Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton

Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton

Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton (1548–1626) was an English diplomat and administrator. From 1612 to 1613, he served as a Lord of the Treasury. Wotton was Treasurer of the Household from 1616 to 1618, and also served as Lord Lieutenant of Kent from 1604 until 1620.

Born in 1548, Edward was the eldest son of Thomas Wotton (1521–1587) by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Rudston, lord mayor of London.[1]

Edward does not appear to have been educated at any English university, but made up for the deficiency by long study on the continent. In 1579 Bernardino de Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, stated that Wotton had spent three or four years among the Spanish residents at Naples and described him as "a man of great learning and knowledge of languages."[dnb 1] He was certainly an accomplished French, Italian, and Spanish scholar; Mendoza also thought him "a creature of Walsingham's," but was unable to discover what his religion was.

The Scottish diplomat James Melville of Halhill recalled an incident in Edward's early career. Edward's uncle Dr Nicholas Wotton was an ambassador for Mary I of England in France, during the negotiation of the peace of Cateau Cambrésis. Dr Wotton was troubled by accusations that English soldiers served in the Spanish army. These allegations were made by the Constable of France, Anne de Montmorency. Melville says that he sent for his young nephew from England, who was about 19 years old, to learn French and Italian. Edward came to the French court anonymously as a simple countryman, Melville uses the Scots language word "landwart" (Landward) which means "countryside", accompanied only by his interpreter. According to Melville, Edward got an audience with the Constable and began to discuss the political discontent in England with Mary's husband, Philip II of Spain and Spanish influence in England. Edward was supposed to have spoken of a conspiracy to deliver Calais to France.

Naturally, the Constable was suspicious of the young man's offer, and Melville says he was asked if he knew anything of Wotton. Melville supplied his observation that he had seen Wotton deep in conversation with Dr Nicolas Wotton's secretary. Montmorency guessed that this was Dr Nicholas' plot to discredit him, and Edward remained a while in France, but now publicly known as the ambassador's nephew. Melville remembered the incident in 1585, when Edward was sent to Scotland by Francis Walsingham, and warned James VI that Edward might intend to deceive him.[2]

He was early given diplomatic assignments by Walsingham, and in 1574-6 was secretary to the embassy at Vienna, Sir Philip Sidney being for a time associated with him in these duties. In May 1579 Wotton was sent to congratulate Henry, the new king of Portugal, on his accession, and on his way back had an audience with Philip II of Spain at Segovia. In January 1583-4 it was proposed to send him to Spain to protest against Mendoza's conduct in England and to explain his summary expulsion by Elizabeth. (Sir) William Waad was, however, sent instead. On the following 9 Nov Wotton was returned to parliament as one of the Knights of the Shire for Kent.

In May 1586 Elizabeth, alarmed at the progress of the Catholic League in France and the success of Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma in the Netherlands, selected Wotton as envoy to Scotland to persuade James VI to enter into an offensive and defensive alliance and to take the Dutch under his protection. He was also to suggest James's marriage to Anne of Denmark or Arabella Stewart, but it was not until six years later that the former scheme was adopted. Wotton received his instructions from his friend Sir Philip Sidney on 15 May, was at Berwick on the 26th, and was received by James VI at Edinburgh on the 30th. "Doué de qualités brillantes, et qui excellait dans tous les exercices que Jacques VI aimait de prédilection, il ne tarda pas à prendre le plus grand ascendant sur l'esprit du jeune prince."[dnb 2]

