Family and Education

b. by 1507, 3rd s. of Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlet, and bro. of John and Walter II. m. Elizabeth, da. of one Columbell of Darley, Derbys., 3s. 5da.2

Offices Held

Servant of the 4th, 5th and 6th Earls of Shrewsbury by 1528-d., anteambulo by 1580; serjeant-at-arms to the council in the marches of Wales.3

Biography

Robert Blount may have followed his eldest brother John to court and was perhaps the sewer of the chamber of that name mentioned in 1509; he later became a servant of the 4th Earl of Shrewsbury. He settled at Eckington in north-east Derbyshire, five miles from Shrewsbury’s manor of Handsworth, presumably on land granted him by the earl, and he married into a Derbyshire family; but he retained his interest in Shropshire and in 1536, at Shrewsbury’s request, the abbot of Combermere leased him the parsonage of Childs Ercall, in the north of his native county.4

Blount went on to serve the 5th Earl, who succeeded to the title in 1538. During 1544 he accompanied Shrewsbury into Scotland and early in the following year he was sent by his master to conduct the Earl of Cassillis to court. In May 1547 Shrewsbury, hitherto preoccupied with his northern responsibilities, was appointed lord lieutenant of a block of counties which included Shropshire. This extension of the earl’s influence doubtless reinforced Blount’s claim to one of the Ludlow seats in the Parliament of 1547: his family was in any case an important one in the neighbourhood and Blount himself was to hold office under the council in the marches, although whether or not before his election is not clear. Nothing is known of his part in the proceedings of the Parliament and he was not to be returned again. During the first prorogation he captained a band against the Scots.5

Of the remaining 25 years of Blount’s life nothing has come to light. By his will of 1 Oct. 1576 he left £200 to each of his unmarried daughters and an annuity of 20 marks to his younger son; his remaining daughters appear to have married in the vicinity of his lands in north-east Derbyshire and at Handsworth near Sheffield. These lands Blount left to his wife and executrix during her lifetime with remainder to his heir George; there is no mention of property in Shropshire. Richard Vincent of Firsby in south Yorkshire was named supervisor of the will, which was proved in April 1581.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Alan Harding

Notes

• 1. Hatfield 207.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from service to the earls of Shrewsbury. Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxviii), 53; A. Croke, Croke Fam. ped. 9; PCC 15 Darcy.
• 3. LP Hen. VIII , add.; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), vii. 13; P. H. Williams, Council in the Marches of Wales, 170.
• 4. LP Hen. VIII, i, xi, add.; Jnl. Derbys. Arch. Soc. xxiv. 61.
• 5. LP Hen. VIII, xx; HMC Bath, iv. 70; CSP Scot. i. 161; HMC Shrewsbury and Talbot, i. 127.
• 6. PCC 15 Darcy.