Family and Education

b. c.1525, 1st. s. of Sir Richard Mainwaring by Dorothy, da. of Robert Corbet of Moreton Corbet, Salop. educ. G. Inn 1542. m. by 1557, Margaret, da. and coh. of Sir Randolph Mainwaring of Peover, Cheshire, 1s. George 3da. Kntd. Oct. 1547. suc. fa. 1558.1

Offices Held

Capt. at Berwick Jan. 1558; j.p. Salop 1562, sheriff 1562-3, 1576-7, commr. musters by 1573, dep. lt. by 1587.2

Biography

Mainwaring was a considerable landowner, much of whose property lay outside Shropshire. The death of his father-in-law in September 1557 brought him extensive estates, from the Cheshire branch of his family, in Bradley, Stretton and elsewhere in that county, together with houses in the city of Chester. In Shropshire he owned the manor of Ightfield, a large house at Cotton, and land in Steele, Whitchurch and Whixall. Through his mother he was related to Sir Andrew Corbet, the other Shropshire knight of the shire in 1559.3

Soon after he came of age Mainwaring served at Berwick under John Dudley^†, Earl of Warwick, who knighted him there in October 1547. During the last year of Mary’s reign he was in the north again for the Scottish campaign, in charge of 200 Shropshire men, and in May 1560 he took part in the attack on Leith.4

After this he settled in the ‘rude and barbarous soil’ of Shropshire, where he was an active official for nearly 30 years. The bishop of Chester classified him as favourable to the established church in 1564. Mainwaring was a deputy lieutenant at the time of the Armada, and in June 1588 sent a reprimand to officials of several hundreds in the county for not furnishing adequate information about arms and equipment. He died 2 Sept. 1590, having made his will that day, asking to be buried in Ightfield parish church. He left the greater part of his property to the executor and heir, George, who was then over 40. The only other members of the family mentioned were a daughter, Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Aston, her son Arthur, and Mainwaring’s brother James of Cotton.5

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes

• 1. C142/124/188; E150/875/4; Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxix), 348-9; Vis. Cheshire (Harl. Soc. xviii), 165; G. Ormerod, Cheshire, i. 482.
• 2. APC, vi. 244; Lansd. 56, f. 168 seq.; HMC Foljambe, 26.
• 3. C142/231/75; Ormerod.
• 4. APC, vi. 244; CSP Scot. 1547-63, p. 393.
• 5. HMC 7th Rep. 662; Cam. Misc. ix(3), p. 44; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), iii. 101, 104-5; PCC 49 Sainberbe; C142/231/75.