At first Wotton's success appeared complete; James agreed to the proposal for an offensive and defensive league, and on 28 June the lords and estates approved. In the same month, however, the exiled Scots in England made a raid into Scotland, supported by an English force, and, though Elizabeth ordered the arrest of the offenders, James, with some reason, suspected the complicity of the English government and feared a repetition of the attempts to restore the exiled lords by force. Moreover, Arran's influence over the king was still supreme, and Arran was strenuously supported by the French party. A fresh complication arose with the murder of Lord Russell, on 27 July. Fernihurst was the criminal, but Arran was implicated, and Elizabeth now sought to use the circumstance to ruin him. Wotton demanded his arrest and removal to England for trial, but James merely confined him in St. Andrews, whence he was soon released and resumed his ascendancy over James. Wotton's position was now precarious, and in August Arrans ally, Sir William Stewart openly insulted him in the king's presence. Elizabeth, however, hesitated to risk an open breach with James by effectively supporting her ambassador, but the despatch of Castelnau de Mauvissière by Henry III of France to Scotland reinforced French influence at Edinburgh, strengthened James in his refusal to give up Arran, and made Wotton's success hopeless. He now advocated an incursion by the exiled lords, supported by an English force, and the seizure of James and Arran as the only means of restoring English prestige. But, aware of the danger to himself in such an event, he begged for his recall. This was granted on 11 Oct, but before Walslngham's letters could arrive Wotton had on his own authority crossed the border, and on the 12th he was at Berwick-upon-Tweed.[dnb 3][dnb 4][dnb 5][dnb 6][dnb 7][dnb 8][dnb 9]

For some time after his return, Wotton was occupied in local administration in Kent. In 1586, however, he was sent to France to explain to Henry III the intrigues against Elizabeth of Mary, Queen of Scots, certified transcripts of her letters in connection with the Babington Plot being sent him with directions on how to use them.[dnb 10][dnb 11][dnb 12][dnb 13] On 16 Feb 1586-7 he was one of the pallbearers at Sidney's funeral, and later in the year he succeeded his father at Boughton Malherbe, and on 5 January 1567-6 he was admitted student of Gray's Inn. In 1591 he was knighted, and in 1594-5 he served as High Sheriff of Kent.[dnb 14] In 1595-6 he vainly petitioned Burghley for the treasurership of the chamber, [dnb 15] and in March 1597 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the post of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. About the same time it was proposed to make him secretary of state,[dnb 16] but, this failing, Wotton made strenuous but vain efforts to secure a peerage.[dnb 17] In 1599, on an alarm of a Spanish invasion, he was appointed treasurer of a 'camp' to be formed, and in May 1601 he was offered but declined the post of ambassador in France. On 23 December 1602 he was made Comptroller of the Household and was sworn of the Privy Council; on 17 January 1602-3 Chamberlain wrote: "The court has flourished more than ordinary this Christmas. The new comptroller has put new life into it by his example, being always freshly attired and chiefly in white." On the following 19 February he was appointed to negotiate with Scaramelli, the Venetian ambassador.[dnb 18]

James I retained Wotton in the office of comptroller, and on 13 March created him Baron Wotton of Marley, Co. Kent.[dnb 19] In November he was one of the lords who tried Sir Walter Raleigh.[dnb 20][dnb 21][dnb 22] During the early years of James I's reign Wotton was lord-lieutenant of Kent,[dnb 23] but in August 1610 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary to France to congratulate Louis XIII on his accession.[dnb 24][dnb 25] On his return in October he brought Isaac Casaubon to England in his suite.[dnb 26] In June 1612 he was nominated commissioner of the treasury on Salisbury's death. In November 1616 he was made treasurer of the household, but on 23 December 1617 he was "persuaded" to retire from that office by the payment of five thousand pounds. This did not satisfy him, and he clung to office some weeks longer in the vain hope of extracting a viscountancy as a further compensation. He was excluded from the council on Charles I's accession on the grounds of being a Roman Catholic.[dnb 27][dnb 28]

Wotton retired to Boughton Malherbe, where he died early in 1626; the inquisitio post mortem was taken on 12 April.[dnb 29] Wotton’s widow had inscribed on her husband's tomb,

• To her beloved husband, Lord Edward Wotton,
• Baron of Marley, a Catholic.
• His grieving wife, Lady Margaret Wotton,
• daughter of Lord Wharton of Wharton, a Catholic.

