Sir William Musgrave, of Hartley, MP

MUSGRAVE, Sir William (by 1506-44), of Hartley, Westmld.; Edenhall, Cumb. and London.

Family

b. by 1506, 1st s. of Sir Edward Musgrave of Hartley and Edenhall by Jane, da. and coh. of Sir Christopher Ward of Grindale, Yorks. m. (1) by 1524, Elizabeth, da. of Sir Thomas Curwen of Workington, Cumb., 1s. Richard; (2) Elizabeth, da. and h. of Philip Denkaring, wid. of Thomas Tamworth (d. Jan. 1533) of Essex and Lincs.; ?(3) 1540, a da. of Thomas, 3rd Lord Burgh. Kntd. 25 Sept. 1523; suc. fa. 23 May 1542.1

Notes

• Residence: Harcla (or Hartley) Castle.
•  25 SEP 1523 Knighted at Jedburgh.
• 1529 Knight of the Shire for Westmorland.
• 1542 Fought at the battle of Solway Moss. 
• a "bastard line" is noted: "Jack of Musgrave"
•  Death:  18 OCT 1544; 18 JUN 1545 Writ.; 13 JUL 1545 Inquisition.

Biography

• from http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/mu...

The Musgraves had lived at Musgrave itself until their acquisition of Hartley in the reign of Edward III. As a Westmorland family, they were tenants and followers of the Cliffords, but in the latter half of the 15th century the marriage of Thomas Musgrave to the heiress of the Stapletons of Edenhall brought them into Cumberland, where the Cliffords were less powerful than the Dacres. Although their Cumberland estates were mostly held of the crown in chief, it may have been to avoid the prospect of their passing out of Clifford sphere of influence that, in the next generation, Sir Richard Musgrave was married to Joan, daughter of Thomas, 8th Lord Clifford.3

Although the son of that marriage, Sir Edward Musgrave, remained a Dacre man, his son William strongly opposed the Dacres and while looking to the crown for advancement was, in border terms, a Clifford supporter. His election in 1529, while still a young man, as knight of the shire for Westmorland must be ascribed to the patronage of Henry Clifford, 1st Earl of Cumberland.

In 1534 Musgrave struck at the Dacre power in the west marches. He accused Lord Dacre and Sir Christopher Dacre of conspiring with the Scots both against the realm and against himself: Lord Dacre, he claimed, had ‘sought traitorously to deceive the King, and machinated to the extent that Sir Will Musgrave, constable of Bow Castle, or Both Castle, and all his tenants might be slain by the Scots, and their house and chattels destroyed."  Personal enmity apart, Musgrave was undoubtedly encouraged to attack the Dacres by his relationship with the court and government and by his alliance, through his Curwen marriage, with that group of border gentry, led by (Sir) Thomas Wharton I, who were challenging the dominance of the magnates, whether Clifford, Dacre or Percy.

In January 1537 Cumberland sent his son Clifford to the King in company with Musgrave and Wharton, while Sir John Neville I, 3rd Lord Latimer, a brother-in-law of Musgrave’s, sought his help to clear himself of suspicion. Although Musgrave should have had little to fear from his own reception, he was so ‘pensive’ on his return to his London house in St. Botolph’s without Aldersgate that his wife feared he had ‘fallen in displeasure’. In this she was proved wrong, for after he had sat on a Carlisle jury to try some of the rebels, the border reshuffle of 1537 saw Musgrave made Wharton’s assistant in the west marches at a salary of £10 a year.6

Musgrave’s brother-in-law Latimer had taken as his third wife the widow of Sir Edward Burgh and a future Queen, Catherine Parr: this marriage may have contributed to an easing of border tensions, for in 1537 it was recorded in instructions given to Sir Anthony Browne that the King had reconciled Lord Clifford and Musgrave on the one part, and Lord Dacre and the Parrs on the other.8

His father had died two years before and on 1 July 1544 he had livery of his landed inheritance; he was to enjoy it for less than four months, his own death following on 18 Oct. 1544. No will has been discovered but the wardship of his son Richard was granted to Wharton.9

Musgrave has been numbered among the borderers who ‘were given opportunities not unlike those offered Wharton, but shied away from the hard duties which rule in the marches involved’. Yet alongside any such personal shortcoming must be set his lifelong wait for his inheritance from a father whom he came to oppose even while remaining dependent on him: if like Wharton he had both come early into his patrimony and been liberally endowed by his noble patron he might have made more of a name for himself in border history.

Sources

1. "Baronetage of England" by Betham. "Musgrave of Eden Hall, Cumberland."
2. "History of Yorkshire" by Plantagenet-Harrison. "Pedigree of the family of Musgrave."
3.  C.W.A.A.S., Tr. N.S., Vol.11, 1911, 38-51 and pedigrees. "The Border Manors" by T.H.B. Graham. "The Family of Musgrave of Harcla, Westmorland."
4. C.W.A.A.S., Tr. N.S., Vol.11, 1911, 233-258. "Extinct Cumberland Castles" (Part 3) by T.H.B. Graham.
5. C.W.A.A.S., Tr. N.S., Vol. 22, 1922, 186-197. "Bewcastle" by John F. Curwen, F.S.A..
6. Foster's Visitation of Yorkshire in 1584/5 and 1612. "Musgrave."
7. The history and antiquities of Leath Ward: in the county of Cumberland: with biographical notices and memoirs (Google eBook) Samuel Jefferson. S. Jefferson, 1840 - Leath Ward (England) - 515 pages.  "Parish of Edenhall.". Page 415. "1. William, his successor."

Links 

•  http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=allerton%...
•  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Solway_Moss_
•  http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/CURWEN.htm