CALVELEY, Richard (by 1504-29/30), of Hastings, Suss.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. by 1504. m. Joan, at least 1s. 1da.2

Offices Held

Jurat, Hastings 1525, bailiff 1529-d.; bailiff to Yarmouth 1528.3

Biography

The brevity of Richard Calveley’s Membership of the Parliament of 1529 is matched by the meagreness of what is known about him. His parentage has not been established and his occupation with the sea has to be inferred from his bequest to his daughter of £20 from the proceeds of the sale of his boat.

Calveley’s return for Hastings with Thomas Shoyswell was to mark the climax of his official career. Following their election, probably in September 1529, they may be assumed to have joined the Parliament at its assembly on 4 Nov. Twelve days later Calveley made his will, the earliest known by a Member in the course of the Parliament: its timing implies that he was already a sick man, but whether he died before the close of the first session on 17 Dec. is not known, probate being deferred until the following 28 Mar. Calveley named his wife executrix and John Levett overseer: he also gave Levett, four times bailiff of Hastings to 1520, custody of his daughter Elizabeth, and in his default named John Durrant and Edmund Jacklin alias Bocher* as bond-holders for the payment of her legacy, which if she died was to be divided among his other children. His tenement in Hastings he left to his widow for life and then to his son Richard. It may have been this son, or more probably a grandson of the same name, who was bailiff of Hastings in 1575 and mayor in 1594.4

Calveley’s death was to be followed in 1533-4 by that of his fellow-Member Shoyswell. A list of Members for the Cinque Ports of later compilation names those for Hastings in 1534 as John Durrant and John Taylor: thus both original Members had been replaced at by-elections, although which of the newcomers took Calveley’s place, and how soon after his death, is not known. The appearance of Calveley’s name, with ‘mortuus’ written against it, on the Crown Office list revised for use in 1532 implies that he had not by then been replaced.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Patricia Hyde

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. PCC 16 Jankyn.
  • 3. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. (Kent Arch. Soc. recs. br. xix), 193, 203, 205, 207, 209.
  • 4. PCC 16 Jankyn; W. G. Moss, Hastings, 135.
  • 5. Add. 34150, f. 137.