For this blatant admission of their religion, Lady Wotton was fined and ordered to remove the word “Catholic.” Instances like this were rare.[3]

Edward had three younger brothers:

James, knighted at Cadiz in 1596

John, who died as young adult

A half-brother, Sir Henry Wotton, the son of Elionora Finch.[4]

Wotton first married, on 1 September 1575, Hester, daughter of Sir William Puckering. She died on 8 May 1592 and was buried in Boughton Malherbe church. His second wife was Margaret, daughter of Philip Wharton, 3rd Baron Wharton, who lived until 1652.[dnb 30] Wotton had issue by his first wife only, a son Thomas and a daughter Philippa, who married Sir Edmund Bacon. Thomas succeeded as second baron, but, being of weak health and a Roman Catholic, took little part in politics. He died, aged 43, on 2 April 1630 and was buried in Boughton Malherbe church; in February 1632-3 his widow was fined 500 pounds by the court of high commission for removing the font in the church to make room for her husband's tomb and for inscribing on it "a bold epitaph" stating that he died a Roman Catholic.[dnb 31][dnb 32] On 6 June 1608 he married Mary (1590–1658), daughter of Sir Arthur Throckmorton, with whom he had four daughters: Katherine, who inherited Boughton Malberbe and first married Henry Stanhope, Lord Stanhope, by whom she was mother of Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield; secondly, John Polyander à Kirkhoven; and, thirdly, Daniel O'Neill. His daughter Hester (d. 1649) was the third wife of Baptist Noel, third viscount Campden; his daughter Margaret married Sir John Tufton; Anne, his fourth daughter, married Sir Edward Hales, father of Sir Edward Hales, titular earl of Tenterden.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Wotton,_1st_Baron_Wotton

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Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton of Marley1

• http://www.thepeerage.com/p12828.htm#i128277
• M, #128277,
• b. 1548,
• d. from April 1625 to 19 January 1625/26

Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton of Marley was born in 1548.2 He was the son of Thomas Wotton and Elizabeth Rudston.2 He married, firstly, Hester Puckering, daughter of Sir William Puckering, on 1 September 1575 at Boughton Malherbe, Kent, England.2 He died from April 1625 to 19 January 1625/26.2

Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton of Marley was created 1st Baron Wotton of Marley, co. Kent [England] on 13 May 1603.3

Children of Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton of Marley and Hester Puckering

• 1.Philippa Wotton1 b. 7 Jun 1576, d. 1 Oct 1626
• 2.Thomas Wotton, 2nd Baron Wotton of Marley+4 b. 1587, d. 2 Apr 1630

