THROCKMORTON, Clement (by 1515-73), of Haseley and Claverdon, Warws.

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

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1553
Oct. 1553

Family and Education

b. by 1515, 3rd s. of Sir George Throckmorton, and bro. of Anthony, George, John I, Kenelm, Sir Nicholas and Robert. m. by 1545, Katherine, da. of Sir Edward Neville, 6s. inc. Job 7da.2

Offices Held

Receiver, lands formerly of Evesham abbey 15 Dec. 1540; servant of Sir Richard Rich by 1541; surveyor, ct. of augmentations, Warws. by Apr. 1542-53, Exchequer 1553-67; cupbearer, household of Queen Catherine Parr by 1544-8; commr. chantries, Leics. and Warws. 1546, 1548, relief, Warws. 1550, loan, Warws. 1557; particular receiver for Queen Catherine Parr, Leics. and Warws. by 1547-8; j.p. Warws. 1547-72, q. 1573; constable, Kenilworth castle, Warws. from 19 Sept. 1553; member, high commission 1572.3

Biography

Favoured by powerful relatives, such as his cousin, Queen Catherine Parr, and advanced by his own diligence in crown service, Clement Throckmorton had, by 1558, established himself on a comfortable estate in Warwickshire. This consisted of four or five manors, and the usual amount of property which a reliable royal servant could hope to obtain on lease from the Crown. It centred on Haseley, which he had recently made his principal seat, and where he had rebuilt the old manor house in a style more befitting his new dignity.4

Elizabeth’s accession to the Crown saw the eclipse of the senior branch of the Throckmorton family, penalized for their adherence to the old religion, and Clement Throckmorton, in consequence, came into greater prominence. The Privy Council occasionally called upon his services in wider matters, but the last 15 years of his life were passed in the usual duties of a country gentleman. In the past he had acted as a friend and arbiter for the cities of Coventry and Warwick, and he still occasionally acted for them, even though Elizabeth’s grant of the borough of Warwick to the Earl of Warwick ended a period of at least two decades during which Throckmortons, or their relatives, had been provided with a seat at Warwick in most Parliaments.5

Before the grant of Warwick to the earl, Throckmorton himself had turned elsewhere for a seat, representing in 1559 the newly created duchy of Lancaster borough of Sudbury. He presumably owed the seat to Sir Ambrose Cave. He sat twice for the shire, and in 1571 was found a seat at West Looe by the and Earl of Bedford.

Throckmorton’s religious sympathies were puritan. He was a friend of Edward Underhill, the ‘hot gospeller’, took the education of the children of Thomas Hawkes the protestant martyr upon himself, and had ‘stood for the true religion’ in the first Parliament of Mary’s reign. In 1567 he was one of those incorporated by letters patent as ‘governors of the possessions and revenues of the preachers of the gospel in Warwickshire’. His puritanism, however, did not prevent him being appointed to the high commission.6

Throckmorton died on 14 Dec. 1573 and was buried in a magnificent tomb in Haseley church. His later years may have seen a decline in his fortunes, for at his death his debts totalled over £3,000, though the money was evidently paid off without undue difficulty. His lands had long since been settled in trust to provide his wife’s jointure. As she had also been granted a 20-year lease of other manors, Throckmorton was obliged to ask her assistance to enable him to bequeath Job, his heir, a £20 annuity, and 1,400 marks for the dowries of the three unmarried daughters.7

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: S. M. Thorpe

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
  • 2. Dugdale, Warws. ii. 654; Vis. Warws. (Harl. Soc. xii), 88-9.
  • 3. E315/218, f. 60; Soc. Antiq. 1790, p. 167; I. Temple Petyt ms 538, ff. 39, 142; Somerville, Duchy, i. 561, 563 n; CPR, 1566-9, p. 82; LP Hen. VIII, xx(2), p. 549; xxi(1), p. 147; R. G. Usher, Rise and Fall of the High Commission (1913), p. 359.
  • 4. VCH Warws. iii. 73, 104, 106, 117, 143, 151; iv. 223; CPR, 1553-4, p. 366; 1554-5, pp. 56, 209; 1555-7, p. 180.
  • 5. APC, vii. 34; CPR, 1558-60, p. 423; 1560-3, p. 444; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 95; Coventry corp. accts. receivers, p. 17; chamberlains’ accts. 1, 232; Cal Coventry Recs. ed. Jeaffreson, 36; Warwick accts. 1546-69, m. 37v. 70v.
  • 6. Harl. 425, p. 94; Bodl. e Museo 17; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 304; W. Pierce, Hist. Intro. Marprelate Tracts, 184-5; Cam. Misc. ix(3), pp. 7, 46; Collinson thesis, 678 n. 3, 948.
  • 7. C142/172/143; VCH Warws. iii. 107, 108; E. W. Badger, Mon. Brasses Warws. 27; Lansd. 11, f. 50 seq.; 141, f. 278 seq.; CPR, 1554-5, p. 56.