Sir Edward SULYARD

Born: 1535

Died: 5 Jun 1610

Mother: Margaret FORSTER

Children:

1. Elizabeth SULYARD

2. Edward SULYARD

3. Thomas SULYARD

4. Margaret SULYARD

5. Anne SULYARD

The details in this biography come from the History of Parliament, a biographical dictionary of Members of the House of Commons.

Only son of Eustace Sulyard of Flemings by Margaret, dau. of Robert Forster of Little Birch, wid. of Gregory Bassett of Bradwell. Educ. L. Inn 1559. Married by 1564, Anne Eden of Suff., 2s. 2da. Suc. fa. 1547. Kntd. 1603. J.p. Essex from c.1579, sheriff 1595-6.

Sulyard belonged to a branch of the Suffolk family which had settled in Essex in the fifteenth century. He succeeded to the manors of Claydon, Flemings, Runwell, and lands in Downham, Ramsden Bellhouse, Rawreth, Rettendon, Wickford and the Hanningfields, all in southeast Essex. He also became, presumably by inheritance, landlord of Lincoln’s Inn, for which he was paid an annual rent of £6 13s.4d., and in 1572 made an associate bencher. In 1580 he sold his rights as landlord for £520, retaining the use of the chambers he then occupied, and the right of free admission for his heirs. It may have been at Lincoln’s Inn that his friendship with Michael Hickes originated, and, through Hickes, with Henry Maynard, to whose house he was invited in 1605. Though no Catholic, Sulyard was close enough to Sir John Petre to refer to him in his will as ‘very honourable good lord and very kind friend’.

Sulyard was returned for Maldon at a by-election in time for the second session of the 1572 Parliament, probably with the support of Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, from whom he held the manor of Claydon, though there was a family connexion between Sulyard and the man he replaced, Vincent Harris, Sulyard’s daughter having married Harris’s nephew. Sulyard’s name does not appear in the extant journals of his Parliament, unless he was the ‘Mr Edward Gerrard’ appointed to the committee on dags and pistols, 17 Feb 1576. There was no Edward Gerard in the House, and William Gerard was probably in Ireland.

William Webbe dedicated to Edward "A Discourse of English Poetry" (1586).

Sulyard died 5 Jun 1610, having made his will four days previously. His widow and heir Edward were the executors.

Sources:

J.H.: SULYARD, Edward (?1540-1610), of Flemings, Essex.

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