WILSON, Egion (by 1530-63/67), of Redland, Glos.

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

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1553

Family and Education

b. by 1530, 4th s. of Edward Wilson of Over Staveley, Westmld., by Anne, da. of Miles Godmount of the Ashes in Staveley Godmount, Kendal, Westmld. m. by 1552, Dorothy, da. and h. of Thomas Hall of Redland, prob. 2s. 1da.2

Offices Held

Biography

Egion Wilson came from a gentle family of small consequence in Westmorland. The poverty of the region and the number of his father’s offspring (both in and out of wedlock), must have compelled him to seek his own fortune, which he did as a soldier and victualler in the armies of Edward VI and Mary. While serving the first of these monarchs he fell into the hands of the French but was released when peace was concluded in 1551 and awarded £8 in compensation by the Privy Council. He then joined the retinue of the deputy of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Sir Nicholas Strelley, and it was as of London and Berwick that on 18 Dec. 1552 he obtained a protection from the King in his capacity as supplier of the town and garrison.3

The circumstances of Wilson’s return to the Parliament of March 1553 are obscure. He was elected for a duchy of Cornwell borough with which he had no personal tie, and unless he was to serve for Berwick under Mary (when the names of its Members are lost), this was his only spell in the Commons. It is possible that he was in financial difficulties and sought a temporary respite from creditors: while the Parliament was in session a servant of his was arrested and on 21 Mar. the House issued a writ of privilege for his release. As a military man he may have been known to Sir John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, the high steward of the duchy, or else have been recommended to the earl by the Duke of Northumberland.4

Wilson married a Gloucestershire heiress who brought him a home near Bristol and an estate in the west country worth £70 a year. He appears to have settled at Redland soon after his wife’s death but the war of 1557 saw him back in the field: in August 1558 he was described by a cousin, who bequeathed him a lease, as ‘being in [the] wars’. The last known trace of Wilson dates from five years later, when he sued out a pardon after surrendering to outlawry for not answering a charge of trespass. He must have died within the next four years, as Redland passed to a Miles Wilson, gentleman, either his son or his nephew, who made his will there on 12 Apr. 1567.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: A. D.K. Hawkyard

Notes

  • 1. His name appears as ‘Egi’em Welson’ on the election indenture, C219/20/26, but this was incorrectly extended as ‘Egidius (i.e. Giles) Wilson’ in OR.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Vis. Yorks. (Harl. Soc. xvi), 354; PCC 32 Stonard.
  • 3. Vis. Yorks. 354; PCC 9 Allen; APC, iii. 290; CPR, 1553, p. 413.
  • 4. CJ, i. 25.
  • 5. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. liii. 210; CPR, 1563-6, p. 288; PCC 57 Noodes, 32 Stonard.