COLBARNE, Edward (by 1528-67/68), of Lichfield, Staffs.

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

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1553

Family and Education

b. by 1528. m. Catherine, wid. prob. s.p.1

Offices Held

Commr. i.p.m. Staffs. 1559, 1565, Warws. 1566.2

Biography

No pedigree has been found of the Colbarne family of Staffordshire and Warwickshire, and Edward Colbarne’s parentage has not been established. He was probably a brother of William Colbarne, York herald, whose will of September 1567 was witnessed by George and Francis Colbarne; Edward Colbarne had brothers so named. His own will suggests that he was either brother or son of the John Colbarne who purchased the manor of Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire, from the Duke of Northumberland in October 1552.3

Colbarne was an attorney in the common pleas who lent money on a large scale. When he made his will he was owed considerable sums by Edward Stanford, Sir William Gresley, Sir Fulke Greville, de jure Lord Willoughby, Walter Griffith and ‘many other gentlemen of honour’; he was himself slightly indebted to several of his neighbours including James Weston and his ‘landlord’ Robert Stanford. His association with Robert Stanford makes it highly probable that Colbarne owed his election to Stanford’s father (Sir) William Stanford. The elder Stanford had himself sat for Stafford in 1542 and 1545 and may have recommended Richard Forsett as his replacement there in 1547; the patronage lay with Henry, 1st Baron Stafford, who was heavily indebted to Stanford and perhaps also to Colbarne.4

Colbarne was a sick man when he made his will on 5 Dec. 1567. After remembering friends, servants and kinsmen, he left his wife £20 ‘besides the inheritance which I have gotten unto her and her daughter and her heirs of divers lands and tenements in Colwich [Staffordshire] with my great travail, labour and expenses of round sums of money’. He mentions no children of his own. He named as executors his brother Francis and his servant Richard Alyn. The will was proved on 13 July 1568.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: A. D.K. Hawkyard

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference (1549), CP40/1139. PCC 15 Babington.
  • 2. CPR, 1558-60, p. 147; 1563-6, pp. 493, 508.
  • 3. Ibid. 1550-3, p. 428; Trans. Birmingham Arch. Soc. lii. 227; PCC 26 Stonard, 15 Babington.
  • 4. CP 40/1139-40; PCC 15 Babington; Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. xviii(1), 22; CPR, 1563-6, p. 506.
  • 5. PCC 15 Babington.