Family and Education

b. c.1552, 4th s. of John Lane of Walgrave by Elizabeth, da. of Robert Pakington of London and Chaddesley, Bucks. prob. unm.

Offices Held

Biography

It is uncertain how Lane came to be returned at a by-election for Mitchell. He had well-connected relatives, and, if he was the author of A device for the reformation of the Commonwealth (1574), he may even have come to Burghley’s notice. Lane’s father, who died leaving numerous young children, had bequeathed to each of his younger sons £300, with which they were to be bound apprentice to some ‘substantial merchant adventurer’. The death of some of the children increased Edward’s portion to £600, but it is uncertain whether he obtained all of this, since a relative was obliged to sue Edward’s mother and her second husband, Richard Mallory, over what he considered the wastage of the estate.

Probably, as has been generally assumed, it was Edward Lane of Walgrave who became involved in the dispute between the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon and the Lords Mountjoy over the alum works at Canford in Dorset, though the documents do not positively identify him. The part Lane played was not distinguished: evidently resident in the county by 1577 when he valued the mines, in 1579 he was co-lessee with his brother, John, of Haven House, the smaller works. In 1581 he took seisin of the larger, Okemans, by virtue of the Earl of Huntingdon’s authority, but, on being ordered by the Privy Council to give it up to the Mountjoys, came to an agreement with them, retained possession and became one of their principal supporters in the complicated battle which followed. Huntingdon be abused, casting aspersions on the sincerity of his religious convictions. He successfully retained his hold on the works until the venture petered out.

Presumably at the request of William Blount, 7th Lord Mountjoy, one of the patrons of the borough, Lane’s name appears on an indenture sent in by Bere Alston in 1584. This, however, was marked ‘not delivered’ and on a second return Edward Montagu II replaced him.

There are a number of references to Lane’s family affairs in Northamptonshire, particularly his disposal of the manor of Walgrave. In 1583 his eldest surviving brother John transferred the manor to him, and in 1592 one Thomas Pagittar obtained an injunction against him in connexion with it. Lane is last heard of in 1595 when he and his relative William Lane II attempted to oblige Sir John Conway to pay money forfeited on a bond concerning the goods of a fugitive.

PCC 38 Wrastley; Vis. Bucks. ed. Metcalfe, 27; E150/710/12; Lansd. 19, f. 89; 69, f. 175; C3/113/38; R. B. Turton, The Alum Farm, 46, 48, 51, 52, 98, 132; SP12/229/88, 250/51; SP13/H/20, 21; SP15/27A/93; HMC Hastings, ii. 36; APC, xiii. 116, 162, 303, 341, 359, 429; Northants. RO, Finch Hatton mss 756, 3126; HMC Hatfield, v. 138; CSP Dom. 1594-7, p. 31.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: S. M. Thorpe

Notes

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