GORING, George II (d.1602), of Ovingdean and Danny Park, Suss.

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

Constituency

Dates

1593
1601

Family and Education

1st s. of George Goring I, and half-bro. of Edward Bellingham. m. Anne, da. of Henry Denny of Waltham Abbey, Essex, 5s. 4da. suc. fa. 1594.

Offices Held

Gent. pens. 1578.

Biography

A speculator in land, like his father, Goring was in debt to the tune of £16,000 by 1591. On his father’s death he became responsible for defalcations from the court of wards amounting to another £20,000. Somehow Goring managed to avoid the forcible sale of his father’s lands, though they were extended and an annual sum appointed for payment to the Queen, even this being reduced after the younger Goring’s death to relieve his widow. It is difficult to discover how Goring managed his financial circumstances after his lands had been extended. No doubt he was helped by his friends, including Edward More, one of his sureties, and Lady Anne Dacre, who in 1594 appointed him executor of her will and left him £200 of household goods. But for her, he told Sir Robert Cecil, ‘I might have wanted meat to put in my mouth’. Then again, Goring took care to remain on good terms with Cecil, to whom he, and later his widow, sent presents from time to time. Perhaps he was fortunate in being able to enlist the support of prominent men for his own ends: once the Earl of Northumberland wrote to Cecil on Goring’s behalf in some dispute, though he obviously knew little of what it was about; in 1596 Sir Walter Ralegh allowed Goring and his father’s friend Herbert Pelham to try to repair their fortunes by prospecting for iron on some of his lands in Munster.

Goring is only mentioned once in the extant parliamentary journals. On 31 Oct. he informed the House that Mr. Goddard Pemberton, elected for Lewes with him, had chosen to sit for Peterborough. He died 7 Feb. 1602. His will hardly reflects his desperate circumstances. He left his lands in Dorset, and some recently purchased in Sussex, to his brothers-in-law Sir Edward Denny, Henry Bowyer and George Fleetwood, to his ‘cousin’ Henry Apsley and to William Newton, for seven, for the payment of his debts and the provision of portions for his four daughters. To his wife Anne, sole executrix, he left his house and other property in Lewes for life, so that she could bring up their four younger sons, as also Danny Park and other Sussex property until their eldest son should reach his majority. The will mentions leases in Yorkshire and an annuity from Nottinghamshire property. The heir was enjoined to pay annuities of £80 and £66 13s.4d. to his four younger brothers for life. Goring’s manservants received 20s. each above their wages, and the maidservants 10s.

W. Berry, Co. Genealogies. Suss. (Comber’s copy at Chichester), 138; CSP Dom. 1595-7, pp. 69-70; 1603-10, p. 74; Add. 1580-1625, p. 336; E407/1/9-35; Hutchins, Dorset, i. 370, 441; ii. 147; Req. 2/44/30; Wards 5/43, pt.2, feodary’s survey for George Goring 7 June 44 Eliz.; HMC Hatfield, iv. 501, 515, 516, 528; v. 205, 277, 293; vi. 279, 363; viii. 82, 222, 279; xi. 27; xv. 376; xvi. 248; APC, xxv. 453; Lansd. 77, f. 71 seq.; D’Ewes, 622; C142/271/156; PCC 44 Montague.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.E.M.

Notes