John Thynne (politician, 1555)

Sir John Thynne (born September 21, 1555 - November 21, 1604 in Longleat ) was an English politician and nobleman who was elected seven times as a member of the House of Commons .

origin

John Thynne was the eldest son of Sir John Thynne and Christian Gresham, a daughter of Sir Richard Gresham . His father had succeeded in rising from the son of a yeoman in Salop to one of the leading politicians in Wiltshire by marrying into the richest merchant family in London at the time. His siblings included Thomas Thynne , Charles Thynne, and Catherine Thynne . Thynne graduated from Oxford University with a bachelor's degree in 1573 .

Marriage and inheritance

Around 1574 his father planned to marry him to Lucy Marvyn, a daughter of the country noble Sir James Marvyn of Wiltshire. However, Marvyn only wanted to give his daughter lands as dowry to which the Marvyn family still had inalienable inheritance claims. Since the negotiations were unsuccessful, Thynne's father decided not to marry. This led to longstanding hostilities between Thynne and Marvyn, in which much of the gentry of Wiltshire also became entangled. On Thynne's side stood his brothers-in-law Henry Knyvet and Sir Walter Long, while Marvyn was supported by John Danvers, Sir Henry Poole and Sir Edmund Ludlow. Finally, around 1576, Thynne married seventeen-year-old Joan Hayward , the daughter of Sir Rowland Hayward , a draper from London, and Joan Tillesworth. Even her father did not see Joan as attractive, but her father was Lord Mayor of London in 1570 and 1591 , and through her mother she became a co-heir of her grandfather, the goldsmith William Tillesworth. Her father had bought several properties in Shropshire for his daughter in 1573, including Church Stretton and Caus Castle , which Joan brought as a dowry into the marriage. John Thynne became a squire where his grandfather had been a small yeoman. However, there was a dispute over the ownership of Caus Castle with the previous owner Lord Edward Stafford, as he did not want to vacate the property. The dispute was negotiated before the Privy Council in March 1579 , but was not resolved until 1591 when Thynne Stafford was forcibly evicted from Caus Castle with the help of the Shropshire Sheriff. In the following years, Stafford unsuccessfully pursued further lawsuits to win back Caus Castle.

After his father's death in May 1580, Thynne inherited extensive estates in Wiltshire, Somerset and Gloucestershire as well as the Longleat manor house , which he had completed. His stepmother, Dorothy Wroughton, his father's widow, was a second marriage to Sir Carew Raleigh . Thynne moved into Longleat, but continued building and completing it much more carelessly than his father. He did not carry out the grave his father wanted. During his frequent absences in London or at the royal court, his wife Joan actively managed the estates.

Political career

Thynne did not appear politically during his father's lifetime. In July 1580, despite his position, he also refused military command of a 200-man force that was to be deployed in Ireland to suppress the Desmond rebellion , on the grounds that he had to settle his father's estate. From 1583 until his death he was justice of the peace for Wiltshire and Somerset, and at times for Gloucestershire, Hampshire and Shropshire. From 1593 to 1594 he served as sheriff of Wiltshire.

After his father's death, Thynne was a member of every parliament, first in 1584 for Heytesbury , the nearest borough to Longleat. He was also elected to Heytesbury in the elections of 1586, 1593, 1597 and 1601. In 1589 he succeeded in being elected for Wiltshire. In 1592, presumably at his instigation, his younger brother Thomas ran for Heytesbury in 1592, while Thynne ran for the Shrewsbury mandate as Lord of Caus Castle . However, this failed, which is why in the election of 1593 both he and Thomas were chosen for Heytesbury. Thynne was nowhere near the position his father had held, in spite of his membership of Parliament and despite his substantial Wiltshire estate. The main reason for this was the ongoing dispute with Sir James Marvyn, which flared up again over financial issues in 1589. There were violent clashes between the servants and supporters of the two parties, for which Thynne had to answer before the State Council in November 1589. Thynne was also generally considered to be irascible, even among his friends. He has been tried several times, and once convicted by the Privy Council , for evicting and imprisoning a poor widow from her farm after failing to pay her rent. He was not represented on important committees in the parliaments in which he took part only irregularly. In 1587 he lost his offices as Justice of the Peace of Gloucestershire and Hampshire for several years. In 1597, William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby , complained about his conduct, and in early 1599 his offer to accompany the envoy Sir Robert Cecil to France was refused. Although he had good contacts with the royal court through his sister Catherine, the chambermaid, and through his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Knywett , he was not knighted under Queen Elizabeth I. Politically he was tied to Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford , the son of his father's patron. Hertford did not thank Thynne for this, however, he was rejected by Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke , Hertford's opponent in Wiltshire. When Pembroke died in 1601 and Hertford now had greater influence over the candidacy for the Wiltshire MPs, he did not consider Thynne, but asked him to support his candidate Edmund Carey in the 1601 election.

In 1595 there was a bitter argument between Thynne and his eldest son Thomas after Thynne learned that his son had secretly married Mary Tuchet, a granddaughter of his old opponent James Marvyn, in 1594. The feud between Marvyn and Thynne had been exacerbated by the murder of Thynne's relative Henry Long by followers of Marvyn, and the bride's father had left her with no dowry. It wasn't until several years later, when Marvyn showed a willingness to reconcile, that Thynne accepted the marriage, despite his wife's continued rejection. He also abandoned his aversion to Edmund Ludlow, whom his father had tried to sue, and in July 1604 the former rival was his guest at Longleat. Thanks to these improved relationships, he was finally knighted by King James I on May 11, 1603 as Esquire of the Body . With the support of his stepfather, Sir Carew Raleigh, by Sir James Ley and by lawyer Lawrence Hyde, he was re-elected MP for Wiltshire in 1604. He stayed in London frequently that year and was active on several committees, partly out of his own interests as a landowner.

Thynne sympathized with the Puritans in his later years at the latest . His father had a Presbyterian chapel built on the Longleat site in 1566 for the bricklayers from Scotland . Thynne was familiar with the works of the preacher Edward Dering, and in later life he also knew the Puritan Henry Sherfield . As a member of parliament, Thynne was also active in numerous committees for church affairs in 1604, presumably because of his sympathy for the Puritans.

Descendants and inheritance

With his wife, Thynne had two sons and two daughters:

• Thomas Thynne
• John Thynne
• Dorothy Thynne ∞ Charles Roscorrock from Roscorrock, Cornwall
• Christian Thynne ∞ Francis Leigh from Addington, Surrey

When he died suddenly, he had left no will, which led to a bitter inheritance dispute between his children. His eldest son Thomas eventually took over Longleat and the estates in South West England while his second son moved to Church Stretton and eventually took over his mother's estates.

Web links

• Muriel Booth: THYNNE, John (? 1550-1604), of Longleat, Wilts. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1558–1603)
• Henry Lancaster; Andrew Trush: THYNNE, Sir John (1555-1604), of Caus Castle, Salop; Longleat, Wilts. and Cannon Row, Westminster. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1604–1629)

Individual evidence

1. ^ History of Parliament online: THYNNE, Thomas (c.1577 / 8-1639), of Longleat, Wilts. and Cannon Row, Westminster. Retrieved September 21, 2015 .