Family and Education

b. by 1493, 1st s. of Sir John Hussey*, Lord Hussey, of Sleaford, Lincs. by 1st w. Margaret, da. and h. of Simon Blount of Mangotsfield, Glos.; half-bro. of Thomas Hussey II*. m. contract 1503, settlement 1529, Ursula, da. and coh. of Sir Robery Lovell, 2da. Kntd. Nov. 1529; suc. fa. 1537.1

Offices Held

Jt. (with fa.) steward, manors of Caythorpe, Folkingham and Ruskington, Lincs. 1510; j.p. Lincs. (Holland) 1514-40, (Kesteven) 1536-40, Hunts. 1536-38; steward, Tattershall, Lincs. 1521, duchy of Lancaster, Bolingbroke honor with Long Sutton and Long Bennington 1524-d.; commr. subsidy, Lincs. (Kesteven) 1523, musters (Holland) 1546; other commissions, Lincs. and Notts. 1540-3; sheriff, Lincs. 1530-1.2

Biography

Little is known of William Hussey’s early life, but he presumably received a gentleman’s education, perhaps in part at court. While he was still a child a profitable marriage was arranged for him with one of the nieces (it mattered not which) of the childless Sir Thomas Lovell I, who in his will of December 1522 was to leave money for the education of Hussey’s children.3

The Parliament of 1529 was to be a rewarding one for the Husseys, father and son: both were returned to it and were then raised in rank, the elder receiving a peerage and the younger being knighted ‘in the Parliament time’. In November 1530 Sir William Hussey joined the ranks of Members of this Parliament who served concurrently as sheriff. On Whit Sunday 1533 he attended the coronation of Anne Boleyn and four days later dined with the Princess Mary. A justice of the peace for Lincolnshire when rebellion broke out there in October 1536, he apparently escaped from Sleaford at the same time as his father and rode to London with one servant, who reported ‘that everywhere by the way that he and his master came he heard all the people, both old and young, praying God speed the rebellious people of Lincolnshire’. Hussey’s failure to report such sedition himself was thought by some a matter worth inquiry, but in the event no suspicion seems to have attached to him. It was otherwise with his father, who was to be executed for treason and to forfeit his title and estates.4

Although Hussey was never to regain his inheritance and was not even to be restored in blood until the next reign, he soon reappeared on local commissions, and in July 1541 received a grant in fee of all the lands in Nottinghamshire of the ex-priory of Beauvale. He had already been involved in property litigation, and the Beauvale lands were to lead to half a dozen Star Chamber suits during the reign of Edward VI. Hussey had probably sat in the Parliament of 1536, in accordance with the King’s general request for the return of the previous Members, and may have done so again in 1539 and 1542 despite the technical bar of his tainted blood; he was not, however, elected in 1545 or on any later occasion. He was restored in blood by Act (3 and 4 Edw. VI, no.30) in 1550—though his brothers and sisters were not to be restored until 1563, shortly after Bridget had married the and Earl of Rutland and presumably on Rutland’s initiative. Why Sir William alone should have been restored at this time is not known; the Act took six weeks to pass the House of Lords but had its three readings in the Commons in only two days.5

Hussey can scarcely have been a familiar figure at court, for in January 1551, as part of a grant intended to enhance his dignity as admiral, the 8th Lord Clinton was granted the stewardship of Bolingbroke honor in the belief that Hussey was dead: when the mistake was discovered, a new patent was issued granting the stewardship in reversion. Five years elapsed before Hussey’s death on 19 Jan. 1556. He left two daughters, one of whom had married Richard Disney. Two years before his death Hussey had arranged for trustees to hold his property at Beauvale to the use of his wife and his heirs. No will has been found.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. M. Hofmann

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first commission, CIPM Hen. VII, i. 869; CP, vii. 17n; C142/110/121; LP Hen. VIII, iv.
• 2. LP Hen. VIII , i, iii, x-xvi, xx, xxi; Somerville, Duchy, i. 574, 577, 584.
• 3. PCC 27 Jankyn.
• 4. LP Hen. VIII, vi, vii, xi; E150/572/43, 749/16; M. H. and R. Dodds, Pilgrimage of Grace, i. 118, 131 et passim.
• 5. LP Hen. VIII, xvi-xviii, xx; DKR, ix. app. ii. 232; HMC Rutland, iv. 322; C1/815/19; St.Ch.3/1/19, 3/77, 4/34, 6/99, 7/23; LJ, i. 365, 368, 381.
• 6. CSP For. 1547-53, pp. 209, 216; PCC 28 Wrastley; Strype, Eccles. Memorials, ii (1), 361-2; CPR, 1553-4, p. 379; C142/110/121, 134.