Simon THROCKMORTON

Born: BEF 1526, Brampton, Huntingdon, England

Died: 27 Mar 1585

Father: Richard THROCKMORTON of Higham Ferrars

Mother: Johanna BEAUFO

The details in this biography come from the History of Parliament, a biographical dictionary of Members of the House of Commons.

Born by 1526, third son of Richard Throckmorton of Higham Ferrers, Northants. by Joan, dau. of Humphrey Beaufo of Whilton, Northants.

Simon Throckmorton's father was a younger brother of Sir George Throckmorton, settled at Higham Ferrers, where he was steward for the duchy of Lancaster; he was also duchy receiver for Northamptonshire and neighbouring counties. Of Throckmorton's own career little has been discovered. It must have been an older namesake who was practising as an attorney in 1520, probably the member of the Suffolk family who died in 1527. Throckmorton is not known to have held office of any kind, but whereas his eldest brother became a groom of the chamber and receiver of Kenilworth and the other two were bailiffs for the Cromwell family, there is little doubt that he attached himself to a friend of his father, and his own fellow-Member, Sir Robert Tyrwhitt. It was in 1550, two years after Tyrwhitt's purchase of Leighton Bromswold, that Throckmorton bought Gerard Foster manor in Brampton, and make it his home; lying on the outskirts of Huntingdon, it was equidistant from Leighton Bromswold and Kimbolton, of which Tyrwhitt was custodian. But Throckmorton never attained the commission of the peace and was not really of knight of the shire status.

Throckmorton's two elections to Parliament clearly reflect Tyrwhitt's patronage: on both occasions Tyrwhitt himself sat for the shire and on the first Throckmorton had as his fellow-Member Tyrwhitt's stepson Thomas Maria Wingfield.

Both were to disappear from the Commons after 1559, when despite his Protestantism Tyrwhitt was out of favour with the new Queen; there seems to be no means of judging whether Throckmorton was of the same religious persuasion.

Throckmorton alienated the Brampton property in Sep 1559 to Sir Roger Woodhouse but this may have been only a conveyance under the Statute of Uses, as his son and heir Robert Throckmorton succeeded to it in 1585. Throckmorton was almost certainly a Catholic (another reason for his not becoming a j.p., at any rate under Elizabeth), and the remainder of his life was passed in comparative obscurity.

He died on 27 Mar 1585 and was succeeded by his 37 year-old son Robert.

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