Henry Talbot, MP

Family and Education b. 1563, 4th s. of George, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, by his 1st w. and bro. of Edward and Gilbert. educ. Magdalen Coll. Oxf. 1579; travelled abroad 1582-3. m. aft. Oct. 1586, Elizabeth, da. and h. of Sir William Reyner of Orton Longueville, 2da.

Offices Held

J.p. Notts. from c.1584, Derbys. from c.1589, commr. recusancy by 1592.

Biography After returning from the Continent in 1583 Talbot was sent ‘to occupy himself in the study of the law’. In fact he went to court, where he avoided embroiling himself unnecessarily in the disputes between his father and his stepmother. He remained on good terms with his father, acting as his confidential messenger and intermediary with the Queen, and sending him news from court. In return, Shrewsbury arranged for Talbot’s elections as knight of the shire for Derbyshire. His presence is unnoticed in the records of his two Parliaments. As a county Member, however, he could have served on the subsidy committees of 24 Feb. 1585 and 22 Feb. 1587. His marriage to Elizabeth Reyner took place after an earlier arrangement with Sir Henry Darcy’s daughter had broken down. His father stayed with Henry at Orton Longueville, some 16 miles from Fotheringay, during the trial of Mary Stuart, and made him a co-executor of his will with Edward, but both brothers renounced this in favour of the Countess, and both younger brothers found themselves in difficulties with their elder brother Gilbert, the 7th Earl, in consequence. Henry extricated himself sufficiently to avoid implication in the Talbot-Stanhope quarrels over Shelford weir. He died early in January 1596, when an investigation into a charge that he was unjustly withholding a poor man’s money was pending. Although part of his inheritance from his father passed to Edward as next heir male under the entail, Henry’s daughters were nevertheless heirs to a comfortable estate, part of which he had purchased. In his will, where he describes himself as of Burton Abbey, he left two parts of his lands to his wife, the executrix, until his younger daughter should be 18, and, thereafter, one part. His uncle, Roger Manners, and his wife’s second husband, Thomas Holcroft, went to law with Gilbert over these provisos.

C142/248/15; 250/36; HMC Shrewsbury and Talbot, ii. 127, 136, 154, 168, 170, 211; D. N. Durant, Bess of Hardwick, 93, 119, 145, 151; Lodge, Illus. ii, iii passim; D’Ewes, 356, 409; HMC Rutland, i. 181, 302; APC, xxiv. 267; xxv. 175, 183; Lansd. 86, ff. 10 seq.; HMC Hatfield, iv. 312; v. 75; PCC 4 Drake.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603 Author: S. M. Thorpe