Family and Education

b. by 1500, 2nd s. of Sir Robert Peyton of Isleham, Cambs. by Elizabeth, da. of Sir Robert Clere of Ormesby, Norf.; bro. of Edward and Robert I. m. by 1539, Dorothy, da. of Sir John Tyndale of Hockwold, Norf., 3s. inc. John^† 2da.2

Offices Held

Commr. relief, Kent 1550; j.p. 1554.3

Biography

In 1554 John Langley of Knowlton settled his property in Kent on his wife Jane with remainder to her nephews John, Edward and Richard Peyton. Jane Langley took as her second husband Sir Edward Ryngeley, who died at Knowlton in 1543, and in the following year she conveyed most of her interest in Langley’s property to John Peyton, who then took up residence at Knowlton. His return for two of the Cinque Ports was the work of the lord warden, Sir Thomas Cheyne, who on the second occasion had his name inserted in a blank space left by Hastings on its indenture at Cheyne’s bidding. In 1555 Hastings re-elected Thomas Rodes, Peyton’s previous fellow-Member, but Peyton transferred to Winchelsea, presumably to make way for Roger Manwood II who had himself been displaced at Sandwich by Cheyne’s son-in-law Sir John Perrot. Peyton was one of the Members found absent without leave when the House was called shortly before the dissolution of the Parliament of November 1554 and was accordingly informed against in the King’s bench during Easter term 1555, but no further action was taken against him until 1558 when his non-appearance earned him three distraints totalling 10s.4d. If his withdrawal was a gesture of dissent, it serves to identify him, and not his nephew Edmund, with the ‘Mr. Peyton’ who followed Sir Anthony Kingston’s lead in opposing one of the government’s bills in 1555, and the two episodes may have cost him Cheyne’s support at the next election. Peyton died intestate on 22 Oct. 1558 and on the following day three neighbours put in their claim on the estate for debts of £50. Administration of his goods was granted to his widow three weeks later and the wardship of his son Thomas to Thomas Ludwell in 1560.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

• 1. Bodl. e Museo 17.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from younger brother Edward’s. Vis. Cambs. (Harl. Soc. xli), 4-5; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. lxxv), 142.
• 3. CPR, 1553, p. 355; 1553-4, p. 20.
• 4. C142/121/104; 219/23/184; Arch. Cant. xvi. 58; Romney chamberlains’ accts. 1528-80, f. 88; KB27/1186-8; 29/188 rot. 48; Guildford mus. Loseley 1331/2; Canterbury prob. reg. A15, f. 61; CPR, 1558-60, p. 342.