BLOUNT, Sir Richard (by 1506-64), of Mapledurham, Oxon. and Dedisham, nr. Slinfold, Suss.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1553

Family and Education

b. by 1506, 2nd s. but event. h. of Richard Blount (d.1506/7), of Iver, Bucks. and Mapledurham by Elizabeth, da. and h. of William Delaford of Iver. m. by 1529, Elizabeth, da. of Sir Richard Lyster of Southampton, Hants, 2s. Michael and Richard 2da. Kntd. December 1550/July 1551.2

Offices Held

Gent. usher of privy chamber by 1537-53 or later j.p. Oxon. 1537-d.; parker and steward, Caversham, Berks. July 1544; steward, Great Marlow, Bucks. Feb. 1545; commr. relief, Oxon. 1550; collector of customs, Southampton, Hants 17 Oct. 1552-3; parker, Langley, Oxon. by 1553; keeper, Dedisham by 1553; jt. (with Sir Francis Knollys) ld. lt. Oxon. 1559-61; lt. of the Tower 1560-d.3

Biography

The Blount family of Iver and Mapledurham was a cadet branch of the baronial family of Mountjoy; in 1544 Charles Blount, 5th Lord Mountjoy, named Richard Blount one of his executors. Blount’s lofty connexions, which included through his kinsfolk of Kinlet, Shropshire, a distant one with Henry, Duke of Richmond, doubtless smoothed his introduction to the royal household; he was to add to them by his marriage to a daughter of the chief baron of the Exchequer and future lord chief justice, whose position at Southampton must have contributed to Blount’s appointment as customer there. In 1540 Blount accompanied Sir Thomas Wyatt I on his embassy to Brussels, and in 1544 he commanded jointly a company of 80 footmen in the French expedition, to which he contributed four horsemen and eight foot. During these years he began to receive grants, among them the stewardship of Caversham, the keepership of Langley Park and the stewardship of Great Marlow, all conveniently near his home.4

Blount continued to prosper under Edward VI. The date of his knighthood is unknown but it had been conferred before July 1551 when as Sir Richard Blount, gentleman usher of the privy chamber, he was granted the manor and park of Dedisham, valued at nearly £15 a year. Dedisham, west of Horsham, was part of the honor of Petworth, of which the 12th Earl of Arundel was steward; as that honor included property in and around Steyning, the borough for which Blount was to be returned to the Parliament of March 1553, his election there can be seen as a sequel to the grant, with the earl as his most likely patron. If so, Arundel may have been prompted from above, for Blount’s son Michael was to sit in the same Parliament for Winchelsea, where such a youngster would hardly have been accepted save as a nominee of the crown. Blount’s long service in the Household could have evoked the King’s own support and his Worcestershire kinsman Thomas Blount’s comptrollership to the Duke of Northumberland may also have played its part.5

Blount sued out a pardon in October 1553. He was retained on the Oxfordshire bench but probably lost his Household post, and he neither sat in Parliament nor served in any other capacity as long as Mary remained on the throne. The accession of Elizabeth transformed his prospects: made lord lieutenant of his county and lieutenant of the Tower, he might have risen still higher but for his death on 11 Aug. 1564.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: R. J.W. Swales

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from fa.’s will, PCC 20 Adeane. A. Croke, Croke Fam. ii. 257-9; Vis. Oxon. (Harl. Soc. v), 197; VCH Bucks. iii. 289; CPR, 1550-3, p. 153; 1553, p. 357.
  • 3. LP Hen. VIII, xii, xiii, xvi, xvii, xix, xx; CPR, 1547-8, p. 88; 1550-3, p. 234; 1553; p. 357; 1553-4, pp. 23, 27; Stowe 571, ff. 8v, 30, 55, 60v; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 243; G. S. Thomson, Lds. Lts. in 16th cent. 47; SP12/12, f. 16; 18, f. 155v.
  • 4. Croke, ii. 274; LP Hen. VIII, xv, xix, xxi; DNB (Lyster, Sir Richard); Comber, Suss. Genealogies (Lewes), 257.
  • 5. CPR, 1550-3, p. 153.
  • 6. Ibid. 1553-4, p. 410; C142/142/105.