THEOBALD, Stephen (d.1619), of the Inner Temple and Seal, Kent.

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

1st s. of John Theobald of Seal by Clement, da. of William Linch of Cranbrook. educ. St. John’s, Camb. 1569, I. Temple 1576, called 1584. m. (1) bef. 1576, Katherine (d.1582), da. of Richard Caryll, 4da.; (2) s.p.

Offices Held

J.p. Kent 1601.

Biography

Theobald’s family had held land at Seal since the early fifteenth century, Theobald himself being the last male representative of the senior branch. Though an eldest son, and continuing to reside at Seal, where his children were born, and where his first wife was buried, Theobald pursued the legal career into which he had been introduced by his sister Dorothy’s husband, Roger Manwood. It may have been Manwood who was responsible for Theobald’s being nominated at Yarmouth by Sir George Carey, patron of the borough. No other connexion between Theobald and Carey has been found.

Theobald’s will, drawn up in July 1619, was proved on 27 Aug. of the same year by Edward Mitchell, one of his sons-in-law. A total of £7 was bequeathed to the poor of three parishes in Kent, £10 to the hospital of St. Stephen founded by Sir Roger Manwood, and £5 13s.4d. each to two other hospitals in London, and one in Southwark. His heirs were the two surviving children of his first marriage, Catherine and Margaret. A monument was erected to him and his two wives in the parish church of Seal.

Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. lxxv), 36; Hasted, Kent, iii. 53, 55, 59; Arch. Cant. xxxi. 179-80, 182; DNB (Manwood, Sir Roger, and Peter); PCC 78 Parker.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: A. M. Mimardière

Notes