Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire

Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire

Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire (8 October 1587 – 16 July 1669) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1605 and 1622. He was created Earl of Berkshire in 1625.

Howard was born in Saffron Walden, Essex, the second son of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk and his wife Catherine Knyvet. He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge.[1] He was knighted in 1604. In 1605 he was elected Member of Parliament for Lancaster in a by-election. He was elected MP for Wiltshire in 1614. In 1621 he was elected MP for Cricklade. In 1621 he was created Baron Howard of Charlton, Wiltshire and in 1625 he was created Earl of Berkshire.

Howard married Elizabeth Cecil, daughter and co-heir of William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Exeter in 1614. They had thirteen children:

• Charles Howard, 2nd Earl of Berkshire (1615–1679).
• Mary Howard (1616–1679)
• Thomas Howard, 3rd Earl of Berkshire (1619–1706).
• Henry Howard (playwright)
• William Howard
• Sir Robert Howard (1626–1698)
• Elizabeth Howard, married John Dryden
• Colonel Philip Howard (1629–1717)
• Frances Howard, who married Conyers Darcy, 2nd Earl of Holderness
• James Howard
• Algernon Howard
• Edward Howard[2]
• Diana Howard (1636–1713).

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Howard,_1st_Earl_of_Berkshire

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• Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire1
• M, #105403, b. circa 1590, d. 16 July 1669
• Last Edited=19 Dec 2005
• Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire was born circa 1590.1 He was the son of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk and Katherine Knyvett.1 He married Lady Elizabeth Cecil, daughter of William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Exeter and Elizabeth Drury, on 26 May 1614.1 He died on 16 July 1669.1 He was buried on 20 July 1669 at Westminster Abbey, Westminster, London, England.1
• He was educated at Cambridge University, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England.1 He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Lancaster between 1605 and 1611.1 He was invested as a Knight Bachelor on 6 January 1604/5.1 He held the office of Master of the Horse in 1614, to Charles, Prince of Wales.1 He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Wiltshire in 1614.1 He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Cricklade between 1620 and 1622.1 He was created 1st Baron Howard of Charleton, Wilts [England] on 22 January 1621/22.1 He was created 1st Viscount Andover, co. Southampton [England] on 22 January 1621/22.1 He was nominated to be a Knight, Order of the Garter (K.G.) on 15 May 1625.1 He was created 1st Earl of Berkshire [England] on 5 February 1625/26.1 He held the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Oxfordshire between 1628 and 1632, jointly.1 He held the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Oxfordshire between 1632 and 1642.1 He graduated from Oxford University, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, on 31 August 1636 with a Master of Arts (M.A.).1 In 1638 he succeeded to his mother's estates at Charleton.1 He was invested as a Privy Counsellor (P.C.) in 1639.1 He was one of the Commissioners to treat with the Scots at Ripon in September 1640.1 He was imprisoned in the Tower by the Parliamentarians but released in 1643.1 He held the office of Governor to the Prince of Wales between 1643 and 1646.1 He was invested as a Privy Counsellor (P.C.) in 1660.1 He held the office of Gentleman of the Bedchamber between 1661 and 1669.1 He lived at Charleton, Wiltshire, England.1
• Clarendon described him as one whose "affection for the Crown was good; his interest and reputation less than anything but his understanding."1
• Children of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire and Lady Elizabeth Cecil
  • 1.Lady Mary Howard
  • 2.Charles Howard, 2nd Earl of Berkshire+1 b. c 1615, d. Apr 1679
  • 3.Thomas Howard, 3rd Earl of Berkshire+2 b. 14 Nov 1619, d. 12 Apr 1706
  • 4.Hon. Henry Howard3 b. c 1620, d. 1663
  • 5.Sir Robert Howard+ b. 1622, d. 1698
  • 6.Hon. William Howard+2 b. 27 Jun 1622
  • 7.Lady Frances Howard+ b. c 1627, d. 9 Apr 1670
  • 8.Colonel Hon. Philip Howard+ b. 5 Mar 1629, d. 1717
• Citations
• 1.[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 150. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• 2.[S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume II, page 151.
