Family and Education

3rd s. of Michael Blount, lieutenant of the Tower, by Mary, da. of Roger Moore, sis. and coh. of Sir Thomas Moore of Bicester. educ. M. Temple 1594. unm. Kntd. 1596.

Offices Held

Gent. pens. 1586/7-d.

Biography

Blount was a cousin of Charles Blount, 8th Lord Mountjoy, who procured his return at Bere Alston, and of Charles Lister, who also sat for the borough. Having fought at Cadiz, where he was knighted by the Earl of Essex, he volunteered in January 1598 to accompany Robert Cecil on his embassy to France, remaining there after Cecil’s return. In May Mountjoy, who spoke of his love for him, made anxious inquiries of Cecil as to his whereabouts. In fact he had quarrelled with a certain Sir Melger Levin, and, despite an unsuccessful attempt at mediation by the Earl of Essex, had challenged him to a duel. The contest, arranged to take place near Paris on 4 June, was postponed on the ground that Blount had no horse. Eventually Henri IV forbade it, and both parties retired, each accusing the other of cowardice.

The following year Essex obtained the Queen’s consent for Blount to go to Ireland, and in April he was placed in command of a company of foot soldiers in Munster. He kept up his quarrel with Sir Melger, who repaired to the English court in 1599 ‘of purpose to save his reputation best here’, and Blount, too, decided to return to London. But he was killed in action early in October 1599. Administration of his goods was granted to his father and brother Thomas.

C219/33/64; M. T. Recs. i. 346; Burke, Gentry (1846), p. 112; Fam. Min. Gent. (Harl. Soc. xl), iv. 1256; HMC Hatfield, viii. 16, 168, 224-31; ix. 120, 146-7; CSP Ire.1599-1600, pp. 193, 212; HMC De L’Isle and Dudley, ii. 406. Information from W. J. Tighe.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: P. W. Hasler

Notes