John Horsey of Martin and his kinsmen at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries: the triumphs and vicissitudes of a West Country family in the 1530s and 1540s.
Peter Webb
The author teaches history at the Bishop Wordsworth School, Salisbury.
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John Horsey, who died in October 1546, was apparently the first member of his family to reside at Martin, near Fordingbridge (formerly in Wiltshire, now in Hampshire) [1]. He is associated with the development of the manor house [2] there and the extension of the parish church to accommodate the private chapel [3] in which, in accordance to his will, he was to be buried [4]. His local prominence, comfortable condition and prestigious connections by marriage cannot disguise his failure to grasp the opportunities of additional wealth available to the gentry at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. A striking comparison can be drawn between this failure and the success of his distant cousin Sir John Horsey of Clifton Maybank near Yeovil in Somerset in being able to secure the estates of Sherborne Abbey. The origins of John Horsey’s forebears appear to lie amongst the Horseys of Dorset: his father Thomas (1440-1477) hailed from Bridport, the son and heir of William Horsey who died in 1447. (A dissentient opinion will be found in the Victoria County History [5]). His inheritance was derived from his great-grandmother Eleanor Wyke, herself heiress to the combined estates of the Romsey, Bissett and Pain families. It embraced not only the manor of Martin, but also the neighbouring manors of Rockbourne, Coombe Bissett and West Farnham, as well as part of Damerham Parva. Further afield it included Marchwood near Hythe, lands at Testwood and North Langley in the hundred of Redbridge [6] near Southampton Water and at Deane near Alderbury as well as part of the town of Romsey, apparently known as Romseys Horseys.
Precise details of the relationship between the Dorset and Wiltshire branches of the family are obscure. Nevertheless, contemporary evidence suggests, as does Hutchins in his History and Antiquities of Dorset that the two branches of the family accepted kinship [7]. Moreover Bridport, with its rope-making industry encouraged by Henry VII, would have presented ideal commercial opportunities for a younger son to establish the fortunes of a cadet branch and to find, as John Horsey’s great- grandfather surely did, a suitable match.
By contrast, the senior branch of the family, which could trace its descent from the reign of Henry III and its origins to the hamlet of Horsey near Bridgwater, had by the early 16th century acquired several manors in Somerset and Dorset and established itself at Clifton Maybank.
At this time John Horsey’s contemporaries at the head of the senior branch were, somewhat confusingly, John Horsey who died in 1531 and his son, also John, who died in 1546 (See Family Tree A). Apart from service as a JP and as Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, the father had sat as one of the county MPs for Dorset - in itself a mark of his prominence - and had been amongst those chosen to attend the Field of the Cloth of Gold held outside Calais in 1520. His younger brother William had made his career in the church. As Dr Horsey, Chancellor to Richard Fitzjames Bishop of London, his distant relative, William had attained great notoriety regarding the death of Richard Hunne, an alleged heretic, found hanged in Old St Paul’s in 1514. The force of popular anticlericalism expressed over Hunne’s death did not go unnoticed by Henry VIII who was to exploit it fully in his break with Rome 20 years later. Ultimately, following a secret trial before the King’s Bench, William Horsey was despatched to Exeter as a canon of the Cathedral there and survived until 1543. As regards the younger generation, John Horsey junior had already undertaken public office as a JP prior to his father’s death. His younger brother Jasper had sought a career in a noble household and by 1535 held the post of Comptroller to the Marquis of Exeter. Both men proved themselves able to exploit the chances of gain and advancement offered by the exceptional circumstances then prevailing [8].
At Martin meanwhile John Horsey’s family grew. His three marriages produced three Sons and three daughters. Isabel Hussey bore him William in 1506 and subsequently Thomas, Joan, and Edith. Dispute exists between Heralds’ Visitations as to the mother of his youngest son Peter: that of Wiltshire in 1565 names his second wife as Anne Payne, whilst that of Warwickshire in 1619 credits Peter’s birth to Edith Lyte of Lyte’s Cary in Somerset. John Horsey’s third marriage must have taken place before 1521 since in that year his daughter Edith married her stepmother’s nephew John Lyte, heir to the manor of Lyte’s Cary [9] (See Family Tree B). Such a match must be seen as a considerable achievement for the recently established Wiltshire branch.
Following Thomas Lyte’s death in 1523, John Lyte and his wife Edith greatly extended their manor house at Lyte’s Cary (now owned by the National Trust). Indeed their initials and the arms of Lyte and Horsey bear testimony to their efforts throughout the house. It may be reasonable to suppose that Edith was influenced by her childhood home: [10] if so, Lyte’s Cary may provide clues to relate the surviving wings of the manor house at Martin to its former splendours. This second marriage with the Lytes must inevitably have brought Edith Horsey of Martin into the county community of her Dorset cousins at Clifton Maybank, a dozen miles away to the south.
Glimpses of the careers of John Horsey and his Sons at Martin come to us from the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII and reflect the times, troubled by religious upheaval and by fear of invasion, in which they lived. His pardon, at the accession of Henry VIII in 1509, may well have been in respect of allegations brought against him, as against so many others, by the former king’s notorious legal advisers Empson and Dudley. It will be recalled that these two were avid in searching out legal infringements for which fines could be paid in order to satisfy their royal master’s avarice. The removal of Empson and Dudley, their execution and the pardoning of their victims, boosted the new king’s popularity. Chosen as Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1516, 1518 and 1519 and again in 1528 and l529 [11], John Horsey was amongst those appointed to collect the unpopular taxes levied by Wolsey to support the war against France in 1523 and 1524 [12].
