William Fleetwood (MP for Lancaster)

William Fleetwood (1535? – 1594) was an English lawyer and politician. He was Member of Parliament for Lancaster 1559-1567 and for London 1572–1592.[1] A lawyer of the Middle Temple, he was Recorder of London in 1569, and Queen's Serjeant in 1592.[2]

Early life

Fleetwood was born about 1535, the (possibly illegitimate) son of Robert Fleetwood, in turn the third son of William Fleetwood of Heskin in Lancashire and educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, which he left without a degree. He was called to the bar of the Middle Temple. He became freeman by patrimony of the Merchant Taylors' Company of London on 21 June 1557; autumn reader of his inn on 21 May 1563; steward of the company's manor of Rushbrook in 1564, and counsel in their suit against the Clothworkers in 1565.

Career

In 1559 he was one of the commissioners to visit the dioceses of Oxford, Lincoln, Peterborough, Coventry, and Lichfield, and was elected M.P. for Lancaster to the first two parliaments of Elizabeth's reign (1559 and 1563), having previously sat for Marlborough in the last of Mary's parliaments (1558). In 1568 he became "double reader in Lent" to his inn.

By the Earl of Leicester's influence he was elected (26 April 1571) Recorder of London, and the same year was made a commissioner to inquire into the customs, besides being returned to Parliament for the City of London (8 May 1572). As recorder he was famous for rigorously and successfully enforcing the laws against vagrants, mass-priests, and papists.

In 1576 he was committed to the Fleet prison for a short time for breaking into the Portuguese ambassador's chapel under colour of the law against popish recusants. His own account of his action, dated 9 Nov, is printed in Strype's ‘Annals.’

In 1580 he was made Serjeant-at-law, and in 1583 a commissioner for the reformation of abuses in printing. In the same year he drafted a scheme for housing the poor and preventing the plague in London by maintaining open spaces. On 27 April 1586 he was promised, but did not receive, the post of Baron of the Exchequer. He was re-elected M.P. for London in 1584, 1586, and 1588. In 1588 he reported, with the solicitor-general, as to proceedings to be taken against the Jesuits, and in 1589 on the right of sanctuary for criminals attaching to St. Paul's churchyard. In 1591 the common council voted him a pension of 100 pounds, whereupon he resigned his office.

He was made Queen's Serjeant in 1592, and died at his house in Noble Street, Aldersgate, on 28 Feb 1593/4. He had formerly lived at Bacon House, Foster Lane, and at his death owned an estate at Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, where he was buried.

Private life

Fleetwood was a hard-working judge, and was disappointed at not receiving higher preferment. His connection with Leicester was insisted on by Leicester's enemies, and he is called "Leicester's mad Recorder" in Leicester's Commonwealth, but he was at the same time assiduous in cultivating Lord Burghley's favour. He was noted for wit, and his eloquence is eulogised by Thomas Newton in his Encomia, 1589.[3]

He married Mariana, daughter of John Barley of Kingsey, Buckinghamshire, by whom he left a family of six sons and two daughters. His elder son, Sir William, succeeded to Missenden, and a younger son, Sir Thomas, of the Middle Temple, was attorney to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. One daughter (Cordelia) married Sir David Foulis, 1st Baronet, and the other (Elizabeth) Sir Thomas Chaloner.[3]

Printed works

Fleetwood's works are:[3]

Manuscripts

Many of Fleetwood's works remained in manuscript. Among them are Observacons sur Littleton (Harl. MS. 5225), besides four volumes of reports and law commonplaces (Harl. MS. 5153–6). Wood saw in manuscript Observations upon the Eyre of Pickering, and on Lambarde's Archeion.[3]

Also left was Itinerarium ad Windsor, an unpublished work relating to the succession to Elizabeth I of England. Fleetwood had read the 1563 succession tract of John Hales. In this work he describes a (fictional) dialogue, in which he takes part with the Earl of Leicester and Baron Buckhurst. It touches on the doctrine of the King's Two Bodies as a way for Queen Elizabeth to legitimate her rule.[4] In this final section of the work, the characters use verbatim (though in English) sections from the Reports of Edmund Plowden, to support the concept of queen regnant.[5]

References

  1. ↑ The House of Commons, 1509-1558
  2. ↑ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53091 at footnote 14.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3  Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1889). "Fleetwood, William (1535?-1594)". Dictionary of National Biography 19. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  4. ↑ Brooks, Christopher W. "Fleetwood, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9690. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ↑ Charles Beem; Dennis Moore (18 April 2013). The Name of a Queen: William Fleetwood's Itinerarium Ad Windsor. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-1-137-27202-7.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1889). "Fleetwood, William (1535?-1594)". Dictionary of National Biography 19. London: Smith, Elder & Co.