Family and Education

b. by 1533. m. (2); at least 1s. 2da.1

Offices Held

Biography

In the 1550s Edmund Prowte lived at Litton Cheney, five miles south-east of Bridport, but his own standing is not sufficient to explain his return for the borough. His election could have been favoured by Sir Giles Strangways II, his neighbour at Melbury Osmond, who himself sat for the county in the same Parliament, or by the influential Phelips family. One of his daughters married a Thomas Phelips and in 1558 Prowte and Richard Calmady stood surety for Richard Phelips’s servant Andrew Horde, when he was fined for quitting the third Marian Parliament without leave. Through Calmady, Prowte may have been connected with Robert Neale, his fellow-Member at Bridport. When he was returned to Parliament and when he stood surety, Prowte was described as a gentleman, but in his will of 17 Dec. 1589 he claimed no higher status than that of yeoman. He was then living at Melbury Osmond but he left 20s. to the poor of Litton as well as to the poor of his own parish. He bequeathed a bullock to Elizabeth Morris, ‘my last wife’s goddaughter’, a piece of gold worth 10s. to each of his son-in-law Phelips’s children, and half his goods to an unmarried daughter; the residuary legatee and executor was his son and namesake. The will was proved on 9 Mar. 1590.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

• 1. Presumed to be of age at election. PCC 17 Drury.
• 2. KB27/1188; PCC 17 Drury.