruitless task, he must have exculpated himself even more completely than Cecil managed to do. He appears, indeed, to have joined Queen Mary while she was still at Framlingham, a gesture for which he was granted an annuity. This was to followed by the mastership of requests in exchange for his surrender of his post with the council in the marches.

It was not only the memories of 1553 which Throckmorton had to rise above, it was the hazardous doings of kinsmen and friends and the treason of a namesake. As early as August 1553 he interceded with the Queen for the release of Edward Underhill, with whom he had sat in the Parliament of the previous March; six months later his brother Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was arrested for complicity in Wyatt's rebellion and only escaped conviction by magnificent self-defence at his trial; and in the spring of 1556 John Throckmorton {with whom he has sometimes been ludicrously confused} was executed for his part in the Dudley conspiracy. None of this appears to have shaken Throckmorton's position or diminished his activity. As master of requests he had much business referred to him by the Privy Council, including the examination of conspirators ; the recordership of both Coventry, where he was expected to reside for part of the year, and Worcester added to the burden; and in 1557 he also heard pleas in the Marshalsea during a vacancy in the stewardship of the Household.
It is not surprising that when nominated Autumn reader by the Middle Temple in 1558 he preferred to pay a substantial fine; he could doubtless well afford to do so, especially after the Queen had granted him the manor of Feckenham in fee-farm and had leased him that of Redfern, Warwickshire, valued between them at over Ł150 a year.

Sir John Throckmorton was returned to four out of the five Marian Parliaments: there is no obvious explanation of his absence from the second, when following his appointment as a recorder of Coventry he might have been expected to have sat for that city, as he would do regularly from November 1554.
His first Marian appearance, however, had been for Old Sarum, where his fellow-member was his Protestant brother Sir Nicholas Throckmorton: the brothers presumably owed the nomination to their kinsman William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. It appears that John had also been returned to this Parliament for Scarborough but had chosen Old Sarum and been replaced at Scarborough by Sir John Tregonwell, who was a master in Chancery, and Throckmorton are likely to have enjoyed government support.
There are some glimpses of Throckmorton's part in the business of the House. The first of these, which promises to be the most interesting, is also unfortunately the most puzzling. It is the note set against his name, in the Crown Office list of Members of the Parliament of October 1553, that he voted 'with the last act and against the first'; since the names marked on this list, including Throckmorton's, are those of Members who 'stood for the true religion', the inference is that he displayed some opposition to the new government's religious policy. Such an attitude would be difficult to reconcile , however, with his official standing and favour (even though his brother and fellow-member Sir Nicholas was certainly one of the opponents of the policy), and it is possible that the note was intended to apply to his namesake, who appears almost immediately after him in the list and whose tragic career it could well have foreshadowed. This conundrum apart, the evidence of Throckmorton's parliamentary activity is of a matter-of -fact kind: not surprisingly the list of members who opposed a government bill in the Parliament of 1555 omits his name, and his nomination on 4th December 1555, during its critical closing days, to carry bills from the Commons to the Lords bespeaks his attachment to the government's side.
In the Parliament of 1558 he was one of four prominent Members deputed to investigate the legal basis of the Westminster sanctuary.

One of the witnesses of Queen Mary's will, Throckmorton at first adapted himself without apparent difficulty to the changes, which followed her death. From about 1570, however, his fortunes declined by reason of his own shortcomings as a lawyer and administrator and the recusancy of his family, and in 1579 he was heavily fined in the Star Chamber, and for a time kept in the Fleet, for giving judgment in favour of a relation. He died within a few months of this disgrace. His will reveals heavy indebtedness, which made his hoped-for provision for his daughter and younger sons a speculative matter.
Four years later came the even worse disaster of his heir's execution for treason.

Source:
A. L. Rowse, Ralegh and the Throckmortons.

Individual Notes

Note for: Anthony Throckmorton, ABT 1528 - UNKNOWN Index

Individual Note:
[Gervase Throckmorton 24 Oct 03.FTW]

Catherine was Wife or Widow of William Gatesby, Married 3 Robert Kempe.

Individual Notes

Note for: George Throckmorton, ABT 1533 - 1612 Index

Individual Note:

George Throckmorton

Born by 1523, younger son of Sir George Throckmorton, and brother of Anthony, Clement, John, Kenelm, Nicholas and Robert. Married Frances, or Mary, (or possibly the two sisters) daughters of Sir John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos of Sudeley, and had 2 sons and 3 daughters. Gentleman at arms by 1544, gentleman pensioner in reversion by February 1547; gentleman pensioner by April 1549-1561/4; commissioner musters, Warwickshire 1546; comptroller of petty customs, London 12 September1553;
Governor household of Anne of Cleves (one of King Henry VIII's wives) 1554; master of Queen's Hawks in 1570.
George Throckmorton was one of the three Throckmorton brothers who obtained court office after the marriage of their kinswoman Catherine Parr to Henry VIII. Like the other two, Clement and Nicholas, he was probably a Protestant - Nicholas Throckmorton was to recommend him Queen Elizabeth as a suitable replacement for the Catholic Sir Leonaed Chamberlain as governor of Guernsey ( Channel Islands )-but his religion did not prevent his remaining a gentleman pensioner throughout Queen Mary's reign: he attended the funerals of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary.

He served at the siege of Boulogne and when taken prisoner by the French was ransomed for the large sum of Ł1,000; in 1548 he was a captain at Boulogne when Sir John Brydges was deputy governor and lieutenant.
His father had conveyed the lease of the manor of Great Alne to him by September 1550 when the Privy Council ordered an abatement of rent in reward 'for his good service'. He spent part of Edward VI's reign abroad, being in Venice in 1551 and 1552 to learn the language and gain worldly experience.
If he was one of the four Throckmorton brothers who are said to have sent word to Mary of Edward's death, the comptrollership of petty customs, forfeited by Sir Henry Gates, may likewise have been a reward for good service.
He was returned for Warwick, at this time largely controlled by his family, when one of his brothers was sheriff and another a prisoner in the Tower.

In 1559 Throckmorton accused his wife of attempting to poison him, but after her family had complained that he had been tampering with the witnesses a further inquiry found that she had been guilty of nothing more serious than an indiscreet and evidently unsuccessful use of potions to win her husband's love. How the couple fared after this has not been discovered and the date of Throckmorton's eventual death is unknown: the last reference found to him is in 1573 when his eldest brother Robert granted him the ward ship of a cousin.

Sources:
A. L. Rowse, Ralegh and the Throckmortons.

Individual Notes

Note for: George Wintour, - UNKNOWN Index

Individual Note:
[Gervase Throckmorton 24 Oct 03.FTW]

Three of the sons that he had with Elizabeth Bourne:
Robert, Thomas, And John Winter were involved with the Gunpowder Plotters & Executed.

Individual Notes

Note for: Thomas Throckmorton, 1533 - 13 MAR 1614 Index

Individual Note:

Wife Mary Whorwood daughter of William Whorwood "Attorney General" and Cassandra Grey.

Individual Notes

Note for: John Goodwin, - UNKNOWN Index

Individual Note:

Sir John Goowdin.

Individual Notes

Note for: Thomas Tresham, - UNKNOWN Index

Individual Note:

Sir Thomas Tresham.

Individual Notes

Note for: Lewis Tresham, - UNKNOWN Index

Individual Note:

Sir Lewis Tresham.

Individual Notes

Note for: Anthony Tyringham, - UNKNOWN Index

Individual Note:

Sir Anthony Tyringham.