WROTH, John (d. aft. July 1616), of London.

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 Sir Thomas Wroth of Durants, Enfield, Mdx. by Mary, da. of Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich; bro. of Richard and of Robert I. m.

Offices Held

Ambassador to Venice by Nov. 1587-c. July 1589; to Turkey 1598.

Biography

This man, one of at least six younger sons, is suggested as the Liverpool MP in preference to two namesakes, his uncle and his nephew, on grounds of age. As his father was a Marian exile, it is possible that he may have spent part of his childhood or adolescence abroad. He received £500 under his father’s will, and an equal share with his brothers and sisters of certain properties to be divided between them. His court connexions would have been sufficient to obtain him both his diplomatic appointments and his return for Liverpool, probably through the former chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Walsingham, who had been succeeded as chancellor by his friend (Sir) Thomas Heneage. As it happened, the Wroth family were already connected with the duchy; Wroth’s grandfather had been attorney-general, and his brother Robert held duchy lands in Essex and Middlesex. In 1597 Wroth was described by the Privy Council as ‘a gentleman of good merit ... lately employed in her Majesty’s service to his great charge’. He was in England that summer, went on a mission to Germany, possibly in 1598, and in the autumn of that year was made ambassador to Turkey. In 1602 the letter writer, John Chamberlain, thought he would be a likely candidate to succeed George Gilpin at The Hague, were it not that Wroth, like Thomas Edmondes, had his ‘particular impediments’. Wroth was still alive on 20 July 1616: the date of his death has not been ascertained.

Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 330; CSP Dom. 1598-1601, pp. 78, 110; PCC 16 Pyckering; CSP For. 1586-8, pp. 409-10, 500-2, 539-40, 649; Jan.-July 1589, pp. 201-2, 302-3, 325-7, 350-1; Essex Arch. Soc. Trans. n.s. viii. 145, 150-1; APC, xxvi. 409; Chamberlain Letters ed. McClure, i. 165; ii. 16.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N.M.S.

Notes