GASCOIGNE, John II (by 1537-1602), of Parlington, Yorks.

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. by 1537, 3rd s. of John Gascoigne I. m. 5 Nov. 1554, Maud, da. of William Arthington of Adwick le Street, 5s. 2da. suc. bro. c.1593.1

Offices Held

?Commr. for i.p.m., Yorks. 1561-2.2

Biography

Of several John Gascoignes of Yorkshire, all of good birth but otherwise obscure, the one who sat for Aldborough in 1558 is likely to have been the son of John Gascoigne of Lasingcroft, who had himself probably done so for Thirsk in Mary’s first Parliament. Aldborough, a duchy of Lancaster borough enfranchised in 1558, was also subject to the influence of the council in the north. Council and duchy were to share the parliamentary patronage under Elizabeth and if this situation obtained in 1558 either could have been responsible for Gascoigne’s nomination. With the council he was linked through his kinsman Sir William Vavasour and his family associations with Essex could well have commended him to Sir Edward Waldegrave, who probably already had the charge of the duchy although not formally appointed its chancellor until after the election.3

Gascoigne was probably a Catholic and thus all the more acceptable to authority. In 1572 Sir Thomas Gargrave described Richard Gascoigne, who succeeded the eldest brother Thomas in 1566, as being with ‘his brethren’ of ‘the worst sort’ in religion. Gascoigne himself was never presented for recusancy and shortly before his death he was declared ‘conformable in every respect’, but his wife and eldest son were recusants. His will, made on 3 May 1602 and proved on the following 3 Feb., gives no further clue. He appointed his wife and his youngest son executors and his cousin William Vavasour supervisor. He was buried, as he had asked to be, at Barwick on 30 June 1602. The eldest son, aged 46 at his father’s death, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1635.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Alan Davidson

Notes

  • 1. Presumed to be of age at election. Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. ed. Clay, iii. 99-100; Glover’s Vis. Yorks. ed. Foster, 238-9.
  • 2. CPR, 1560-3, pp. 396, 448.
  • 3. Glover’s Vis. Yorks. 297, 384-5.
  • 4. Leeds Phil. and Lit. Soc. Procs. x(6), 225-6; Essex Recusant, iv. 43; v. 81; ix. 45; C. T. Prouty, George Gascoigne, 292; J. J. Cartwright, Chaps. of Yorks. Hist. 69; York wills 28, f. 864; C142/643/17.