Citations

• 1.[S15] George Edward Cokayne, editor, The Complete Baronetage, 5 volumes (no date (c. 1900); reprint, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1983), volume I, page 2. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Baronetage.
• 2.[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/2, page 865. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• 3.[S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume XII/2, page 866.
• 4.[S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume XII/2, page 867. ____________________
• Sir Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton of Marley, Sheriff of Kent1
• M, #112390, b. 1548, d. between April 1625 and 19 January 1626
• Father Thomas Wotton2 b. 1521, d. 11 Jan 1587
• Mother Elizabeth Rudstone2 b. c 1531
• Sir Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton of Marley, Sheriff of Kent was born in 1548 at of Boughton Malherbe, Kent, England.1 He married Hester Pickering, daughter of Sir William Pickering, on 1 September 1575 at Boughton Malherbe, Kent, England.1 Sir Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton of Marley, Sheriff of Kent died between April 1625 and 19 January 1626; Buried at Boughton Malherbe. Age about 77.1
• Family Hester Pickering b. c 1552, d. 8 May 1592
• Child
  • Sir Thomas Wotton, 2nd Baron Wotton of Marley+1 b. 1587, d. 2 Apr 1630
• Citations
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/2, p. 865-867.
• [S11568] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. XII/2, p. 865.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p3742.htm#... _________________________
• WOTTON, Edward (1548-1628), of Boughton Malherbe, Kent and London.
• b. 1548, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Thomas Wotton† of Boughton Malherbe by Elizabeth, da. of Sir John Rudston, ld. mayor of London; half-bro of Sir Henry Wotton. educ. abroad. m. (1) 1 Sept. 1575, Hester (d. 8 May 1592), illegit. da. and h. of Sir William Pickering†, of London and Yorkshire, at least 3s. 2da.; (2) Sept. 1603, Margaret (d.1659), da. of Philip, 3rd Baron Wharton and gd.-da. of Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland. suc. fa. 1587. Kntd. 1592; cr. Baron Wotton 1603.
• Offices Held
  • Ambassador to Portugal and Spain 1579, Scotland 1585, France 1586, 1610; gent. of privy chamber by 1589; comptroller of the Household 22 Dec. 1602-Nov. 1616; PC Dec. 1602-Apr. 1625; commr. of the Treasury 16 June 1612-14; treasurer of the Household Nov. 1616-Jan. 1618; j.p.q. Kent from c.1593, sheriff 1594-5, ld. lt. 20 Apr. 1604-May 1620; commr. trial of Ralegh 1603, against Jesuits 1603-22, recusant lands 1606, for the surrender of Flushing and Brill 1616, eccles. causes 1620.1
• Wotton’s diplomatic career was in some respects similar to that of his Kent neighbour and friend, Sir Robert Sidney, though Sidney had advantages derived from the prestige of his father, Sir Henry, and the fame of his elder brother, while Wotton’s father was a country gentleman. After a period of study on the Continent learning French, Italian and Spanish, Wotton served as secretary to the embassy at Vienna in the winter of 1574-5. The young Philip Sidney was there also and records in his Defence of Poesie that they learned horsemanship together. Later, Sidney was to make Wotton a bequest in his will.2
• In 1577 ‘young Mr. Wotton’ was appointed to meet the new French ambassador on his arrival in Kent, undertaking a similar task the following year. In 1579 he received his first important mission: to visit Lisbon to congratulate the King of Portugal on his accession, and, in view of the designs Philip of Spain was known to have on Portugal, to assess how secure he was on the throne. Wotton spent 10 days in Lisbon, sending home an appraisal of the chances of success of the three claimants to the throne, and concluding that Philip’s strength and resources were likely to prevail. On his way back he visited the King of Spain to convey a friendly greeting from Queen Elizabeth.3
• In 1585 he went to Scotland to persuade James VI to join Elizabeth’s proposed protestant league of defence against the Catholic powers; if he could persuade the King to enter into a suitable marriage as well, so much the better. He was to hint at the prospect of an English pension. At first he made good progress, the King congratulating Elizabeth on her choice of ‘so honourable and so wise a gentleman’. But James, still only 19, was influenced by the Earl of Arran, who was hostile to England, and it was not long before one of Wotton’s pessimistic despatches produced a characteristic reaction:
  • Her Majesty hath written ... to the King, beginning her letter with her own hand in French, in most loving and motherly sort, but, before she had finished it, your advertisements made her forget her French clean and fall to as plain English as ever she wrote in her life, whereof I doubt not but you shall hear soon enough.
