John Manwood, MP

Family and Education b. by 1524,1 1st s. of Thomas Manwood, draper of Sandwich, by Catherine, da. of John Galloway of Cley, Norf.; bro. of Roger. m. (1) ?1545, Alice Jones of Sandwich, wid., 5s. 2da.; (2) ?1557, Agnes Arras of Faversham, wid., s.p.; (3) 1562, Katherine Brough or Brock, 2s. 4da. suc. fa. 1538.

Offices Held

Freeman, Sandwich 1545, common councilman 1546, auditor 1547-8 and many later years, searcher of woollen cloths 1552, keeper of chest 1552-5, jurat 1553, mayor 1555-6, 1559-60, brodhull rep. 1552, 1556, 1558, 1559, 1561, 1564, 1565, 1567, 1568, keeper of orphans 1557-67, bailiff to Gt. Yarmouth 1559, 1561, burgess of Shepway court 1559, foundation governor free grammar school 1563, sessor for levying men for defence 1564.2

Biography Manwood owed his return for Sandwich to his family’s standing, and in particular to his younger brother Roger, the town’s recorder. Once before, in December 1557, the brothers had stood for election together, but John, though chosen by Sandwich, had been replaced by a nominee of the lord warden. In 1571 Roger Manwood wrote to the town on his brother’s behalf, believing, according to his later statement, that the warden had given his consent. Finding that he was mistaken, and that Cobham had intended the second seat for John Vaughan, he deferred to Cobham, but the corporation maintained that they must have one resident freeman, ‘sworn to our liberties’, and in the end returned both Manwoods. The town books have an entry about the election: ‘5 March, John Manwood, jurat’. No other name is mentioned and no information about any parliamentary activity has been found, unless he and not Roger (who is probably meant) was the ‘Mr. Manwood’ who sat on the committee for griefs and petitions on 7 Apr. 1571. He probably died in the same year, soon after the end of the Parliament, though his will, made 15 June 1571, was not proved until April 1574. He left one third of his property to his wife, one third to his sons Thomas, Roger and John, and the remainder to his six ‘natural children’, i.e. those by his third wife. If anything in the will should be ‘badly expressed’, his brother was to have power to amend it. The executors were the widow and her stepsons Thomas and Roger.3

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603 Authors: A. D.K. Hawkyard / N. M. Fuidge Notes 1. Date of birth estimated from admission to freedom of Sandwich. 2. Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. lxxv), 136; W. Boys, Hist. Sandwich, i. ped. opp. p. 246, 842; J. M. Cowper, Regs. of St. Alphage, Canterbury, 106; Sandwich old red bk. 1529-51, new red bk. 1568-81, little black bk. passim; Cinque Ports white bk. 248-62; CPR, 1560-3. p. 613. 3. Little black bk. ff. 122, 149; new red bk. 1568-81, f. 72; C3/123/85; O. Baker, Hist. Sandwich and Richborough Castle, 22; APC, vi. 199; CJ, i. 83; Canterbury prob. reg. A 42, ff. 185-6.