Sir John Giffard, of Chillington

John Giffard (1534-1613) was a Staffordshire landowner and Member of the English Parliament, notable as a leader of Roman Catholic Recusancy in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.

• from GIFFARD, John (by 1534-1613), of Chillington, Staffs. and London.

Family and Education

b. by 1534, 1st s. of (Sir) Thomas Giffard of Caverswall and Chillington, Staffs. by Ursula, da. of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton, Warws. m. 10 Apr. 1550, Joyce, da. of James Levenson of Lilleshall, Salop, 8s. 6da. suc. fa. 27 May. 1560.1

Biography John Giffard was under 21 when he made his two appearances in the Commons, as junior Member for Lichfield in Mary’s first Parliament and senior Member for Stafford in her second, and in the course of a long life he never sat there again. This early, if unprophetic, start he owed to his lineage: his grandfather Sir John Giffard had been a friend of Catherine of Aragon, and his father, after accompanying him to his first Parliament as one of the knights for Staffordshire, was the sheriff who returned him to his second. The family’s strong Catholicism meant that neither father nor son was to be numbered among the Members who in the earlier of these Parliaments ‘stood for the true religion’ against the government’s initial moves towards Rome.

Although Giffard did not immediately succeed his father on the Staffordshire bench (and was thus not reported on in 1564), his choice to be sheriff in 1573 implies that he was not at first unacceptable to the Elizabethan regime. The turning-point was the Queen’s visit to Chillington early in August 1575, for three days later he was summoned before the Privy Council to defend his absence from worship at the parish church. After being examined by four bishops he was committed to the custody of the bishop of Rochester but given temporary leave to return to Chillington to reorder his house after the royal sojourn. He was then released on condition that he attended church and used the prayer book in his chapel, but he made so little attempt to conform that his estates were sequestered and he was allowed to leave his own houses at Chillington and in London only on licensed visits to the spa at King’s Newnham, Warwickshire. He nevertheless took the oath of allegiance in 1588 and contributed towards the musters for the defence of the realm, and after his son Gilbert helped to reveal the Babington plot he was dealt with less severely.2

Giffard made his will on 27 Aug. 1613. As most of his possessions were already disposed of there remained only debts to be paid and bequests made to servants. He died the next day and was buried in Brewood church, probably five days later than the date (24 Aug.) entered in the parish register. He had appointed as sole executor his son Walter, who was found to be his heir, and aged 60 years and more, at the inquisition taken on 13 Jan. 1614.

The family’s fortunes were never to recover from the effects of its continuing Catholicism.3

• from Wikipedia

Marriage and family

John Giffard married Joyce Leveson on 10 April 1550. she was the daughter of James Leveson of Lilleshall, a wealthy Wolverhampton businessman, one of the Merchants of the Staple who had the monopoly of wool exports from England. Leveson had made a fortune not only from trade but also from leasing the property of St Peter's Collegiate Church in Wolverhampton:[14] in 1550, James's cousin John and Robert Brooke took on most of the college property at fixed low rents on perpetual leases - a ruse by the prebendaries to profit doubly from the dissolution of the institution. James Leveson had bought Lilleshall Abbey, a dissolved Augustinian house in Shropshire in 1539,[15] and thereafter it became the seat of his branch of the Leveson family.

John Giffard and Joyce had at least 14 surviving children.

Links

• http://www.halhed.com/t4r/getperson.php?personID=I4763&tree=tree1