Family and Education

b. by 1524, poss. s. of Richard Abington of Sandwich, Kent. m. Jacomyne.1

Offices Held

Alderman, Calais by Nov. 1545-58, under marshal 23 June 1548-58.2

Biography

Eustace Abington may have been a younger son in an armigerous family settled near Sandwich which had trading links with Calais. He was an established figure in the town by the time of his election by the mayor’s council to the last Parliament of Henry VIII’s reign. (The Parliament of 1545 had been summoned originally for January of that year but postponed until the autumn, and it is not clear why the elections at Calais were put off until November.) During the prorogation he obtained a grant of arms as of Calais and Hertfordshire, but his property in that county has not been traced. In 1547 he was the bearer of a letter from Sir John Wallop to the Protector Somerset. and a year later Edward VI made him under marshal. In this capacity he served on the council of successive deputies, helped to return Edmund Peyton and William Horne to Parliament, and advised Queen Mary on the town’s defences. The fall of Calais cost him his livelihood, but Edward Hastings, Lord Hastings of Loughborough, whose acquaintance with him had been maintained since their time together in the Commons, gave him a pension of 50s. in 1563 and the Queen the next vacancy among the almsknights at St. George’s chapel, Windsor castle in 1569. No will has been found.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: A. D.K. Hawkyard

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. The Gen. ii. 219.
• 2. C219/18C/191; CPR, 1548-9, p. 8.
• 3. The Gen. ii. 219; C219/18C/191, 21/211, 22/111; Grantees of Arms (Harl. Soc. lxvi), 1; CSP For. 1547-53, p. 312; 1553-8, p. 110; APC, vi. 181; Lansd. 7, f. 35; CPR, 1566-9, p. 358.