BLOUNT, Richard I (d.1575), of Williton, Som. and Coleman Street, London.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

m. Margaret, da. of Nicholas Bostock of Newington, Surr. by ?Felice, da. of John Heaton of Bletchingley, Surr., 1da.

Offices Held

Biography

Blount may have been born in Stafford, a member of the family of Knightley, Staffordshire, and Kinlet, Shropshire. Several persons of this name flourished during the 1550s — including one who was usher of Queen Mary’s Chamber until 1556—but none can be definitely identified as the man who sat for Taunton. Whatever his origins the 1571 and 1572 Taunton Member lived at Williton, some 12 miles away, and there is a presumption that his candidature must have been at least tolerated by Sir Hugh Paulet, who was one of those asked by the Privy Council to ensure that suitable Members were returned throughout the county. In fact Blount may have been in the service of the Paulets; he was an overseer of Sir Hugh’s will, and on his own death, 16 Nov. 1575, he bequeathed a cross of gold with four diamonds and a ‘portique’ of gold to his ‘very good lady and friend’ (and possibly even relative, for she was née Blount) Lady Paulet (Sir Hugh’s wife), and instructed his widow, the sole executrix, to return ‘all such chests and goods which, of trust in the time of my lady her absence, remain in my home and were delivered unto me to be kept for her’. Another patron was Lady Siddenham, wife of Sir John Siddenham, to whom he bequeathed a ‘table diamond’. He provided for the maintenance of a poor scholar — to be nominated by the town of Stafford—at Oxford and left £100 to the fellows of Trinity College. The attorney-general Sir Gilbert Gerard, the solicitor-general Thomas Bromley and Lady Paulet were among the overseers of his will, which was proved 16 Dec. 1575. Blount’s widow married as her second and third husbands Jasper Fisher and Nicholas Saunders.

Surr. Arch. Colls. ix. 162; CPR, 1553-4, p. 237; 1558-60, p. 389; Som. Wills (ser. 5), p. 50; PCC 47 Pyckering, 8 Martyn; C142/175/86; VCH Surr. iv. 59.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: W.J.J.

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the duration of the Parliament.