EYTON, Robert (by 1519-71), of Springfield, Essex.

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

Constituency

Dates

Oct. 1553

Family and Education

b. by 1519, 7th s. of Henry Eyton of Eyton-on-the-Weald Moors, Salop by Jane, da. of Thomas Cresset of Upton Cresset, Salop. m. (1) by 1540, Anne, da. of one Parker; (2) Margery, da. of one Swatborne, 1s.; (3) Joan, da. of John Salmon of Chelmsford, Essex.1

Offices Held

Sergeant of the pantry by Nov. 1553.2

Biography

Either of two namesakes, a great-uncle and a great-nephew, could have been elected for Wenlock to Mary’s first Parliament, but the older of them is the more likely to have been the ‘Robert Eyton esquire’ of the return. A man in his thirties, he was a cousin of Richard and Thomas Lawley who had sat for the borough in the previous three Parliaments, whereas his great-nephew was barely of age and was not to inherit Eyton-on-the-Weald Moors, ten miles from Wenlock, until 1582 nor to enter county administration until after that date.3

Eyton made his home in Essex and his career in the Household. On the accession of Mary he became sergeant of the pantry, with a lease of ex-monastic property in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire ‘in consideration of his service’ to the crown. Both post and lease were perhaps the work of the 12th Earl of Arundel on becoming steward of the Household, as several of Eyton’s kinsmen were known to the earl in his Shropshire setting. It is also possible that Arundel supported Eyton’s election, assisted by Eyton’s fellow-Member, Richard Lee, who was yeoman of the cellar and a Salopian with authority in Wenlock. Eyton did not draw disfavour on himself by opposing the restoration of Catholicism, but he did not sit in Parliament again. In 1567 he was assessed at Springfield towards the subsidy on £20. He was a sick man on 15 Oct. 1571 when he made his will. After asking for burial in Springfield and remembering the poor at Chelmsford, he provided for his son, wife, kinsmen, godchildren and servants. He named Thomas Wallonger executor and his friends George White and Thomas Tyrrell overseers of the will, which was proved on the following 20 Dec.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Authors: Alan Harding / A. D.K. Hawkyard

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 50; Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxviii), 181; Feet of Fines, Essex, iv. ed. Reaney and Fitch, 236; PCC 48 Holney.
  • 2. CPR, 1553-4, p. 281; 1572-5, p. 129.
  • 3. C142/197/51, 292/192; 219/21/217; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 3), ii. 310-11; PCC 51 Hayes; Vis. Salop, 181.
  • 4. Feet of Fines, Essex, iv. 236; CPR, 1553-4, p. 281; E179/110/422; PCC 48 Holney.