• After Arran’s brother had insulted him in James’s presence, Wotton applied for his recall, evidently in fear for his own safety. By the time this was granted he had already fled to Berwick without taking leave of the King.4
• Within two months Wotton’s name was being canvassed as a likely ambassador to France, and in October 1586 he set out. Armed with a dossier showing Mary’s approval of the Babington conspiracy, he tried to persuade the French King of Mary’s perfidy and Elizabeth’s good faith. Elizabeth later expressed disapproval of Wotton’s handling of the embassy, and it was the last he undertook for her, even declining a similar mission in 1601.5
• After his succession to the family estates he was as much country gentleman as courtier. Already, in 1584, he had represented his county in Parliament, being named to two committees (Rochester bridge 5 Feb. 1585; shoemakers 9 Feb.). As knight of the shire he could have attended the subsidy committee on 24 Feb. 1585. Now he undertook many other duties in Kent, including the shrievalty and the organisation of military defences. The culmination of his work in the county came with the lord lieutenancy, which he received early in James’s reign. His patent of appointment was the first one specifically to exclude the Cinque Ports from his jurisdiction. In 1614 his name was suggested to fill the vacancy of lord warden, but his half-brother the diplomat and author, wrote:
  • My lord my brother will none of it (as I heard him seriously say) though it were offered him, for reasons which he reserveth in his own breast.6
• During the last years of Elizabeth’s reign no lucrative court appointment came his way. Walsingham helped him to press a claim for a pension (with unknown result), and even his knighthood came late in life. The court was full of rumours of promotion, his name being mentioned as a possible secretary of state—he was confident of this in 1591—vice-chamberlain, lord warden of the Cinque Ports, and Privy Councillor. He himself sought the treasurership of the chamber from Burghley and was reported to have paid £1,000 to a lady at court to persuade the Earl of Essex to help him acquire a barony. Now that Walsingham was dead, he had to seek a patron elsewhere, and it was fortunate for him that by the time of Essex’s disgrace he had established himself as a supporter of Cecil and as a friend of his Kent neighbours, the Brooke-Cobhams. He played an active part in examining witnesses to Essex’s behaviour in the streets of London. At last, only a month or two before her death (and perhaps through the influence of Lady Walsingham), Elizabeth gave him the high office which he had sought so long, making him comptroller of her Household, accompanied by admission to the Privy Council.7
• With James I’s accession Wotton became a prominent courtier, with a barony, lucrative offices and grants of land and revenues. So high was he in favour that in 1608 court opinion thought he was about to receive an earldom. On the death of the Earl of Salisbury he was one of the group of commissioners to whom the Treasury was entrusted, and in 1616 received his most profitable office, that of treasurer of the Household. Within two months of his appointment to this position he was negotiating its sale. However, attempts to secure a viscountcy as well as money failed, and opinion turned against him, John Chamberlain writing:
  • The world thinks somewhat hardly of the Lord Wotton that he would not rather prefer his brother, Sir Henry, to the place, and withal talk somewhat freely that offices of that nature and especially counsellorships should pass, as it were, by bargain and sale.
• In January James summoned him to Theobalds to return his white staff of office. Wotton said he was too ill to come, the King replied that ‘his staff was not sick’. At last he obtained his £5,000, but not his promotion in the peerage.8
• Wotton’s religious position is interesting. He was apparently making overtures to Rome from August 1610, the Pope agreeing in February 1612 that he should not be expected to give any public declaration of his renunciation of the established church. He continued to present to the livings under his control, and was even appointed a commissioner for ecclesiastical causes. The truth came out in 1624, when he made a full confession at Maidstone assizes, his widow later inscribing on his tomb the declaration that he ‘died a true Catholic of the Roman Church’. By James I’s death Wotton was a sick old man, and his dismissal from the Privy Council probably meant little to him. The year before, he had been permitted to absent himself from the House of Lords, and he now retired to his estates in Kent, whence he complained about his subsidy assessment being raised from £200 to £300, writing in his own hand, 7 Nov. 1626, to assert that he had had to become a debtor to pay the smaller amount. His life was saddened by the death of many of his family, including his eldest son Pickering. His own death occurred 4 May 1628, and he was buried at Boughton Maiherbe. Malherbe. On his son’s death in 1630, the title became extinct.9
