Simon THROCKMORTON

Born: BEF 1526, Brampton, Huntingdon, England

Died: 27 Mar 1585

Father: Richard THROCKMORTON of Higham Ferrars

Mother: Johanna BEAUFO

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

Born by 1526, third son of Richard Throckmorton of Higham Ferrers, Northants. by Joan, dau. of Humphrey Beaufo of Whilton, Northants.

Simon Throckmorton's father was a younger brother of Sir George Throckmorton, settled at Higham Ferrers, where he was steward for the duchy of Lancaster; he was also duchy receiver for Northamptonshire and neighbouring counties. Of Throckmorton's own career little has been discovered. It must have been an older namesake who was practising as an attorney in 1520, probably the member of the Suffolk family who died in 1527. Throckmorton is not known to have held office of any kind, but whereas his eldest brother became a groom of the chamber and receiver of Kenilworth and the other two were bailiffs for the Cromwell family, there is little doubt that he attached himself to a friend of his father, and his own fellow-Member, Sir Robert Tyrwhitt. It was in 1550, two years after Tyrwhitt's purchase of Leighton Bromswold, that Throckmorton bought Gerard Foster manor in Brampton, and make it his home; lying on the outskirts of Huntingdon, it was equidistant from Leighton Bromswold and Kimbolton, of which Tyrwhitt was custodian. But Throckmorton never attained the commission of the peace and was not really of knight of the shire status.

Throckmorton's two elections to Parliament clearly reflect Tyrwhitt's patronage: on both occasions Tyrwhitt himself sat for the shire and on the first Throckmorton had as his fellow-Member Tyrwhitt's stepson Thomas Maria Wingfield.

Both were to disappear from the Commons after 1559, when despite his Protestantism Tyrwhitt was out of favour with the new Queen; there seems to be no means of judging whether Throckmorton was of the same religious persuasion.

Throckmorton alienated the Brampton property in Sep 1559 to Sir Roger Woodhouse but this may have been only a conveyance under the Statute of Uses, as his son and heir Robert Throckmorton succeeded to it in 1585. Throckmorton was almost certainly a Catholic (another reason for his not becoming a j.p., at any rate under Elizabeth), and the remainder of his life was passed in comparative obscurity.

He died on 27 Mar 1585 and was succeeded by his 37 year-old son Robert.

His second wife, Rose Locke, was the daughter of William Locke or Lok (b. 1480 - d. 24 Aug 1550) and Catherine Cook (d. 14 Oct 1537). She was part of a large family. Her father was a well-to-do London mercer who also served as an occasional agent for the Crown in France and Flanders.  Her brother Thomas (b. 8 Feb 1514 - d. 9 Nov 1556) married Mary Long, and by her had six children: William, Rowland, Matthew (b. 1553 - d. 1599), John, Mary, and Anne. Rose chided her sister-in-law, Mary for keeping her husband in England after he was arrested for heresy and thus contributing to his death. Later Mary Long married Dr. George Owen,  physician of Henry VIII, and may have been the Mrs. Owen living at Cumnor Place at the time of Amy Robsart’s death. Rose married first, on 28 Nov 1543, Anthony Hickman (d. 1573), by whom she had eight children: Mary (b. 1547), William (b. 1549 - d. 25 Sep 1625), Henry (b. 1550), Walter (b. 1552 - d. BEF Feb 1618), another Mary (b. 1554), Anthony (b. 1560 - d. 13 Dec 1597), Eleazar (b. 1562), and Matthew. During Mary Tudor’s reign, Rose’s husband and her brother Thomas were charged with heresy and imprisoned in the Fleet. When they were set free, Anthony left England for Antwerp. Rose, being pregnant, retired to Oxfordshire to give birth, after which she joined her husband abroad. She gave birth to another child in Antwerp. The Hickmans returned to England when Elizabeth Tudor became Queen. In 1610, Rose wrote her autobiography from the year 1534 to Queen Mary’s death in 1558. This still exists in manuscript.

Rose Locke

 

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