WILLOUGHBY, Leonard (by 1509-60), of Turners Puddle, Dorset.

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 1509, 1st s. of Nicholas Willoughby of Turners Puddle by Robegia, da. of William Satchfield. m. (1) settlement 3 Sept. 1533, Mary, da. of John Turberville of Bere Regis, 6da.; (2) by Mar. 1559, Margaret, da. of William Thornhill of Thornhill in Stalbridge. suc. fa. 10 June 1542.1

Offices Held

Biography

Leonard Willoughby was the head of a minor gentle family seated about seven miles from Wareham. He had property on the outskirts of Wareham and an annuity of £10 out of the dissolved priory there but he probably owed his election to Mary’s first Parliament to the influence of his brother-in-law James Turberville, an associate of Stephen Gardiner and soon to be chosen bishop of Exeter. Another brother-in-law John Wadham was captain of a royal fort near Portland. Neither Willoughby nor his fellow-member Thomas Phelips opposed the initial measures towards the restoration of Catholicism in this Parliament but, unlike Phelips, Willoughby was not to sit again. He made his will on 1 Apr 1560 and died on the following 13 June. Most of his lands lay in and around Turners Puddle but he also had property in Devon and Cornwall which he left to his unmarried daughters. He named as executor his brother John Willoughby, who was heir to Turners Puddle. He was buried at Bere Regis.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from age at fa.’s i.p.m., C142/68/38. Cat. Anct. Deeds, v. 12338, 12589, 12984; C142/125/12; Vis. Dorset ed Colby and Rylands, 14.
  • 2. CPR, 1553-4, p. 123; Hutchins, Dorset, i. 153, 211-12; DNB (Tuberville, James); PCC 56 Mellershe; C142/125/12.