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/wo... __________
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 63
• Wotton, Edward (1548-1626) by Albert Frederick Pollard
• WOTTON, EDWARD, first Baron Wotton (1548–1626), born in 1548, was the eldest son of Thomas Wotton (1521–1587) by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Rudston, lord mayor of London [see under Wotton, Sir Edward, 1489-1551]. Sir Henry Wotton [q. v.] was his half-brother. Edward does not appear to have been educated at any English university, but made up for the deficiency by long study on the continent. In 1579 Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, stated that Wotton had spent three or four years among the Spanish residents at Naples, and described him as 'a man of great learning and knowledge of languages' [Cal. Simancas MSS. 1568-79, pp. 672, 679). He was certainly an accomplished French, Italian, and Spanish scholar; Mendoza also thought him 'a creature of Walsingham's,' but was unable to discover what his religion was. He was early employed in diplomatic business by Walsingham, and in 1574-6 was acting as secretary to the embassy at Vienna, Sir Philip Sidney [q. v.] being for a time associated with him in these duties. In May 1579 Wotton was sent to congratulate the new king of Portugal on his accession, and on his way back had audience of Philip II at Segovia. In January 1583-4 it was proposed to send him to Spain to protest against Mendoza's conduct in England, and to explain his summary expulsion by Elizabeth. (Sir) William Waad [q. v.] was, however, sent instead, and on 9 Nov. following Wotton was returned to parliament as one of the knights of the shire for Kent.
• In May 1586 Elizabeth, alarmed at the progress of the catholic league in France and the success of Alexander of Parma in the Netherlands, selected Wotton as envoy to Scotland to persuade James VI to enter into an offensive and defensive alliance, and to take the Dutch under his protection. He was also to suggest James's marriage to Anne of Denmark or Arabella Stewart, but it was not till six years later that the former scheme was adopted. Wotton received his instructions at the hands of his friend Sir Philip Sidney on 15 May, was at Berwick on the 26th, and was received by James VI at Edinburgh on the 30th. 'Doué de qualités brillantes, et qui excellait dans tous les exercices que Jacques VI aimait de prédilection, il ne tarda pas à prendre le plus grand ascendant sur l'esprit du jeune prince' (Teulet, Papiers d'État, ii, 728). At first Wotton's success appeared complete; James agreed to the proposal for an offensive and defensive league, and on 28 June the lords and estates approved. In the same month, however, the exiled Scots in England made a raid into Scotland, supported by an English force, and, though Elizabeth ordered the arrest of the offenders, James, with some reason, suspected the complicity of the English government, and feared a repetition of the attempts to restore the exiled lords by force. Moreover Arran's influence over the king was still supreme, and Arran was strenuously supported by the French party. A fresh complication arose with the murder of Francis, lord Russell, on 27 July [see under Russell, Francis, second Earl of Bedford]. Fernihurst was the criminal, but Arran was implicated, and Elizabeth now sought to use the circumstance to ruin him. Wotton demanded his arrest and removal to England for trial, but James merely confined him in St. Andrews, whence he was soon released and resumed his ascendency over James. Wotton's position was now precarious, and in August Arrans ally, Sir William Stewart (fl. 1575-1603) [q.v.], openly insulted him in the king's presence. Elizabeth, however, hesitated to risk an open breach with James by effective support of her ambassador, but the despatch of Castelnau de Mauvissière by Henri III to Scotland reinforced French influence at Edinburgh, strengthened James in his refusal to give up Arran, and made Wotton's success hopeless. He now advocated an incursion by the exiled lords, supported by an English force, and the seizure of James and Arran as the only means of restoring English prestige; but, aware of the danger to himself in such an event, he begged for his recall. This was granted on 11 Oct., but before Walslngham's letters could arrive Wotton had on his own authority crossed the border, and on the 12th he was at Berwick (full details of Wotton's negotiations are given in Cotton MSS. Calig. C. viii-ix; Addit. MS. 32657, ii. 83-223; Hamilton Papers, 1343-99. pp. 643-708; Border Papers, 1560-94, Nos. 335-876; Thorpe, Cal. Scottish State Papers, i. 495-5l2;Teulet, Papiers d'État, Bannatyne Club, ii. 728, iii. 404-6; Cal. Simancas MSS. 1580-6, pp. 646-52).
