Family and Education

b. aft. 1543, 1st s. of John Danvers of West Tockenham by Margaret, da. of one Blount of Mangotsfield, Glos. educ. ?L. Inn 1562. m. Mary, of ‘Hillhouse’, Glos., 3s. 2da. suc. fa. 1556.

Offices Held

J.p. Glos. by 1591, rem. c.1594, rest. by 1601.

Biography

Danvers owned about 60 acres in and around Calne. His main Wiltshire estate, however, West Tockenham, where Danvers built a new manor house, was near Wootton Bassett. In later life he spent much time in Gloucestershire, not far from the Wiltshire border, presumably because his wife had land there, and such detailed information as survives about him covers this period. In the summer of 1595 the Privy Council ordered Sir John Popham and Sir William Peryam to examine him about his action as a j.p. in granting bail at Cirencester to some suspected thieves, whom he had persuaded his colleagues on the bench to bind over to appear at the assizes, and who had absconded. Presumably his removal from the commission at about this time was connected with this episode.

Danvers was on friendly terms with his relatives of Dauntsey, and, during the outlawry of Charles Danvers he acted as his agent, managing his estates and holding the manorial courts at Dauntsey. In June 1601 there was trouble over an ambiguous conveyance, which led to his being charged with embezzling goods worth £100, formerly belonging to his relative.

Danvers died 27 July 1604, and was buried at Lyneham. His will, dated November 1602 and proved 3 Dec. 1604, is that of a comparatively rich man. The widow was to keep Hillhouse, Gloucestershire, ‘according as she ought to have it’, and was appointed co-executor.

PCC 22 Ketchyn, 19 Swann, 95 Harte; F. N. Macnamara, Memorials Danvers Fam. 538 seq.; Wards 7/37/82; Wilts. Arch. Mag. xxxvi. 521; CSP Dom. 1595-7, pp. 62-3; 1601-3, pp. 56, 293-4; PCC 95 Harte.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes