Sir Robert Chester, I

The Chesters of Hertfordshire were desenced from Sir Robert Chester Kt., a gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Henry VIII, who purchased the manors of Royston and Cockenhatch in 1540 (Clutterbuck's Hist of Hertfordshire, III:363). It has been asserted that these Chesters came out of Derbyshire, where they had lost their estates in the Wars of the Roses; (Clutterbuck's Hist of Hertfordshire, III:363) but it is clear from the public records, that no family of note of this name ever existed in Derbyshire; and there are many indications that Sir Robert was a native of Hertfordshire, and that he family had long been tenants and dependents of the great Abbey of St Alban's. William Chester of Chipping-Barnet, who was nearly realted to Sir Robert of Royston, and bore the same arms, was the ancestor of the Chesters of Blaby in Leicestershire (Pedigree of Chester in Visitation of Leicestershire 1619). [Genealogical Memoirs of the Families of Chester p2]

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Robert Chester, to whom the Priory estates at Royston were conveyed by King Henry VIII., descended from an ancient family. He was the son of William Chester, of Chipping Barnet, co. Herts., yeoman. He was born 25th November, 1510, admited to Gray's Inn, 1552, and while still a young man attained to a position of high favour at Court, being one of the Gentlemen Ushers of the King's Chamber. On the dissolution of the Royston Priory, in 1537, he was granted a lease of the premises and lands, and in 1539 purchased the same from the King for £1,761 5s. and from this act he, and his descendants for genereations, became intimately connected with Royston and its people. He was knighted in 1552 and was High Sheriff of Herts. and Essex in 1665.

Sir Robert married, first Catherine, daughter of Christopher Throckmorton, of Coorse Court, co. Gloucester, and secondly Magdalen, the widow of Sir James Granado, Knight, equerry to King Henry VIII. By his first wife he had a numerous family, and at her death, in 1563, she was buried at Royston, with an imposing ceremony, as described on p. 91. Sir Robert died 25th November, 1574, and was buried at Royston. He was the author of a poem entitled "Love's Martyr," of which the Ph?nix was Queen Elizabeth, and Robert Devereux Earl of Essex, was the Turtle-dove. [A History of Royston, Hertfordshire pp207-208]

Source: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=dadslegac...