• For some time after his return Wotton was occupied in local administration in Kent. In 1586, however, he was sent to France to explain to Henry III the intrigues against Elizabeth of Mary Queen of Scots, certified transcripts of her letters in connection with the Babington plot being sent him with directions how to use them (Addit. MS. 33256, ff. 172-205; Cal. Simancas MSS. 1587-1603, p. 178, and his instructions dated 29 Sept. in Cotton. MS. Calig. E. vi. 302; and Bernard, Cat. MSS. Anglica, iii. 5270, f. 240). On 16 Feb. 1586-7 he was one of the pallbearers at Sidney's funeral, and later in the year he succeeded his father at Boughton Malherbe, and on 5 Jan. 1567-6 he was admitted student of Gray's Inn. In 1591 he was knighted, and in 1594-5 he served as sheriff of Kent (Addit. MS. 33924, f. 16). In 1595-6 he vainly petitioned Burghjey for the treasurership of the chamber (Lansd. MS. lxxix. 19), and in March 1597 he was an unauccessful candidate for the Cinque ports. About the same time it was proposed to make him secretary of state (Collins Letters and Mem. ii. 25, 27, 30,54), but, this failing, Wotton made strenuous but vain efforts to secure a peerage (ib. ii. 85-8). In 1599, on an alarm of a Spanish invasion, he was appointed treasurer of a 'camp' to be formed, and in May 1601 he was offered but declined the post of ambassador in France. On 23 Dec. 1602 he was made comptroller of the household and was sworn of the privy council; on 17 Jan. 1602-3 Chamberlain wrote: 'The court has flourished more than ordinary this Christmas. The new comptroller has put new life into it by his example, being always freshly attired and chiefly in white.' On 19 Feb. following he was appointed to negotiate with Scaramelli, the Venetian ambassador (Cal. State Papers, Venetian, ix. 1135).
• James I continued Wotton in the office of comptroller, and on 13 Mar created him Baron Wotton of Marley, co.Kent (Addit. MS. 34218, f. 190b). In November he was one of the lords who tried Sir Walter Raliegh {Addit. MS. 6177, f. 137; The Arraignment of Sr Walter Rawliegh . . . before Lord Wotton . . ., London, 1643, 4to; Edwards, Life of Raliegh). During the early years of James I's reign Wotton was lord-lieutenant of Kent (Egerton MS. 880, passim; Harl. MS. 6846, f. 42), but in August 1610 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary to France to congratulate Louis XIII on his accession (Brewer, Court and Times of James I, i. 131; instructions in Stowe MS. 177, ff. 131-8). On his return in October he brought Isaac Casaubon [q. v.] to England in his suite (Casaubonorum Epistoler, pp. 361-2). In June 1612 he was nominated commissioner of the treasury on Salisbury's death. In November 1616 he was made treasurer of the household, but on 23 Dec. 1617 he was 'persuaded' to retire from that office by the payment of five thousand pounds. This did not satisfy him, and he clung to office some weeks longer in the vain hope of extracting a viscountancy as a further compensation. He was excluded from the council on Charles I's accession on the ground of being a catholic (Gardiner, v. 419; Brewer, Court and Times of Charles I, i. 8), He retired to Boughton Malherbe, where he died early in 1626; the inquisitio post mortem was taken on 12 April (6 Charles I, vol. iii. no. 92).
• Wotton married, first, on 1 Sept. 1575, Hester, daughter of Sir William Puckering, who died on 8 May 1592, and was buried in Boughton Malherbe church; and secondly, Margaret, daughter of Philip, third baron Wharton, who survived until 1652 (see Calendar of the Committee far Compounding, p. 2309; Addit. MS. 5494, f. 197; and Lords' Journals, vii. 302, 388, viii. 254, 315, ix. 118). Wotton had issue bv his first wife only, a son Thomas and a daughter Philippa, who married Sir Edmund Bacon. Thomas succeeded as second baron, but, being of weak health and a catholic, took little part in politics. He died, aged 43, on 2 April 1630, and was buried in Boughton Malherbe church; his widow was in February 1632-3 fined 500l. by the court of high commission for removing the font in the church to make room for her husband's tomb and for inscribing on it 'a bold epitaph' stating that he died a roman catholic (Court and Times of Charles I, ii. 227; Laud, Works, v. 311). He married, on (6 June 1608, Mary (1590-1658), daughter of Sir Arthur Throckmorton, and had issue four daughters: Catherine, who inherited Boughton Malberbe, and married, first, Henry. lord Stanhope, by whom she was mother of Philip Stanhope, second earl of Chesterfield [q. v.]; secondly. John Polyander à Kirkhoven [see Kirkhoven, Catherine]; and, thirdly, Daniel O'Neill [q.v.]; Hester (d. 1649), who was third wife of Baptist Noel, third viscount Campden [q. v.]; Margaret, who married Sir John Tufton; and Anne, who married Sir Edward Hales, father of Sir Edward Hales, titular earl of Tenterden [q. v.]
