Son of John Lennard of Chevening and Catherine Weston. Married Elizabeth Harmon, daughter of William Harmon and Margaret Boteler (Butler). Children: Sampson, Samuel, Mary, Elizabeth, Rachael, Anne, Timothea. Born 1508 and died at age 82 in 1590.

"But to return to John Lennard, the eldest son of John Lennard, of Chevening, and Catharine Weston, his wife, who was born in the last year of King Hen. Vllth's reign, and Who, after a learned education, applied himself to the study of the law; first, under the direction of his uncle, Mr. Weston, one of the Prothonotaries of the Common Pleas, and afterwards as a student in Lincoln's-Inn, and in 27 Hen. VI. was called to the Bar, and not long after made Prothondtary of the nine Shires in Wales, and Clerk of the Crown there; and in 37 Hen. VIII. obtained the office of Second Prothonotary of the Common Pleas. King Edw. VI. assigned him a standing fee for his office in North Wales, and enlarged his letters patent for the fame. Queen Mary, in regard of his services, granted him the manor of Chepsted, in Kent; and, in 3 Elizabeth, he purchased, of Lord Hunsdon, a long lease he had under the Crown, of the manor of Knol, about three miles distant from Chevening, where he afterwards, for the pleasantness of the situation, much resided, preferring it to his house at Chevening,. till he gave it up to his eldest son. In 4 Eliz* he was promoted to the office of Custos Brevium of the Common Pleas, which had been held before him, by diverse persons of great reputation ; particularly by Sir William Cecil, (afterwards Lord Burleigh) whom he succeeded, and was held by the late Earls of Litchfield. In 13 Eliz; he was appointed High Sheriff" of Kent, which office, in those times, was bestowed only on the most considerable Gentlemen in their counties. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of William Harman s, of Ellam, in Crayford in Kent, a family of good consideration in those parts, who, by his mother, * the daughter of Sir John Butler, of Woodhall, in Hertfordshire, was descended from the ancient Lords of that name, Barons of Wem and Overfley, by which Elizabeth he had two sons, Sampson and Samuel, and five daughters; 1. Mary, wife of Guilford Walsingham, eldest son of Sir Thomas Walsingham, of Scadbury, in Kent, and, after his death, married Sir Thomas Grefham, of'Fitzey, in Surry; 2. Elizabeth, who married Sir Francis Eure, Chief Justice of North Wales, second son of William, Lord Eure; 3. Rachael, wife of Edward, Lord Abergavenny; 4. Anne, married to Sir Marmaduke Darrel, of Fulmer, in Berks, Servant to Queen Elizabeth and King James, to which last he was Cofferer; 5. Timothea, to Sir Walter Covert, of Slaugham, in Sussex. In the execution of his offices; being a person of great integrity and diligence, he was unblameable, tarrying himself most uprightly; and there are still remaining in the family some copies of letters which he had occasion to write to the great men in office in his time, which, by the nervousness of the stile, and closeness of the reasoning, shew how able he was, though written when he was far advanced in years. He died anno 1590, in the eighty-second year of his age, having greatly increased the fortune he had from his father ; being possessed, as appears by his will, of the manors of Chevening, Chepsted, Apuldefield, Northsted, > Wickhurst, and Brasted, with other lands and tenements in the parishes of Sundrich, Sevenoak, Heaver, Shoreham, Chelsfield, Down, and Coudham, in Kent, and of the manors of Little Carkon, Colbile Weston, Moines Weston, Leverers, and Gatewards, with other lands and tenements in the parishes of Carlton, Weston, Willingham, Wickham, Brinkley, Borough, Barbarougham, Ballham, and Pannefworth, in the county of Cambridge; and of the manor of Horton, in Yorkshire ; the manor of Broadmarston, in Somersetshire ; and Staunton St. Quintin, in Wiltshire ; all which he bequeathed to his eldest son ; and 500 marks per annum to his younger son, Samuel Lennard, who was afterwards Knighted, and settled himself at West Wickham, in Kent, which was purchased about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and was ancestor of the Lennards of that place, Baronets. This John Lennard lies buried under a very fine tomb in Chevening church, on which are the effigies, in full proportion, of himself and his wife, and underneath the following inscription.:"

Hue secessit Johannes Lennard, Armiger, una cum
Elizabetha uxore sua ; hæc mortem obiit, 26 Octobris 1585 ; illequatuorprincipum diploma- tibus'ad varia reipublicæ munera designatus, quum in illis exequendis summam diligentiam, paremque prudentiam fidemque præstitisset: tandem octogesimo secundo ætatis anno ine- unte moritur custosbrevium de banco : relictis duobus filiis, et quinque filiabus, izmo. Mar- tii, 1590.

SOURCE: The Peerage of England by Arthur Collin, page 370-1.

Source

1. The Peerage of England by Arthur Collins, 1790.
2. Barrett-Lennard, Thomas. An Account of the Families of Lennard and Barrett. London: Spottiswoode and Co. Ltd, 1908.p 9. link

Links:

• Macomberlin.com:
• http://macomberkin.com/tng/getperson.php?personID=I39140&tree=macom...

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Buried at Kent, England, Chevening, St. Botolph's church. Same for wife; Elizabeth Harmon