BLOUNT, William (c.1514-44 or later).

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1514, 2nd s. of (Sir) John Blount, and bro. of Sir George and Henry. prob. unm. Kntd. 30 Sept. 1544.1

Offices Held

Servant of Duke of Richmond in 1536; gent. pens. 1540-45/46.2

Biography

Following his father’s death while he was still in his ’teens, William Blount entered the household of his nephew the illegitimate Duke of Richmond. The prospect of advancement thus afforded was dispelled by Richmond’s death in July 1536 and there is no indication that Blount benefited from his mother’s earlier approach to Cromwell for the bestowal on him and his younger brother Henry of some of the monastic lands believed to be marked down for confiscation. Unlike this brother, Blount is not found in Cromwell’s service, but in 1540 he joined his elder brother George in the ranks of the gentlemen pensioners; his association with Sir Adrian Fortescue at the time of the Pilgrimage of Grace evidently did not compromise him when Fortescue was executed for treason in 1539.3

Blount’s return for Wenlock to the Parliament of 1542 can be attributed to his family’s local ascendancy and in particular to his sister’s marriage to Richard Lacon of Willey, one of the most influential figures in the town. That his elder brother did not claim the seat, as he was to do later, may mean that George Blount was elected for the shire, the names of the knights on this occasion being lost; the Walter Blount I who sat for Stafford was a remote kinsman. The Parliament ended in March 1544 and the following summer saw Blount take part in the campaign leading to the capture of Boulogne. Knighted there on 30 Sept., he was put in command of 400 pioneers engaged in defending Lower Boulogne against the French attempt to recover the town. As this is the last certain reference found to him he may have been killed in action. The captains named Blount who served later in France and Scotland did not, so far as their christian names are recorded, bear his own.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Alan Harding

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from elder brother’s. PCC 30 Alenger; Vis. Worcs. (Harl. Soc. xxvii), 19, 23; Vis. Salop (ibid. xxviii), 54 where he is incorrectly given as the third son; LP Hen. VIII, xix.
  • 2. LP Hen. VIII, xi, xv; The Gen. n.s. xxx. 21; E179/69/36, 56.
  • 3. LP Hen. VIII, x, xi, xv.
  • 4. Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxix), 308; LP Hen. VIII, xviii, xix; Add. 5753, ff. 43, 51; CSP For. 1553-8, p. 396; 1560-1, pp. 201, 219, 231, 283; 1562, p. 341; 1563, p. 21; CSP Scot. i. 161.