CHAFFYN, Edward.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

Edward Chaffyn has not been identified. He is mentioned in the Salisbury ledger only on his election to Parliament with Charles Bulkeley on 30 Dec. 1541. Neither an Edward nor an Edmund Chaffyn figures in the chamberlains’ accounts, on the subsidy rolls or in the wills of members of the leading Salisbury family of Chaffyn. The Chaffyns of Mere, a family distantly related to the Salisbury branch, also seem to have included no one named Edward at this time although one was reeve of Mere in 1584. There is no indenture to show whether Chaffyn’s christian name only was correctly recorded, but a mistake seems unlikely. If Thomas Chaffyn I was returned his health must have improved considerably since the mid-1530s, while if his son and namesake reached Parliament as early as 1542 it is odd that he should not have been chosen again until 1554 or 1555; in either case the wording in the ledger normally makes it clear whether the entry refers to the father or the son. Whatever his relationship to other Chaffyns, Edward Chaffyn’s election may have owed something to William Webbe II, who seems to have had a hand in the choice of Bulkeley and who in 1542 conveyed his manor of Odstock to Edward Chaffyn and another as trustees.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. F.T. Baker

Notes

  • 1. Salisbury corp. ledger B, f. 294v.
  • 2. Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv, cvi), 36-37; Wilts. Arch. Mag. xxiv. 236; Hoare, Wilts. Mere, 32-33; Wilts. N. and Q. iii. 126.