• 3.[S9] Charles Kidd and David Williamson, editor, DeBretts Peerage and Baronetage (London, U.K.: DeBrett's Peerage, 1999), volume 12, page 1870. Hereinafter cited as DeBretts Peerage, 1999.
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p10541.htm#i105403 ______________________________
• Thomas HOWARD (1° E. Berkshire)
• Baptised: 8 Oct 1587/8, Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• Acceded: 7 Feb 1625, Charlton
• Died: 16 Jul 1669, London, Middlesex, England
• Buried: 20 Jul 1669, Westminster Abbey, Middlesex, England
• Notes: Knight of the Garter. Lord Howard of Charlton, Viscount Andover. Second son of Thomas, 1st Earl of Suffolk, and Catherine, daughter and co-heir of Sir Henry Knyvett of Charlton, Wiltshire. Member of Parliament for Wiltshire in 1614. Married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Exeter, and niece of Viscount Wimbledon, in 1614. Designated in 1621/22 as the heir to his mother's Wiltshire estates and created Baron Howard of Charleton, Wiltshire. Male heir born 1615. Brother of Howard; brother-in-law of Salisbury; former brother-in-law of Essex: daughter was Pembroke's mistress. In 1625/26, created Earl of Berkshire.
• Father: Thomas HOWARD (1° E. Suffolk)
• Mother: Catherine KNYVETT (C. Suffolk)
• Married: Elizabeth CECIL (C. Berkshire) 26 May 1614
• Children:
  • 1. Charles HOWARD (2° E. Berkshire)
  • 2. Mary HOWARD (b. 1616 - d. 1679)
  • 3. Thomas HOWARD (3° E. Berkshire)
  • 4. Henry HOWARD (Hon.)
  • 5. William HOWARD
  • 6. Robert HOWARD (Sir) (m. Honora O'Brien)
  • 7. Elizabeth HOWARD
  • 8. Phillip HOWARD (Col) (b. 1629)
  • 9. Frances HOWARD
  • 10. James HOWARD
  • 11. Algernon HOWARD
  • 12. Edward HOWARD
  • 13. Diana HOWARD (b. 1631 - d. 1713)
• From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/HOWARD4.htm#Thomas HOWARD (1° E. Berkshire) _________________________
• HOWARD, Sir Thomas (1587-1669), of Charlton Park, Charlton, Wilts.; later of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster; Berkshire House, Mdx.; Newark Castle, Notts. and Ewelme Park, Oxon.
• bap. 8 Oct. 1587,1 2nd s. of Thomas Howard, 1st earl of Suffolk (d.1626), ld. chamberlain 1603-14 and ld. treas. 1614-18, and 2nd w. Catherine, da. and coh. of Sir Henry Knyvet† of Charlton and wid. of Richard Rich of Rochford Hall, Essex; bro. of Sir Edward II*, Henry*, Sir Robert*, Theophilus, Lord Howard de Walden*, Sir William*.2 educ. Magdalene, Camb. 1598, MA 1605;3 earl of Nottingham’s (Charles Howard†) embassy to Spain 1605;4 G. Inn 1606; I. Temple 1607;5 travelled abroad (France, Span. Neths., ?Italy) 1608-9;6 MA Oxf. 1636.7 m. 12 May 1614,8 Elizabeth (d.1672), da. of William Cecil†, 2nd earl of Exeter, 9s. (at least 1 d.v.p.) 4da.9 cr. KB 6 Jan. 1605, Bar. Howard of Charlton and Visct. Andover 22 Jan. 1622, KG 13 Dec. 1625, earl of Berkshire 5 Feb. 1626.10 d. 16 July 1669.11 sig. Thomas Howard.
