Family and Education

b. c.1557, 1st s. of Sir Anthony Strelley of Strelley by Joan, da. of Sir George Baynham of Clorewall, Glos. m. Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Garneys of Garnishe, Norf., 1s. suc. fa. 1591. Kntd. 1603.1

Offices Held

J.p. Notts. from c.1593.

Biography

Nothing is known of Strelley’s upbringing; probably he followed the family tradition and was trained as a soldier. The lands he inherited were only a fraction of the fifteenth-century Strelley estates, which had largely descended to female heirs, and the property was further encumbered by the debt his famous grandfather, Sir Nicholas, had incurred. The debt had in the course of time been transferred to the Crown, and the family manor of Eccleshall forfeited. In 1604 Strelley petitioned Cecil for the return of the property, promising to pay £100 a year until the debt was cleared, a small favour, he considered, after his father’s and his grandfather’s long years of service in the wars without preferment.2

His diminished inheritance explains Strelley’s undistinguished role in county affairs, but he did not lack prominent friends, particularly the earls of Rutland and the Willoughbys of Wollaton, at whose houses he was a welcome guest. His family had long been on friendly terms with the Shrewsburys, but he was not involved in the dispute between the 7th Earl and Sir Thomas Stanhope, which reached a crisis at the election of 1593, and he may, therefore, have been seen as a suitable candidate to lend an air of respectability to the Earl’s proceedings in the election. He was paired with the Earl’s brother-in-law Sir Charles Cavendish, against Stanhope and Thomas Markham, and they were elected by a ruse. As a county Member Strelley could have served on the subsidy committee, 26 Feb. 1593, and a legal committee, 9 Mar.3

Strelley did not sit again. The year before he died he arranged a marriage for his only son Nicholas, with Bridget, Sir Percival Willoughby’s daughter. Strelley died intestate on 29 Sept. 1607, and as his son had no issue, the lands ultimately passed to Strelley’s brothers according to the entail he had established. Administration of the property was granted to a creditor, John Martine.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: S. M. Thorpe

Notes

• 1. Vis. Notts. (Harl. Soc. iv), 19-22; Derbys. Arch. Soc. xiv, 73 seq.; C142/251/171.
• 2. HMC Hatfield, xvi. 128.
• 3. APC, xxvii. 117; HMC Rutland, passim; HMC Middleton, passim; Lansd. 85, f. 34; Neale, Commons, 66; Bull. IHR, xxxiii. 73 seq.; D’Ewes, 474, 496.
• 4. C142/292/166; HMC Middleton, 621; Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. xxvi. 206; PCC admon. act bk. 1608, f. 106.