Sir Reginald Corbet, MP

Reginald Corbet

Birth

   unknown 

Death

   19 Nov 1566 

Burial

   St. Peter's Churchyard

   Stoke on Tern, Shropshire Unitary Authority, Shropshire, England 

Memorial ID

   138652642 · View Source

Memorial

   Photos 2

   Flowers 5

Family Members
Parents

   Robert Corbet

1477–1513

   Elizabeth Vernon Corbet

1481–1563
Spouse

   Alice Gratewood Corbet

unknown–1603
Siblings

   Mary Corbet Powell

unknown–1586

   Dorothy Corbet Mainwaring

1490–1540

   Roger Corbet

1501–1538
Children

   Anne Corbet Leighton

unknown–1615
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Reginald Corbet

• Birth: Abt 1506 Moreton Corbet, Shropshire, England
• Marriage: 23 Aug 1546 Hodnet, Shropshire, England
• Death: 19 November 1566 Moreton Corbet, Shropshire, England
• Burial: Stoke-on-Tern, England
• Parents: Robert Corbet and Elizabeth Vernon
• Spouse: Alice Gratewood, born Abt 1527 Adderly, Shropshire, England Death: 9 Apr 1603 Burial: 9 Apr 1603 Stake-on-Fern, Shropshire, England Father: John Gratewood Mother: Jane Hill

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Biography

Extracted from Reginald Corbet, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, retrieved 4 April 2022

Reginald Corbet (by 1513–1566) was a distinguished lawyer in four reigns across the mid-Tudor period, and prospered throughout, although he seems to have been definitely Protestant in sympathy.

He was appointed serjeant-at-law and Justice of the King's Bench. He represented Much Wenlock in the parliament of 1542 and Shrewsbury in the parliaments of 1547, October 1553 and 1555.va He enjoyed great wealth, partly because his wife was an heiress of Sir Rowland Hill, the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London.

Augusta Corbett gives Reginald's year of death as 1569,[5] but the date of probate makes this impossible and 19 November 1566, is now the accepted date,[1] only about four months after the death of his brother, Richard.[4] He had made his will the previous year and it was proved on 22 January 1567.

Family

Reginald Corbet was the third son of Sir Robert Corbet (c.1477-1513) of Moreton Corbet Castle in Shropshire, and Elizabeth Vernon (died 29 March 1563). The Corbet family were landed gentry of Anglo-Norman descent, living in the Shropshire Welsh Marches for centuries, many of whom had represented Shropshire in Parliament.

Reginald had two brothers: Roger Corbet (c. 1501–1538), the heir to Sir Robert's estates, and Richard Corbet (died 1566). Reginald was probably little more than an infant when his father died. Both younger sons would have to look elsewhere for advancement. For Richard this meant, initially, the court,[4] while for Reginald it was the law.

Reginald Corbet married Alice Gratewood, daughter of John Gratewood of Wollerton, at Hodnet[5] on 23 August 1546.[1], heir to her uncle, Sir Rowland Hill.

Corbet and Alice had six sons and five daughters.[1][14]

1. Andrew predeceased his father.
2. Robert predeceased his father.
3. Rowland died while at school in Drayton.[5]
4. Francis predeceased his father.
5. Richard (died c. 1601), Reginald Corbet's heir, married Anne Bromley, daughter of Lord Chancellor Thomas Bromley[14].
6. Peter married Elizabeth Pigott, daughter of Thomas Pigott of Chetwynd.
7. Elizabeth married Robert Arden of Park Hall, Castle Bromwich.
8. Mary married Francis Newton of Heightley.
9. Anne married first Edward Mytton of Halston, then Sir William Leighton of Plaish.
10. Margaret married Sir Humphrey Lee of Langley and Coton, near Alveley.
11. Jane

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Death

Augusta Corbett gives Reginald's year of death as 1569,[5] but the date of probate makes this impossible and 19 November 1566, is now the accepted date,[1] only about four months after the death of his brother, Richard.[4] He had made his will the previous year and it was proved on 22 January 1567.

Richard was his heir. However, as Reginald owed his good fortune mainly to his wife's inheritance, he recognised in his will and testament:

"And as concerning any devise to be made of my lands, I can make none, for my wife is joint-purchaser with me, and so that I remit wholly to her and to her provision for our children after such plat and devise as I have drawn, and remaineth in my coffer" He gave a gelding to Sir Andrew and another gelding, together with his crossbow and a parcel-gilt silver cup, to Robert Corbet (died 1583), Sir Andrew's son, and asked them both to be good to Alice. He gave a gelding also to his brother-in-law, William Gratewood, forgiving him a debt of £14. He left the very large sum of £400 for the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth, then still unmarried. He was generous to his servants, giving each a full year's pay and up to an extra year's free board and lodging while they looked for employment. Alice was made the sole executrix.

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Career

CORBET, Reginald (by 1513-66), of Fitz and Adderley, Salop; Stoke-upon-Tern, Staffs.

Family and Education b. by 1513, 3rd s. of Sir Robert Corbet (d.1513) of Moreton Corbet, Salop by Elizabeth, da. of Sir Henry Vernon of Haddon, Derbys., bro. of Richard and Roger. educ. M. Temple, called. m. 23 Aug. 1546, Alice, da. of John Gratewood of Wollerton, Salop, 6s. 5da.1

Offices Held

Lent reader, M. Temple 1552, auditor 1556, assistant to reader 1559.