• Offices Held
  • Lt. Braydon Forest, Wilts. (jt.) 1607-at least 1623;12 j.p., Glos. by 1614-at least 1641, Wilts. by 1614-at least 1641, 1660-at least 1664, Oxon. 1632-at least 1641, 1660-at least 1664 (custos rot. 1632-at least 1636, 16 June-10 Dec. 1660), Mdx. 1660-at least 1664,13 Cheltenham, Glos. 1618-at least 1625, Oxford, Oxon. 1665;14 steward, manor and wapentake of Newark, Notts. 1616-at least 1625;15 commr. oyer and terminer, Western circ. 1617-42, 1660-d., the Verge 1617, Oxf. circ. 1632-42, 1660-d.; London and Mdx. 1660-d.,16 subsidy, Wilts. 1622, 1624, 1629,17 Forced Loan, Wilts. 1626-7, Glos., Som., Bath, Bristol, Salisbury 1627,18 swans, Midland counties 1627, Eng. except West Country 1629, West Country 1629;19 ld. lt. (jt.) Oxon. 1628-32, (sole) 1632-42;20 commr. knighthood fines, Berks. 1630-1, Glos. 1630-1, Oxon. 1630-1, Wilts. 1630;21 high steward, Oxf. 1632-49, 1660-d., Wallingford 1632-at least 1640;22 constable, Wallingford castle and steward of honour of Ewelme, Oxon. and kpr. of park 1632-at least 1642;23 commr. oyer and terminer and gaol delivery, Surr. 1640, perambulation, Whychwood, Shotover and Stowood forests, Oxon. 1641, array, Berks., Oxon., Wilts. 1642, gaol delivery, Oxford, Oxon. 1661-d., sewers, Bedford Great Level, Fens 1662.24
  • Master of horse to Prince Charles 1614-25;25 member, Prince Charles’s Council 1617-25,26 jt. farmer of greenwax, Exch. 1625-at least 1641, 1657-d;27 PC 29 Mar. 1639-at least 1645, 31 May 1660-d.;28 commr. to treat with Scots 1639,29 treaty of Ripon, 1640;30 gov. to Prince Charles, 1644-6;31 member, Council of War (roy.) 1644-5,32 Prince of Wales’s Council, 1645-6.33
  • Patentee, glass monopoly 1615;34 gov., earl of Berkshire’s Guiana co., 1631-2;35 member, Fisheries Soc. by 1632.36
• Howard’s grandfather, Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk, was executed in 1572, but his father, having married the daughter and heir of Sir Henry Knyvet, a major north Wiltshire landowner, distinguished himself in the Armada campaign and received the Garter and a peerage from Elizabeth. Lord Howard also struck up a friendship with Sir Robert Cecil†, which placed him in an ideal position to benefit from the accession of James I in 1603, when he was made earl of Suffolk, lord chamberlain of the Household and a privy councillor.37
• Howard himself became a knight of the Bath when Prince Charles was created duke of York in early 1605. Subsequently the same year he joined his kinsman, the earl of Nottingham’s (Charles Howard†) embassy to Spain returned to England in June.38 The following November, the day before the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, he was returned for Lancaster in the by-election caused by the death of Sir Thomas Hesketh. Under-age, he was presumably nominated by the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Sir John Fortescue*, as a favour to his father, who may well have wanted Howard to sit in the Commons as part of his education.
• Howard’s youth and inexperience may explain his negligible contribution to the work of the House, for he made no recorded speeches, and in the first three sessions he was only named to two bill committees, concerned with recusants (added 3 Feb. 1606) and a clause in an Elizabethan poor law statute concerning the parents of illegitimate children (9 Dec.1606). He was also appointed to attend the conference to hear the Lords’ proposals on the Union (24 Nov. 1606).39
• Following the prorogation of July 1607 Suffolk decided to round off his son’s education with a tour of the Continent. Consequently in April 1608 Howard and his younger brother Henry were licensed to travel abroad for three years.40 However, their departure was delayed until the following December, when they accompanied Robert Cecil’s son, William Cecil, Viscount Cranborne* to Paris. According to Chamberlain, the brothers intended to go on to Italy, but when Howard left Paris the following February it was for Brussels, although it is possible that he subsequently headed south. What is certain is that he had returned to England by early 1610, although he may have missed the start of the fourth session of the 1604-10 Parliament. His first appearance in the records of the session was on 16 Mar., when he was appointed to consider a bill for ‘venting commodities’. He was subsequently named to three further bill committees, for fenland drainage (26 Mar.), private contracts (19 Apr.), and restraint in apparel (22 June).41
