Sampson Lennard, MP

Sampson “Sheriff of Kent” Lennard

• BIRTH: 1544 - Chevening, Sevenoaks District, Kent, England
• DEATH: 20 Sep 1615 (aged 70–71) - Chevening, Sevenoaks District, Kent, England
• BURIAL: St Botolph's Churchyard - Chevening, Sevenoaks District, Kent, England

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Family and Education

• b. c.1544, 1st son of John Lennard, keeper of the writs in the c.p. 1562-86, of Chevening, Kent and Elizabeth, daughter of William Harman of Crayford, Kent; brother of Samuel†.
• educated Lincoln's Inn 1564.
• m. c.Nov. 1564, Margaret (d. 10 Mar. 1612), daughter of Thomas, 9th Baron Dacre of the South, and suo jure Baroness Dacre as heir to her brother Gregory, 7 sons (4 d.v.p.), 6 daughters (1 d.v.p.).
• Succeeded father 1591.
• d. 20 Sept. 1615.[1]
• sig. Samson Lennard.

Offices Held

• Capt. militia ft. Kent by 1588-at least 1596;[2]
• sheriff, Kent 1591-2;[3]
• Justice of the Peace Kent 1593-1607, 1613-d., Sussex 1613-d.;[4]
• commissioner of inquiry into Catholic missionaries, Kent 1592,[5]
• commissioner of subsidy, Kent 1595, 1603,[6]
• commissioner of sewers, Sussex 1602-10, Kent and Suss. 1602-11, Kent 1603,[7]
• commissioner of oyer and terminer, Kent 1615.[8]

Biography

Described by the antiquarian William Camden as ‘a person of extraordinary worth and civility’,[9] Lennard is to be distinguished from a cousin of the same name who became Bluemantle pursuivant in 1616.[10] His ancestors were living at Chevening, near Sevenoaks in Kent, by the reign of Henry VI, and his father, a successful lawyer, purchased a manor there, part of an estate in five counties.[11]

His wife was described by a local minister, Edward Topsell, as ‘a Ruth in religion’, whose diligent attendance at the lectures at Sevenoaks was an inspiration to ‘meaner persons’. During the late Elizabethan period they lived at Knole, a mansion near the Chevening let from the Crown, but the reversion had been granted to lord treasurer Buckhurst (Thomas Sackville†), and Lennard sold the residue of his lease to the latter for £4,000 in 1604. Sevenoaks, Topsell said, wept at their departure.[12]

Lennard had acquired Hurstmonceaux castle in east Sussex on the death in 1594 of his brother-in-law, Gregory, 10th Baron Dacre, and he probably took up residence there at the accession of James I. He had excellent connections among the Sussex gentry through his brothers-in-law Sir Walter Covert* and Edward Neville† (later 1st Lord Bergavenny), but in 1604, for the first time in 30 years, he failed to secure his return to Parliament, possibly because he was a newcomer to the county. It may also have been the case, though, that as he was pursing his wife’s claim to the barony of Dacre he hoped that he would soon be summoned to the Lords. His wife was officially recognized as suo jure baroness in December 1604, and in April 1606 he offered to surrender the reversion to the Dacre lands in Cumbria ‘to be made baron’, or else to pay £4,000. Sir Edward Coke* advised the king to accept cash only, since the reversion was in the Crown; but Lennard failed to raise the money, though his annual income was reckoned at £2,890.[13]

His lavish hospitality and the expenses of his suit, indeed, forced him to sell lands, and debt may account for his removal from the Kent bench in 1607.[14] He had still not attained his ambition when his wife died in March 1612 and the title passed to their eldest son, Sir Henry†; but the following month he received a patent for ‘the place and precedency of the eldest son of the Lord Dacre of the South’.[15]

Following the death of his wife, Lennard seems to have managed to stabilize his financial situation, and in the following year he was appointed to the Sussex bench. Even so, in late 1614 he had to convey lands in Norfolk to trustees for payment of his debts and those of his eldest son.[16]

Earlier that same year he was returned as knight of the shire for his adopted county, along with Covert. He made no recorded speeches but was named to six committees, usually in conjunction with Covert, including those for privileges and for continuing or repealing expiring statutes (8 April). They also included the Parliament’s two conferences with the Lords, the first on the Palatine marriage settlement (14 Apr.) and the second on the Sabbath observance bill (4 June). His only legislative committee, on 13 May, was for a private bill to enable a Sussex gentleman to pay his debts by selling land. After the cessation of business following Bishop Neile’s charges of sedition against the Commons, Lennard and Covert were among those ordered to accompany the Speaker to hear the king (29 May).[17]

Lennard died on 20 Sept. 1615, aged 71, and was buried beneath a magnificent alabaster tomb at Chevening. No will or grant of administration has been found. His great-grandson, Francis 14th Baron Dacre, eligible to sit in the Commons while the Lords was in abeyance during the Interregnum, was returned for Sussex in 1654.[18]

