Family and Education

s. of George Daniell. educ. Eton 1540-5; King’s, Camb. 1545-8. m. (1) by 1557, Alice, da. of Robert Bithway^† of Marlborough, s.p.; (2) by 1558, Elizabeth, da. and coh. of William Whittocksmead of Beanacre, 2s.; (3) by 1566, Cecily, da. of William Hyde of Denchworth, Berks., 3s.1

Offices Held

J.p. Wilts. by 1574-c.92.

Biography

The Daniells came into Wiltshire from Cheshire, and acquired the site of St. Margaret’s priory, near Marlborough about 1540. In 1553 Geoffrey Daniell^† granted the priory property, which included a fair in Marlborough and houses in the High Street and in the parish of Preshute outside the town, to ‘William Daniell, gentleman’—presumably the 1558 and 1559 Marlborough MP. There are references in 1558 and 1560 to land in his possession in Whittocksmead, Credlingcot, Wellow and elsewhere in Somerset and Wiltshire, and to his buying a tenement and shop in Marlborough. About 1567 he acquired further property in Preshute.

His local standing was probably sufficient to obtain him a seat at Marlborough, but he was also on friendly terms with the Earl of Hertford, who frequently nominated there. Later in Elizabeth’s reign Hertford appointed Daniell’s younger son Edward ranger of Savernake forest, and the Earl is known to have visited the Daniell’s house in Marlborough. It may have been in this house that Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, died in 1612. Another Wiltshire nobleman, the 1st Earl of Pembroke, appointed one of the Daniells as his steward at Marlborough, and in 1561 sold land in the county to the family.2

Daniell’s career was that of a typical country gentleman, closely connected with his nearest town of Marlborough, where the records contain a number of references to gifts of wine to him and his friends. He attended the Marlborough musters of 1573, and in 1577 he was ordered by the Privy Council to explain the mayor’s refusal to furnish post horses for a royal servant. Two years later he was one of a commission of three to investigate the complaint of a certain John Bordman of the town that the Marlborough authorities had failed to punish the murderer of his son. It is not clear why Daniell’s name was omitted from later commissions of the peace. He died 17 Sept. 1604. The heir, his son William, was over 40 when he succeeded to the estates. Another namesake (and relative) became a judge at the beginning of James I’s reign.3

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes

• 1. PPC 4 Loftes; Genealogist, n.s. xii. 23; Vis. Wilts. 1623, ed. Marshall, 72; Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv, cvi), 42; CPR, 1557-8, p. 344; Wilts. Arch. Soc. recs. br. iv. 15 et passim; Vis. Berks. (Harl. Soc. lvi), 35.
• 2. Wards 7/27/21; Leland, Itinerary (1710-12), vii. 67; CPR, 1553 and App. Ed. VI, p. 116; 1557-8, p. 344; 1560-3, p. 52; Wilts. N. and Q. iv. 405; v. 569; Pension Bk. of G. Inn, i. 38; Foss, Judges, vi. 135 seq.; Earl of Cardigan, Wardens of Savernake Forest, 171; Marlborough Recs. 2 et passim; HMC Bath, iv. 207; J. Aubrey, Wilts. Topog. Colls. ed. Jackson, 338 n; Wilts. Arch. Mag. xxxiv. 252-3.
• 3. Marlborough Recs.; APC, x. 62; xi. 299, 300; Wards 7/27/21.