• In June 1610 Howard took part in the tilts held at Prince Henry’s investiture as Prince of Wales, and by the following August he and his elder brother, Theophilus, Lord Howard de Walden, travelled to Cleves in Germany, presumably to visit the English army commanded by Sir Edward Cecil* which was besieging the nearby town of Jülich.42 It is not known when he returned to England. He played no recorded part in the fifth session. In May 1611 he accompanied the new Venetian ambassador to his inaugural audience with King James.43 He subsequently contested regularly at tilts, and performed at masques before the Court in London and Queen Anne at the Oxfordshire house of his brother-in-law, William, 1st Lord Knollys (William Knollys†).44
• Howard used his family connections and favour at Court to secure profitable offices and leases of property. In 1610 he was granted the reversionary interest in Lord Knollys’ offices as constable of Wallingford castle and keeper of Ewelme Park in Oxfordshire, and subsequently he obtained leases of royal property in Northamptonshire.45 In 1613 he was reportedly ‘the most importunate suitor’ for the mastership of Prince Charles’s horse, a position he secured the following year, in addition to, apparently, the reversion of the greenwax fines and the treasurership of the chamber.46
• In November 1611 Howard was an unsuccessful suitor for Mary Fitz, the wealthy but temperamental widow of Allan Percy*.47 In the following year a proposal to match him to the widow of Roger Manners, 5th earl of Rutland was scuppered when the lady concerned died just weeks after her husband.48 In March 1614 Howard displaced Sir Robert Sidney* as suitor for the hand of Elizabeth Cecil, a daughter of William Cecil†, 2nd Lord Burghley. Sidney had demanded a marriage portion of £8,000, whereas Suffolk, now lord treasurer, magnanimously dispensed with this provision, and put out that ‘whatsoever her friends please to give shall be at her own disposal’. The marriage was delayed for a further two months while Elizabeth’s chances of surviving a sudden attack of smallpox lay in the balance. Suffolk resettled his estates to provide Howard with manors worth £3,000 p.a., consisting principally of the former Knyvet estate in Wiltshire, and the reversion, after his mother Catherine, of Charlton Park, the family’s principal residence in the county.49
• Howard’s election as knight of the shire for Wiltshire in 1614 neatly coincided with his marriage and his elevation among the top tier of the local gentry. However, his estates were concentrated in north Wiltshire, and since he was probably still only in his twenties, his success in being returned for the county was probably due as much to his father’s standing as his own. His parliamentary activity was again slight. On 13 Apr. he was appointed to the committee to consider the House’s protest against undertakers, and on the following day he was named to help confer with the Lords regarding the bill to confirm the right of the children of Princess Elizabeth, recently married to the Elector Palatine, to succeed to the throne.50
• In early 1615 Howard was included in the patent for the glass monopoly, although he sold his interest to Sir Robert Mansell* in the summer.51 Later that year his position at Court came under threat when his sister Frances, countess of Somerset, was accused of murdering Sir Thomas Overbury. Howard audaciously sent the king ‘an unmannerly and seditious message’ defending her, for which in November 1615 he was briefly incarcerated in the Fleet.52 Nevertheless, by 1617 he had evidently been politically rehabilitated as he was appointed a member of Prince Charles’s Council and granted the reversion of the governorship of Guernsey, while in the same year Prince Charles attended his child’s christening.53 In February 1618 James proposed sending him, as his proxy, to Heidelberg for the christening of Princess Elizabeth’s second son, Charles, and he was granted £500 per annum out of the gold thread monopoly. In the following year he secured custody of the jewel and plate confiscated from his disgraced brother-in-law, Robert Carr, 1st earl of Somerset.54
• In late 1619 Suffolk was imprisoned for corruption and, to obtain his release, the following January he was obliged to promise that Howard would relinquish the mastership of the prince’s Horse, which it was reported had been promised to John Villiers, Viscount Purbeck, brother of the rising favourite Buckingham.55 However, Suffolk successfully appealed to James and Buckingham to ‘spare the ruin’ of his sons. Buckingham, now that he had demonstrated his pre-eminence at Court, was undoubtedly reluctant to leave any lingering resentment among the still powerful Howards, particularly as he was negotiating to marry the countess of Suffolk’s niece. Consequently Howard retained his office and was soon restored to James’s favour, his entertainments for the king at Charlton in August 1620 being ‘much commended and well accepted’. That same year he was granted a lease of the royal manor and castle of Newark ‘in consideration of the good and acceptable service done’ by him for Prince Charles.56
