Family and Education

b. c.1561, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of William Musgrave† of Hayton Castle, and Isabel, da. and coh. of James Martindale of Newton, Bromfield, Cumb., wid. of Humphrey Dacre.1 m. by 1590, Catherine, da. of John Penruddock† of Hale, Hants, 2s. (1 d.v.p.) 3da.2 suc. fa. 1597;3 kntd. 10 July 1604.4 d. c.1641.5

Offices Held

J.p. Cumb. 1608-at least 1640;6 commr. aid, Cumb. 1609;7 sheriff, Cumb. 1614-15;8 commr. border malefactors 1618, 1619,9 member, High Commission, prov. of York 1620,10 subsidy, Cumb. 1622, 1624,11 Forced Loan 1627,12 oyer and terminer 1630.13

Biography

Musgrave was descended from a younger son of the family who acquired Hayton Castle by marriage in the second half of the fifteenth century. His father represented Cumberland in the first Elizabethan Parliament, and later served three terms as sheriff of the county.14 Musgrave himself was elected as the junior knight of the shire in 1604. In the Parliament’s opening session he was appointed to the initial conference with the Lords of 14 Apr. on Union with Scotland, and was among those ordered to consider a bill for confirmation of Berwick’s charter (16 May).15 Shortly after the prorogation he was knighted, and displayed his gratitude by advancing £20 to the Crown.16 He seems to have arrived very late for the second session, or at the very least to have taken his time returning after the Easter recess, since on 5 May 1606 his colleague and fellow absentee (Sir) Wilfred Lawson* gave him letters to take to London. He does not appear in the parliamentary records of either session in 1606-7.17

Musgrave erected a memorial to his father in Aspatria Church in 1608, and undertook a programme of repairs to Hayton Castle.18 He was appointed to one committee in the fourth session of the Parliament, for a bill to regulate Kendal cloth (23 Feb. 1610).19 When his son came of age in 1613, Musgrave was able to sever the entail on his Durham estate and enlarge his Cumbrian property by the purchase of Scaleby.20 Musgrave served as a magistrate and was appointed to the special border commissions of 1618-9 headed by Lord William Howard, despite being one of several local landlords allied against the latter in various boundary disputes.21 His duties as a j.p. included the arrest of Ferdinand Huddleston* in 1625 for harassing his neighbours.22 Although cited more than once as a suspected Catholic, Musgrave remained on the commission of the peace, and acted as a commissioner for the Forced Loan.23 His elder son William predeceased him, but his grandson Edward, who married a daughter of Richard Graham*, was created a Nova Scotia baronet in 1638. Musgrave’s exact date of death, on the eve of the Civil War, is unknown; no will, administration, or inquisition post mortem have been found. The next member of the Hayton branch of the family to enter Parliament was Richard Musgrave, elected knight of the shire in 1700.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: John. P. Ferris / Rosemary Sgroi

Notes

• 1. Hutchinson, Cumb. ii. 289.
• 2. Add. 24121, f. 115; E134/7 Jas.I/Mich. 17; Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. and Arch. Soc. n.s. xxxix. 150.
• 3. C142/253/75.
• 4. Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 134.
• 5. We are grateful to C.B. Phillips for this information.
• 6. SP14/33, f. 13; SP16/405, f. 12; C66/2858.
• 7. SP14/43/107; E179/283/12.
• 8. List of Sheriffs comp. A. Hughes (PRO, L. and I. ix), 28.
• 9. T. Rymer, Foedera, vii. pt. 3, pp. 38, 97; CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 539.
• 10. Rymer, vii. pt. 3, p. 173.
• 11. C212/22/21, 23.
• 12. SP16/56/34.
• 13. C181/4, f. 62.
• 14. Hutchinson, ii. 289.
• 15. CJ, i. 172a, 212a.
• 16. CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 507.
• 17. HMC 10th Rep. IV, 254.
• 18. Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. and Arch. Soc. n.s. xiii. 240.
• 19. CJ, i. 399a.
• 20. Surtees, Dur. i. 215; WARD 7/85/121.
• 21. Naworth Household Bks. ed. G. Ornsby (Surtees Soc. lxviii), 425.
• 22. APC, 1625-6, p. 252.
• 23. HMC Portland, i. 1; C.B. Phillips, ‘Gentry in Cumb. and Westmld. 1600-65’, (Lancaster Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1973), p. 70; Procs. 1626, ii. 138.