DOCKWRA, Edmund, of the Chamberhouse, Thatcham, Berks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

Yr. s. of Martin Dockwra of the Chamberhouse by Isabel, da. of Sir William Danvers. m. Dorothy, as. 1da. suc. bro. 1545.

Offices Held

J.p.q. Berks. from c.1569.

Biography

A minor country gentleman and follower of the Earl of Leicester, Dockwra claimed to have served that nobleman and his father ‘faithfully, chargeably and dangerously many years’. On Leicester’s recommendation he was returned for New Windsor, having been sworn a burgess 18 July 1570. His return for Aylesbury remains unexplained in the absence of any known connexion with the Pakington family who owned the patronage. Dockwra was active in the local affairs of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, and was classified as a ‘furtherer’ of religion in 1564. He made an unsuccessful attempt to sell Chamberhouse to John Astley when he was in financial trouble in 1573; instead he mortgaged the property to Leicester for £1,400. In 1583 Nicholas Fuller bought it, paying part of the purchase price to Dockwra and part to the Earl. The date of Dockwra’s death is unknown. He was still alive in August 1590.

S. Barfield, Thatcham, Berks. and its Manors, i. 288-92; ii. 252; Tighe and Davis, Windsor Annals, i. 636; Cam. Misc.ix(3), p. 39; CSP Dom. Add. 1547-65, p. 502; APC, ix. 135, 348-9.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: W.J.J.

Notes