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: Alan Davidson

Notes

• 1. T. Barrett-Lennard, Acct. of Fams. of Lennard and Barrett, 6, 7, 215, 238-9; C142/229/143; LI Admiss.; CP, iv. 10-12.
• 2. HMC Foljambe, 37; CSP Dom. 1595-7, p. 306.
• 3. List of Sheriffs comp. A. Hughes (PRO, L. and I. ix), 69.
• 4. Cal. Assize Recs. Kent Indictments, Eliz. I ed. J.S. Cockburn, 343; Cal. Assize Recs. Kent Indictments, Jas. I, 33, 121; Cal. Assize Recs. Suss. Indictments, Jas. I, 50.
• 5. Staffs. RO, D593/S/3/6.
• 6. Staffs. RO, D593/S/4/38/16; E115/340/24.
• 7. C181/1, ff. 27v, 28; 57; 181/2, ff. 134v, 151.
• 8. C181/2, f. 228.
• 9. W. Camden, Britannia (1772), i. 248.
• 10. Oxford DNB sub Lennard, Sampson.
• 11. E. Hasted, Kent, iii. 108-9; PROB 11/77, ff. 211-12v.
• 12. E. Topsell, Reward of Religion (1596), unpag.; E. Topsell, House-holder (1610), sig. Av; Hasted, iii. 70; G. Ward, Sevenoaks Essays, 25.
• 13. HMC Hatfield, xvi. 100, 186; CP, iv. 11-12.
• 14. Barrett-Lennard, 229-30.
• 15. CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 126.
• 16. Barrett-Lennard, 229.
• 17. Procs. 1614 (Commons), 34, 35, 82, 228, 377, 405.
• 18. Barrett-Lennard, 238-9.

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Sampsonis Leonard de Chevening

High Sheriff, CO. Kent. Spellings Leonard-Lennard-Lennardson

From the Find A Grave page on Sampson Leonard:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=33583299

• Birth: 1544 - Kent, England
• Death: Sep. 20, 1615 - Chevening, Kent, England
• Son of John Leonard & Elizabeth Harmon.
• Married Lady Margaret Fiennes, Baroness Dacre 16 Nov 1564. She being the daughter of Thomas Fiennes, 9th Lord Dacre, and Mary Neville.

In the reign of Elizabeth I & James I Sampson was High Sheriff of Kent from Nov 1590 to Nov 1591; and he was elected a member of several Parliaments: in 1586 for St. Maws; in 1588 for the borough of Christchurch, Hants; in 1592 for St Germans; in 1597 for Rye; in 1601 for Liskeard ; and in 1614 for the county of Sussex.

After his brother in laws death in 1594 he successfully claimed the barony on his wifes behalf, so that she became the 11th Baroness Dacre. They had 13 children, and their younger son, Sir Henry Lennard (1570-1616), succeeded his mother as 12th Baron Dacre.

Sampson and Lady Margaret's home was at Chevening, co. Kent, 15 miles southeast of London, until perhaps 1594, the year of her brother's death, after which they were much at Hurstmonceux Castle, which they greatly embellished and where they entertained lavishly.

At St. Botolph's Church at Chevening is the stately alabaster tomb of Sampson Lennard and Margaret Fiennes.

In the south chancel, a stately tomb of alabaster, on which are the figures of a man in armour, and a lady in her robes, with their heads resting on cushions; at his feet is a brass head out of a ducal crown, and at her's a dog; on the south side are three sons (Henry, George & Thomas) kneeling on cushions, the first in robes, the others in armour; on the north side are five daughters (Anne, Mary, Margaret, Elizabeth & Frances), erected for Sampson Lennard, esq. with his wife Margaret Fiences, lady Dacre, &c. obt. 1615; on the top are six coats of arms with their quarterings.

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Under the remarkably fine tomb in Chevening Church, upon which are their life-size effigies has the following inscriptions:

'Gloriosum Domini nostri Jesu Christi adventum expectans hic requiescit Sampson Lennard armiger, una cum charissima uxore Margareta Baronissa Dacre (sorore et proxima haerede Gregorii Fienes militis Baronis Dacre de le South) cui 47 annos, 4 menses, et supernumerarios aliquot dies, conjugali vinculo ligatus, suaviter et beate vixit; suscepitque ex eadem 7 filios, Henricum, Baronem Dacre, Gregorium, et Thomam superstites, reliquis quatuor in infantia extinctis, et 6 filias quarum una periit infantula quinque supersunt; Pietatis, comitatis, hospitalitatis, laude celebris et in commune bonus, praepropera nobilissimae uxoris morte ampliorem Regis gratiam anticipante, honore primogeniti filii Baronis Dacre de le South, diplomate illustrissimi Regis Jacobi decoratus, anno aetatis 71, ineunte salutis 1615, Sept. 20. ex hac vita migravit'

On the other side:

'Margaretae Fynes, Baronissae Dacre, Filiae Thomae Baronis Dacre, Filii Thomae Fienes militis, Filii Thomae Baronis Dacre, Et Annae uxoris ejus filiae Humfridi Bourchier Militis, filii Johannis, Baronis Bourchier de Berners, filii Gulielmi Bourchier comitis Essexiae et Ewe, et Annae uxoris ejus, filiae Thomae de Woodstock, Ducis de Glocestriae; ex materna stirpe filiae Mariae, filiae Georgii Nevile Baronis de Bergaveny, fiii Edwardi Nevile, Baronis de Burgaveny, filii Radulphi Nevile comitis Westmorlandiae, et Johannae uxoris ejus filiae Johannis de Gaunt Ducis Lancastriae. Amoris et honoris ergo posuit charissimus, idemque moestissimus conjux, quem cum felici prole beasset, exemplarque pietatis in Deum, obsequii in maritum, charitatis in pauperes, humanitatis in omnes, supra sexum exhibuisset; tandem die Martii 10, anno Salutis 1611, aetatis 70, cum summo bonorum omnium desiderio; Supremum Spiritum libens lubensque Patri Spiritum, exhalavit.'

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Family links:

Parents:

• John Lennard (1508 - 1590)
• Elizabeth Harmon Lennard (1520 - 1585)

Spouse:

• Margaret Fiennes Lennard (1540 - 1611)

Burial: St Botolph Churchyard, Chevening, Kent, England

Created by: Sonnet Tidwell

• Record added: Feb 06, 2009
• Find A Grave Memorial# 33583299

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Sampson & Wife are in the taller more ornate tomb.

1. Thomas Barrett-Lennard. An account of the families of Lennard and Barrett, 1916