The threat of joint action in the Catholic interest against heretic England by both France and Spain, unusually at peace following the treaty of Nice in August 1538, produced defensive preparations. The Muster List of March 1539 gives details of both John Horsey and his elder sons [13]. For Alvediston William Horsey, Thomas Gawen and Robert Gerard were responsible for raising 21 men. At Fifleld Thomas Horsey was to provide 4, whilst at
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conservative opposition which culminated in the execution of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester and the King’s erstwhile friend and Chancellor, Sir Thomas More.
Despite his local prominence and the splendour of his residence, complete with private chapel embellished with the arms of Lyte and Horsey [25], John Horsey did not secure the tenure of his own manor directly from the Crown at the dissolution of Glastonbury. Instead the manors of Martin and Damerham passed via the Court of Augmentations (set up by Cromwell to handle the sale of monastic lands) into the possession of Queen Catherine Parr between 1541 and 1548. Held briefly by the Duke of Northumberland between 1551 and 1552, the manor reverted to the Crown until 1574 when the Bishop of Salisbury received it in exchange for the manor of Sonning in Berkshire [26]. Nor did John Horsey secure the patronage of the living of Martin and Damerham which passed from the abbots of Glastonbury via the Crown to the Earls of Pembroke. Additionally, we have seen that he had relinquished the lease of the rectory at Martin by 1540. While family quarrels, probable extravagance, and the death without issue of John Horsey’s great-grandson Thomas [27] seem more directly to explain the sale of the family’s estates in the 1620s, it is evident that for John Horsey and his posterity the Dissolution was an opportunity lost and a factor underlying their eventual eclipse.
At Clifton Maybank on the other hand John Horsey’s namesake prospered mightily. Succeeding to his father’s estates and his county responsibilities in 1531, he served in the Long Parliament of the Reformation and was knighted in 1533. Beyond these roles in national and local affairs Sir John was to be found at Court for the christening of Edward, Prince of Wales in 1537 and for the arrival of Anne of Cleves in 1540. Meanwhile in 1539 he was appointed to Thomas Cromwell’s shortlived Council in the West. Six years later, with a French invasion threatened, he was required to despatch sailors from Somerset and Dorset for the King’s service at Portsmouth. With the French in the Solent and pillaging the Isle of Wight there were widespread fears of Catholic subversion. Despite this, in an effort to maintain the King’s peace, Sir John worked throughout the two counties to halt unauthorised searches of priests’ houses for weapons.
Sir John’s gains at the Dissolution befitted his status and service. As Steward of Sherborne Abbey he knew the value of the abbey lands and had in 1535 bribed Cromwell to secure the appointment of his friend John Barstable as abbot in anticipation of his surrendering the abbey when required. His acquisitions, purchased for considerable sums from the Court of Augmentations between 1538 and 1543, extended his estates along both banks of the River Yeo between Clifton Maybank and Sherborne. Other lands came from the monastic houses of Henton, Cannington and Bindon. Additionally he acted as a middleman. Longleat, acquired from the Crown in 1540 was resold - doubtless at a profit - to John Thynne Esquire of London, whose family hold it still. In all, Sir John had more than doubled his inheritance by his death in 1546.
Jasper his younger brother had exploited the downfall of the Marquis of Exeter. His Yorkist blood and his association with opponents of the King’s break with Rome proved to be Exeter’s death warrant and Jasper’s opportunity. A Crown witness at his master’s trial in 1538, he was appointed steward to Anne of Cleves in 1540, and held the post of Chief Gentleman of the Prince of Wales Chamber in 1545, the year of his death. Although he did not live to enjoy the full rewards of his opportunism, his wife Joanna survived him in comfortable widowhood until 1558. George his eldest son was able to acquire an estate at Diggeswell in Hertfordshire by his first marriage and by his second, to a daughter of its Chancellor, Sir Ralph Sadler, the post of Receiver- General of the Duchy of Lancaster [28].
To conclude, accidents of age and personality may in part explain the great contrast in fortunes between John Horsey of Martin and his kinsfolk at Clifton Maybank. If, as the Visitation of Wiltshire suggests, he was indeed the son of Thomas Horsey who died in 1477, he is likely to have been a septuagenarian at his death. Perhaps it is not unreasonable to suppose that old age, if not sentiment, played its part in his failure to profit from the brutal fate of his feudal lord and contemporary, if not senior in years, the abbot of Glastonbury. At Clifton Maybank, on the other hand, John Horsey’s succession in 1531 may well have removed the constraints of age and reverence in favour of a more voracious attitude to the abbey of Sherborne. At Martin, furthermore, John Horsey lacked the advantages of proximity and involvement in respect of Glastonbury exploited to such effect by his namesake at Sherborne. Neither were his sons in a position to seize the initiative. William’s fierce quarrels with his neighbours and Thomas’s outlawry must have been over-riding pre-occupations By contrast, John and Jasper Horsey were well-placed.
Such explanations however may well be secondary when set against considerations arising from contrasts in length of tenure of the two branches of the family in their respective estates. Although Martin could match Clifton Maybank in manors held and had achieved prominence locally, the senior branch could claim a length of tenure unrivalled by its junior. As a result of this distinction exemplified by membership of Parliament for their county, the Clifton Maybank Horseys had been able to accrue both the wealth and the influence at Court necessary to secure the coveted monastic estates. Time was not on John Horsey’s side at Martin when the moment of windfall arrived.
In a more general sense we may finally reflect that this cursory study underlines the great variations of wealth and status displayed by the English gentry, amongst whom the fruits of the Dissolution were shared by the few rather than by the many.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author acknowledges his debt to his cousin the late Alice Mary Horsey whose initial researches set him in pursuit of the Horsey family, and secondly to the late E.H. Lane Poole with whom he respectfully begs to differ regarding John Horsey of Martin’s rank and the date of his demise.
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[Family tree A and Family tree B to photograph and insert]
