CHANDLER, Walter (by 1486-1546), of Winchester and Abbot's Barton, Hants.

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 1486, 1st s. of John Chandler of Winchester by Emma (d.1523), da. of Richard Billet. m. by 1529, Cecily, da. of John Skeich of Winchester, 1s. 1da. suc. fa. 1505.4

Offices Held

Chamberlain, Winchester 1514-15, bailiff 1521-2, 1524-5, mayor 1530-1, collector of subsidy 1524; commr. sewers, Hants 1535, 1538, gaol delivery, Winchester 1540.5

Biography

It was during 1506-7 that Walter Chandler was made a freeman of Winchester. A mercer with some interest in wool who married the daughter of another former bailiff, Chandler was to figure more prominently in civic affairs than his father had done: in 1535 he was chosen one of the city’s representatives to move the King on its behalf during his visit there, and several years later he acted with William Lawrence I for the city in a quo warranto case.6

The accounts of St. John’s hospital for 1535-6 contain payments of £4 to William Hawles and of £9 to Chandler for their expenses in Parliament. As both the last session of the Parliament of 1529 and the only session of the Parliament of 1536 were held during the period of the account, it is not clear to which of them the payments refer. Hawles had been elected to the Parliament of 1529 with Thomas Coke II, who died before May 1532, and it may be inferred that Chandler was returned at a by-election to fill the vacancy and that he afterwards sat with Hawles in the Parliament of 1536 in accordance with the King’s request for the return of the previous Members. Although the returns for Winchester to the next three Parliaments are lost, a further payment of £3 13s.4d. to Chandler in 1543-4 indicates that he was re-elected to the Parliament of 1542, and he perhaps also sat in those of 1539 and 1545.7

Chandler’s election on any of these occasions may have owed something to Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester since 1531, for it was from the bishop that he held the reeveship of Stoke between 1532 and 1534. Gardiner is also likely to have patronized one who was connected with Hyde abbey before its dissolution—Chandler’s wife had been admitted to its confraternity before 1530—and who afterwards favoured its displaced monks: one of these Chandler presented to the living of St. Bartholomew, Hyde in 1542, and another witnessed his will. In 1535 he was among those whom the corporation appointed to approach the bishop about implementing the work of a recent commission for clearing the river Itchen. Sir William Paulet, senior knight for the shire in 1529 and the bishop’s steward, also appears to have leaned towards Chandler, who was in receipt of an annuity from Titchfield abbey.8

To his master, Viscount Lisle, John Hussee described Chandler as a ‘very crafty fellow’. In 1531 Chandler was farming the manor of Segensworth from Lisle and two years later, with that nobleman’s goodwill, he obtained the leases of the manor of Cherk and Lee Britten, but later there was bad blood and litigation between them. A similar deterioration marked Chandler’s association with Thomas Wriothesley, to whom he sold his rights in the manors of Cherk, Lee Britten, and Segensworth in part-return for Wriothesley’s aid in securing Abbot’s Barton: Chandler was granted this property in April 1540, but in the following December he was examined by the Privy Council for slandering Wriothesley and on 29 Dec. ordered to apologise to him in Council. Relations between them had improved by 1545.9

Assessed on £45 for the subsidy of 1524, Chandler prospered sufficiently to be able to acquire a number of properties in and around Winchester. Once he had secured Abbot’s Barton it became his seat. He made his will on 10 Aug. 1546 when on his deathbed. He left his wife a life interest in Abbot’s Barton, with reversion to his son Thomas, who inherited the Winchester property, and in default to his daughter. He appointed as executors his wife and son, and as overseers Thomas White II and John Cook. He died two days later, Thomas Chandler then being aged 17.10

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Authors: A. D.K. Hawkyard / A. B. Rosen

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament; Hants RO, Winchester, St. John’s hosp. accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII.
  • 2. Hants RO, Winchester, St. John’s hosp. accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII.
  • 3. Chamberlains’ accts. 35-36 Hen. VIII.
  • 4. Date of birth estimated from admission as freeman. Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 144; Berry, Hants Gen. 52; Hants RO, wills B 1523; C142/85/42.
  • 5. Hants RO, Winchester chamberlains’ accts. 22-23 Hen. VII; Stowe 46, f. 4; LP Hen. VIII, viii, xiii, xv; Black Bk. of Winchester, ed. Bird, 133, 139, 147, 195-6; J. Milner, Winchester, 311; E179/173/172.
  • 6. LP Hen. VIII, xv, add.; Black Bk. of Winchester, 154-5, 161, 190; Stowe 846, f. 201; C1/400/43.
  • 7. Hants RO, Winchester, St. John’s hosp. accts. 27-28 Hen. VIII; chamberlains’ accts. 35-36 Hen. VIII.
  • 8. LP Hen. VIII, x, xii; Black Bk. of Winchester, 155; R. F. Pennell, Par. of Hyde, 18; Gardiner’s Reg.; PCC 24 Alen.
  • 9. LP Hen. VIII, viii-x, xiii, xv, xvi; PPC, vii, 90-91, 101-2; DKR, ix. 189; VCH Hants, i. 283; iii. 228; Hants RO, 5M53, 313, 319-20.
  • 10. LP Hen. VIII, xiv; E179/173/172, 214; E321/9, 81; 16/4, 9, 51; C142/85/42; PCC 29 Alen.