William Mallory, MP

MALLORY, William (by 1519-85), of London and Papworth St. Agnes, Cambs. Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982 Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency / Dates

• HUNTINGDONSHIRE 1555

Family and Education

b. by 1519, 2nd s. of Anthony Mallory (d. 30 July 1539) of Papworth St. Agnes by Alice (d. 8 May 1546). m. 1548, Joan Smith, wid., 4s. 3da. suc. bro. 1540.1

Offices Held

J.p. Hunts. 1554-58/59, 1564-d.; warden, Mercers’ Co. 1563-4; escheator, Cambs. and Hunts. 1563-4; sheriff 1564-5, 1575-6; commr. eccles. causes, dioceses of Lincoln and Peterborough 1571.2 Biography

William Mallory’s father was a prosperous farmer at Papworth St. Agnes, on the borders of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, who served the two counties three times as sheriff. On his death in 1539 he was succeeded by his first son Henry, whose own death within a year brought the inheritance to William Mallory. Before this sequence was foreseen Mallory had been apprenticed to his kinsman Richard Mallory, a rising London mercer, and in 1542 he became a freeman of that company. An exporter of cloth, he was a founder member of the Russia Company. After his mother’s death and his own marriage he made Papworth his country home and began his career in the two shires, but his standing in London probably had more to do with his election to the Parliament of 1555 than his still modest attainment locally. In the House he joined his fellow-knight Thomas Maria Wingfield in opposing one of the government’s measures, and may also have done so in promoting the private Act which deprived Bennet Smith of benefit of clergy for a murder near Huntingdon (2 and 3 Phil. and Mary, c.17). This was to be Mallory’s only experience of Parliament although he lived for another 30 years.[footnote]

In 1561 Mallory was dropped from the commission of the peace, perhaps because he spent much of his time in London, but after the bishop of Lincoln had commended his support of the Anglican settlement he was restored to it and given the first of his two terms as sheriff. By his will of 24 Sept. 1585 he asked to be buried in Papworth St. Agnes church and provided for his wife, children and servants. He died on the following 23 Oct. and was succeeded by his 38 year-old son William. 3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. M. Hofmann

Notes

1. Date of birth estimated from age at mother’s i.p.m., C142/74/14, 89. E150/87/2; CPR, 1547-8, p. 327; C142/211/165, 166; PCC 44 Windsor; Vis. Cambs. (Harl. Soc. xli), 39.
2. CPR, 1553-4, p. 20; 1569-72, pp. 225, 227-8; List of Mercers (T/S Mercers’ Hall), 331.
3. Cam. Misc. ix(3), 29; PCC 44 Windsor; C142/211/165, 166.