Family and Education

b. by 1533, 1st s. of Robert Purslow of Sidbury, Salop by Margaret, da. and h. of William Sparke. educ. I. Temple, adm. by 1547, called. m. Margaret, da. of Thomas Williams of Willaston or Wollaston, Salop, s.p.1

Offices Held

Bencher, I. Temple by 1563.

Biography

Nicholas Purslow came of a gentle family long established in Shropshire and by the 16th century settled near Bridgnorth. A lawyer who before his early death bought property in the south-west of the county, he presumably owed both his appearances in the Commons to John Eltoftes, his colleague at the Temple and in the service of the northern aristocracy; Eltoftes was his fellow-Member on the first occasion and Purslow was not to be returned again after Eltoftes’s death. Nothing has come to light about his part in the Commons. He made his will on 5 July 1563, commending his wife to his father’s care and ordering the payment of debts amounting to £80. He died on the following 8 Aug. and his heir was his brother Robert, then aged 27.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: D. F. Coros

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from education. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 4), iii. 111; C142/142/79; Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxix). 415, 442, 507.
• 2. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 4), iii. 112; PCC 35 Mellershe; CPR, 1558-60, pp. 6, 10; 1560-3, p. 72; C142/142/79.