• In 1620 Howard was returned for Cricklade, ten miles from Charlton, where Suffolk was the dominant electoral patron. He made one recorded speech in the Commons, on 17 Mar., concerning the transmission of the charges against the lord chancellor (Sir Francis Bacon*) to the Lords, when he successfully moved that the proper procedure was to first send a message to the Lords requesting a conference.57 He was named to four committees in the first sitting. Two were for bills, one of which concerned the subsidy (7 Mar.) while the other dealt with the tenants of Oldbury manor, which lay over the border from Charlton in south Gloucestershire (20 April). His other appointments were for drafting a petition in defence of the House’s right to freedom of speech (12 Feb.) and for increasing the seating in the Commons’ chamber (26 March).58 Howard’s interest in the gold thread patent was revealed on 7 Mar. and his involvement in the glass monopoly came to light on 30 Apr., whereupon William Mallory unsuccessfully called for him to be expelled (2 May).59 Howard appears only once in the surviving records of the second sitting, when the diarist Edward Nicholas named him as one of the courtiers delegated to present the House’s petition regarding war with Spain to the king on 3 December. However, Nicholas’s mention of him was probably erroneous, as Howard does not appear in the committee list contained in the Journal or in any other diary.60
• In January 1622 Howard was raised to the peerage as Baron Charlton and Viscount Andover. According to Chamberlain, his elevation was arranged by Buckingham as part payment by the latter for the London house of Howard’s brother-in-law, Lord Knollys, by now Viscount Wallingford.61 Early the next year Howard followed Charles and Buckingham to Spain.62 After Charles’s accession in 1625 Chamberlain reported that Buckingham paid Howard £20,000 and promised him an earldom and a seat on the Privy Council in return for surrendering his office as Charles’s master of the Horse.63 Although Howard was one of the earls created at Charles’s coronation the following year, he did not become a privy councillor until 1639. In August 1642 Howard was captured by the parliamentarians, allegedly trying to execute the commission of array in Oxfordshire, which charge he subsequently denied. He was confined to his house until March 1643, when he obtained permission to visit his estates in Wiltshire. He was thereby enabled to join the king at Oxford, where he became governor to the Prince of Wales.64 In 1646 he followed the future Charles II to the Channel Islands, but, failing to dissuade the prince from going to France, he went to Holland before returning to England the following October. In 1649 he compounded for his estate for about £1,300.65 He died, reportedly as a result of a fall, on 16 July 1669, and was buried in St. John the Baptist’s chapel, Westminster Abbey. No will or grant of administration has been found.66 Two of his sons, Sir Charles and Thomas, sat in the Long Parliament, while two others, Sir Robert and Philip, were MPs at the Restoration.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/ho... _________________________
• HOWARD, Theophilus, Lord Howard de Walden (1584-1640), of Audley End, Essex and Suffolk House, The Strand, Westminster
• bap. 13 Aug. 1584, 1st s. of Thomas Howard, 1st earl of Suffolk, ld. chamberlain 1603-14 and ld. treas. 1614-18, and 2nd w. Catherine, da. and coh. of Sir Henry Knyvet† of Charlton, Wilts. and wid. of Richard Rich of Rochford Hall, Essex; bro. of Sir Edward II*, Henry*, Sir Robert*, Sir Thomas,* Sir William*. educ. Magdalene, Camb. (John Smyth tutor) 1598; travelled abroad (France, Italy and Lorraine) 1603-5; incorp. Oxf. 1605, MA 1605; G. Inn 1606. m. c.1612 (settlement 17 Nov. 1606), Elizabeth (d. 19 Aug. 1633), da. of George Home, 1st earl of Dunbar, 4s. 5da. styled Lord Walden 1603-26; summ. to Lords in fa.’s barony 8 Feb. 1610; suc. fa. 1626;1 cr. KG 24 Apr. 1627. d. 3 June 1640.2 sig. Theo[philus] Howard.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/ho... ______________________________________