Family and Education

b. 9 Oct. 1514, 3rd but 1st surv. s. of John Newdigate of Harefield by Anne, da. and h. of Nicholas Hilton of Cambridge; bro. of Francis^†, Nicholas and Robert^†. educ. L. Inn, adm. 7 Aug. 1538, called 1548. m. (1) settlement 4 Feb. 1541, Mary, da. of Sir Robert Cheney of Chesham Bois, Bucks,. 2s. inc. John^† ida.; (2) 19 Nov. 1559, Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Lovett of Astwell, Northants., wid. of Anthony Cave of Chicheley, Bucks., 1s. suc. fa. 19 June 1545.2

Offices Held

Pensioner, L. Inn 1556-7, bencher 1557, Autumn reader 1558, treasurer 1561-2.

J.p. Mdx. 1547-d.; commr. relief 1550.3

Biography

John Newdigate was the eldest surviving son in his generation of a Middlesex family. A lawyer, he never rose to the eminence of his grandfather the serjeant, but he was a bencher and treasurer of his inn, where he read once only, paying a fine of £20 a few weeks before his death to be discharged of a further reading.4

When his father died Newdigate filled the vacancy on the Middlesex bench; from then on he was named to a variety of commissions in the county, and after the accession of Elizabeth he was authorized to survey the possessions of the bishopric of London and to raise funds for the rebuilding of St. Paul’s. Other members of the family were more deeply involved in the upheavals of the age: his uncle Sebastian, a monk at the Charterhouse, was executed at Tyburn in 1535, and his brother Francis, who served the Protector Somerset, came near to sharing Somerset’s fate but survived to marry his widow. As a knight of the shire for Middlesex in four Parliaments between 1547 and 1558 John Newdigate saw many changes but was not, so it appears, much affected by them; nor did he make, on the evidence of the Journal, any impact on the House, the only piece of information about his Membership being the marking of his name with a circle on the list of Members of the Parliament of 1558 as revised for its second session. Judged by the bishop of London to be a ‘favourer’ of religion in 1564, he died at his home at Harefield on 16 Aug. 1565. The administration of his goods was granted on 4 July 1566 to his son John, with the consent of his widow who took as her third husband Richard Weston.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

• 1. Hatfield 207.
• 2. Date of birth given in F. A. Crisp, Vis. Eng. and Wales, notes, vii. 34-35. C142/145/61; Burke, LG (1952), 1880.
• 3. CPR, 1553, p. 356; 1563-6, p. 24; APC, v. 187.
• 4. Surr. Arch. Colls. vi. 230, 236; Black Bk. L. Inn, i. 346; Trans. London and Mdx. Arch. Soc. xxi. 100-4; NRA 5622, p. 37, 8596 passim.
• 5. CPR, 1563-6, p. 126 Cam. Misc. ix (3), 60; PCC Admins. ed. Glencross, i. 71.