HUSSEY, Henry (by 1495-1541/44), of 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

Family and Education

b. by 1495, s. of one Hussey of Slinfold. m. Eleanor, da. and h. of John Bradbridge of Slinfold, 3s. inc. Sir Henry and John 2da.1

Offices Held

Commr. subsidy, Suss. 1523, 1524, sewers 1538.2

Biography

As early as 1290 a Henry Hussey had been one of the knights of the shire for Sussex and the name recurs in this capacity until the early 15th century. The men concerned were of the Hussey family of Harting, a line which died out in 1471: Henry Hussey of Slinfold was doubtless a member of a younger branch but its ancestry has not been traced. His wife brought him lands in Slinfold as well as others in Cuckfield which had belonged to her mother, daughter of John Payne of that place. In 1516 Hussey sold the manor of Denne in Horsham to Thomas Polsted and Thomas Jefferay, but nine years later he acquired other property in its place, including lands in Chingfield in Slinfold for £60. In 1524 he was assessed at Slinfold on £40 in goods.3

Although Hussey was doubtless a man of standing in the nearby town of Horsham, his election there in 1529 was probably the work of the lord of the borough, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk: Hussey’s fellow-Member and kinsman Alfred Berwick was in the duke’s service and his sons were later to be associated with the 3rd and 4th Dukes. In compliance with the King’s request of 1536 for the reelection of the previous Members both he and Berwick probably sat again in the Parliament of that year and may have done so in 1539 and 1542, when the names of the Members are again lost. Nothing has come to light about Hussey’s role in the Commons, but in 1534 he was accused by the vicar of Pagham in the Star Chamber of forcible entry, robbery and assault, to which he replied that he was the lessee of the parsonage and had merely been collecting his tithe: the outcome of the case is unknown.4

Hussey made his will on 9 June 1541, asking to be buried at Slinfold beside his brother John. He expressed the hope that his wife and executrix would honour the agreement whereby their eldest son received the manor house and some of the property at Slinfold, while she had a life-interest in other lands. He bequeathed £100 each to his unmarried daughter Catherine and his son George, the two children for whom he had not hitherto made any provision. The will was witnessed by John Caryll. Neither the date of Hussey’s death, nor of probate of the will, has been found, but Eleanor Hussey was a widow when she made her own will on 24 Mar. 1544.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: R. J.W. Swales

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Comber, Suss. Genealogies (Horsham), 185-6.
  • 2. LP Hen. VIII, iii-iv, xiii.
  • 3. CP, vii. 11; J. E. Mousley, ‘Suss. country gentry in the reign of Eliz.’ (London Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1956), 559; Cal. Chs. and Rolls in Bodl. Lib. ed. Turner and Coxe, 559; Suss. Rec. Soc. lvi. 49.
  • 4. Suss. Rec. Soc. xvi. 40.
  • 5. W. Suss. RO, wills 2, ff. 229v, 230v; 5, f. 4v.