Feodary, Salop in 1543; recorder, Shrewsbury 1547-27 Dec. 1559; commr. chantries Salop 1547, relief 1550, subsidy 1563; j.p. Salop 1547, q. Glos. 1554-58/59, Herefs., Salop 1554-d., Worcs. 1554, Cheshire, Mon., Welsh counties 1558/59-d.; member, council in the marches of Wales 1553; justice of Anglesey, Caern. and Merion. 6 Apr. 1558-d.; serjeant-at-law Apr. 1559; j.K.B. Oct. 1559-d.2

Biography After being returned for Wenlock while still at his inn of court, Corbet missed the Parliament of 1545. In 1547 he was returned for Shrewsbury, which had made him its recorder at the outset of the new reign. Of his part in the proceedings of the House all that is known is that in March 1552, towards the close of the last session, he was given leave of absence to carry out his Lent reading at his inn, this having been postponed from the previous autumn.3

Corbet was to sit in two further Parliaments for Shrewsbury, and the resulting pattern of his Membership presents some points of interest. Before proceeding to the election for Mary’s first Parliament of October 1553 the borough resolved that Corbet was to be one of those returned ‘at this time and at all times hereafter so long as he is recorder ... if he will take it upon him, for that it is supposed to be incident to his ... office of recordership’. This pronouncement was clearly prompted by the fact that Corbet had not been elected to the second Edwardian Parliament but why this had been so it is not easy to say. Perhaps he was superseded at the behest of the Duke of Northumberland, who on this occasion interfered extensively in elections elsewhere, or he may himself have been disinclined to sit in this particular Parliament. Corbet was perhaps the originator of the pronouncement, for none of his predecessors in the office is known to have sat in the Commons for Shrewsbury, and he was consulted simultaneously on several points about elections, including whether a man abroad could be returned and whether canvassing was permissible. Corbet never enjoyed as handsome a fee from Shrewsbury as his predecessor, and the town’s parsimony towards him may have entered into the matter. In 1553 he did not join the opposition to the restoration of Catholicism, but two years later he voted with his nephew Sir Andrew Corbet against an important government bill. In 1558 he advised the Shrewsbury authorities again about canvassing.4

Though Queen Mary approved Corbet’s call as a serjeant, her death postponed his receipt of the coif for several months. Elizabeth made him a judge, whereupon he resigned the recordership of Shrewsbury. His summings-up were commended by his colleagues and his conformity to the new church settlement was approved by the bishop of Lichfield. He died on 19 Nov. 1566, leaving property in Cheshire as well as in Shropshire and Staffordshire. The heir, his eldest surviving son Richard, was a child of two when he succeeded. Corbet’s will, made on 26 Aug. 1566, was proved in the following January. One of the principal beneficiaries was his nephew Sir Andrew Corbet, who was among the overseers appointed to help the sole executrix and residuary legatee, ‘my singular good wife Alice’. Corbet was buried, as he had directed in his will, in Stoke-upon-Tern church, where a fine alabaster monument was erected to him.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558 Author: N. M. Fuidge Notes 1. Date of birth estimated from father’s death. Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxviii), 138; J. Hutchinson, Notable Middle Templars, 59; A. E. Corbet, Fam. Corbet, ii. 267-70; DNB; Foss, Judges, v. 475-6. 2. LP Hen. VIII, xviii; CPR, 1548-9, p. 137; 1553, pp. 358, 362; 1553-4, pp. 19-26; 1557-8, p. 310; 1558-60, pp. 18, 65, 105, 331; 1560-3, pp. 621-2; 1563-6, pp. 41-42; Shrewsbury Guildhall 486, f. 15; P. H. Williams, Council in the Marches of Wales, 258, 346-7; APC, vii. 18; HMC 15th Rep. X, 13, 14, 36, 49. 3. CJ, i. 19. 4. HMC 15th Rep. X, 13, 14, 36, 49, 538; Shrewsbury Guildhall 76, f. 5v seq., 486, ff. 16, 69; Guildford mus. Loseley 1331/2. 5. L. W. Abbott, Law Reporting in Eng. 183, 186n; Cam. Misc. ix(3), 44; C142/145/26, 28; Corbet, ped. opp. p. 357; PCC 1 Stonard; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 3), ii. 307; VCH Salop, viii. 19; Pevsner, Salop, 297.

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Corbet
• 1. CORBET, Reginald (by 1513-66), of Fitz and Adderley, Salop; Stoke-upon-Tern, Staffs.
• 14. Will of Reginald Corbet, dated 5 October 1566 and proved 22 January 1567 from the National Archives, PROB 11/49, available at The Oxford Authorship Site, accessed 4 April 2022. < PDF cites
  • pedigree of Corbet in Burke, John, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. III, (London: Henry Colburn, 1836), pp. 189-90 at: < Archive.Org >
  • See also the pedigree of Corbet in Grazebrook, George, and John Paul Rylands, eds., The Visitation of Shropshire Taken in the Year 1623, Part I, (London: Harleian Society, 1889), Vol. XXVIII, pp. 136-8 at: < Archive.Org >
  • For the Corbet family, see also Richardson, Douglas, Plantagenet Ancestry, 2nd ed., 2011, Vol. II, pp. 463-6, 490.
• “The family of Corbet; its life and times.”by Corbet, Augusta Elizabeth (1914). Page 350. < Archive.Org>