Family and Education

1st s. of John Honywood of Sene and bro. of Christopher. educ. ?Pembroke, Camb. 1546; G. Inn 1547. m. Margaret, da. of William Bedingfield of Brabourne, 1da. suc. fa. 1558.2

Offices Held

J.p. Kent from c.1564, commr. musters 1572.3

Biography

The Honywoods had settled at Henewood, Kent, from which they took their name, by the reign of Henry III. One branch of the family acquired lands in and around Hythe, and Sene, near that port, became their principal residence. As the eldest son, Thomas inherited the bulk of this property, including four manors and land in nearly a dozen parishes. There is some evidence that, as well as managing his estates, he practised as a lawyer. In 1570 and 1572, for example, he was paid 66s.8d. as ‘esquire and counsellor’ to the brotherhood of the Cinque Ports. Returned for Hythe to the 1572 Parliament, he spoke on at least three occasions, all in the first session. On 17 May he re-opened the debate on Arthur Hall, reminding the House that the writs sent to sheriffs asked for probos et legales homines as Members, and asserting that Hall was a man ‘not fit for the House’. On 11 June he confirmed, from his memory of the conversation at supper with Lord Wentworth, that a speech made in the House by Robert Snagge had been misrepresented. Finally, on 30 June, he complained

that his horses being coming for him towards London, are taken at Gravesend for the Frenchmen, and requireth privilege and that the takers may be sent for and punished, but had no remedy

—which must be a reference to the Constable Montmorency’s visit to England for the ratification of the treaty of Blois. Honywood served on committees dealing with weapons and poor relief (22 May 1572), statutes (25, 26 June); poor relief again (11 Feb. 1576), cloth (16 Feb.), wine (21 Feb.), land reclamation (6 Mar.) and wharves and quays (13 Mar.). He died on 2 May 1580, before the last session of the Parliament, and his will was proved 30 May in the consistory court at Canterbury. Most of his lands went to his daughter Elizabeth (who married Thomas Scott of Scot’s Hall), but some property, including Sene, was restricted to the male line and went to his brother John.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Authors: M.N. / P. W. Hasler

Notes

• 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
• 2. Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. lxxv), 105; W. Berry, Co. Genealogies, Kent, 226; Coll. Top. and Gen. ii. 268.
• 3. CPR, 1560-3, p. 438; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 451.
• 4. Hasted, Kent, viii. 37; Kent AO wills at Maidstone, C 27, f. 26; Cinque Ports white bk. f. 88; black bk. f. 3; Cam. Misc. ix(3), p. 58; Trinity, Dublin, Thos. Cromwell’s jnl. ff. 20, 63, 69; CJ, i. 96, 97, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107, 111, 114; Neale, Parlts. i. 256, 307; N. M. Sutherland, Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 248, 264; Kentish Wills, ed. Clarke, 81; C142/189/94(1); Hasted, Kent, viii. 193, 194, 204, 205.