• [Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1580-1625; Lansdowne MSS. xlv. 6, 1. 87. lxii. 54, lxxix. 19. cxi 37; Addit. MSS. 20770 f. 23. 34176 ff. 37-43, 49, 80 (corresp. with Sir William Twyslen); Ashmole MSS. 232 f. 71. 582 f. 411. 1132 f. 3; Collin's Letters and Memorials, vol. ii.; Birch's Mem of Elizabeth, i. 157; Winwood's Memorials, ii. 151; Brewer's Court and Times of James I, i. 132-3. 176-7. 451-5; Cal. Hatfield MSS.; Cal. Buccleuch MSS.; Hist. MSS, Comm. 5th Rep. App. p. 487; Official Return Memb. of Parl.; Reg. P. C. Scotl., ed. Manson; Camden's Annals and Britannia, ed. Gough; Baker's Chron.; Spedding's Bacon; Brown's Genesis U.S.A.; Fortescue Papers (Camden Soc.), pp. 38,43; Gardiner's Hist. of England; Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, id. 1685; Strype's Works {general index); A. W. Fox's Book of Bachelors, 1899 (contains various errors respecting the Wotton family); Hasted's Kent, esp. ii. 429; Archleologia Cantiana {general index); Burke's Extinct and G. E. C[okayne]'s Peerages; authorities cited in text.]
• From: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wotton,_Edward_(1548-1626)_(DNB00) _____________
• Sir Edward Wotton
• Birth: 1548 Boughton Malherbe, Maidstone Borough, Kent, England
• Death: 1628 Boughton Malherbe, Maidstone Borough, Kent, England
• Ambassador to Portugal and Spain 1579, Scotland 1585, France 1586, 1610; gent. of privy chamber by 1589; comptroller of the Household 22 Dec. 1602-Nov. 1616; PC Dec. 1602-Apr. 1625; commr. of the Treasury 16 June 1612-14; treasurer of the Household Nov. 1616-Jan. 1618; j.p.q. Kent from c.1593, sheriff 1594-5, ld. lt. 20 Apr. 1604-May 1620; commr. trial of Ralegh 1603, against Jesuits 1603-22, recusant lands 1606, for the surrender of Flushing and Brill 1616, eccles. causes 1620.
• Family links:
• Spouse:
• Hester Pickering Wotton (1554 - 1592)
• Children:
  • Thomas Wotton (1587 - 1630)*
• Burial: St Nicholas Churchyard, Boughton Malherbe, Maidstone Borough, Kent, England
• Find A Grave Memorial# 146079732
• From: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=146079732 ______________
• Margaret WHARTON
• Born: ABT 1583, Healaugh, Yorkshire, England
• Died: 10 Mar 1659/60, Canterbury, Kent, England
• Buried: Barton, Kent, England
• Father: Phillip WHARTON (3° B. Wharton)
• Mother: Frances CLIFFORD (B. Wharton)
• Married: Edward WOTTON (1° Bt.) ABT 1604
• From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/WHARTON.htm#Margaret WHARTON1 ____________________
• BACON, Edmund (?c.1570-1649), of Redgrave, Suff.
• b. ?c.1570, 1st s. of Nicholas Bacon of Redgrave by Anne, da. and h. of Edmund Butts of Thornage, Norf. educ. Corpus, Camb. 1584; G. Inn 1586. m. Philippa (d.1626), da. and event. coh. of Edward, 1st Baron Wotton of Marley, by his 1st w. Hester, da. and coh. of Sir William Puckering, s.p. suc. fa. as 2nd Bt. Nov. 1624. Kntd. prob. by Apr. 1614, certainly by July 1624.
• .... etc.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/ba... _________________
• BACON, Sir Edmund, 2nd Bt. (1569-1649), of Redgrave, Suff. and Thornage, Norf.
• bap. 17 Feb. 1569,1 1st s. of Sir Nicholas Bacon†, 1st bt., of Culford, Suff. and Anne, da. and coh. of Edward Butts of Thornage. educ. Eton c.1580; Corpus, Camb. 1584; G. Inn 1586; travelled abroad 1595-6 (Venice). m. by 22 July 1593, Philippa (d. 1 Oct. 1626), da. of Edward Wotton, 1st Bar. Wotton of Marley, s.p. kntd. ?11 May 1603; suc. fa. 13 Nov. 1624. d. 10 Apr. 1649.2
• .... etc.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/ba... __________________
• A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerages of England, Ireland, and ... By John Burke, Bernard Burke
• https://books.google.com/books?id=0alfAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA293&lpg=PA293&d...
• https://archive.org/details/ageneralandhera02burkgoog
• https://archive.org/stream/ageneralandhera02burkgoog#page/n596/mode...
• Pg.581
  • WOTTON-BARONS WOTTON. ________________________________
• Links
• http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/wo...
• http://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/ww/wzmisc03.php
• http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/ru...

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