DILLINGTON, Anthony (by 1529-87), of Poole, Dorset and Knighton in Newchurch, I.o.W.

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

Constituency

Dates

Oct. 1553
Nov. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1529, 2nd s. of Walter Dillington of Dillington, Som. by Margaret, da. of William Lovell. m. (1) by 1558, Anne, da. of one Reade of Wales, 2s. 4da.; (2) Cecily, da. of William Biddlecombe of Poole, wid. of Richard Goddard (d.1572) of Poole and Southampton, Hants.1

Offices Held

Comptroller, port of Poole, 23 Oct. 1552-61 or later.2

Biography

According to his grandson Sir John Oglander, Anthony Dillington was the first of his family to settle in Hampshire. His paternal grandmother had an interest in some Dorset property, and in 1550 he took up two burgages in South Street, Bridport. Of his career before he became comptroller and settled in Poole nothing has been discovered. Presumably he owed his return to two Marian Parliaments to his official position in the port, but he appears to have lacked either the strength or the interest to procure his election to every Parliament held during his tenure of the comptrollership. He was not among those Members who ‘stood for the true religion’, that is, for Protestantism, in Mary’s first Parliament, but he was one of those informed against in the King’s bench for absenting themselves without licence from her third. A writ of venire facias was directed to the sheriff, but no further process was taken against Dillington.3

Dillington continued as comptroller of Poole under Elizabeth, being assessed there on his fee of £10 for the subsidy of 1559: his accounts until 1561 are extant, but by Easter 1569 the post was held by another. His interest in the Isle of Wight, apart from official duties, may have arisen through his friendship with John Gilbert of Witcombe, Somerset, who was lord of the manor of Brading. Gilbert left Dillington £50 and appointed him overseer of his will with authority to use a rent from lands in the Island for payment of debts and legacies. Dillington probably settled there after purchasing from Gilbert’s heir between 1563 and 1565 the manors of Brading and Knighton in Newchurch: he also bought from Sir Robert Worsley the Ryde estate in Newchurch. Of the remaining 22 years of his life nothing is known. He was a sick man when he made his will on 2 June 1587. He asked to be buried in the north aisle of the church at Newchurch and left small sums to the poor there and at Brading and Newport, and provided for his unmarried daughter and his two sons. He died on the following 20 Sept.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: M. K. Dale

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Oglander Mems. ed. Long, 127; Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 15; PCC 71 Spencer, 28 Alen, 32 Daper.
  • 2. CPR, 1553, p. 380; E122/122/7, 9, 21, 123/2.
  • 3. Oglander Mems. 127; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 251/349; Bridport doom bk. 215; KB27/1176, rex roll 16.
  • 4. E122/123/2; 134/11 Eliz. Easter no. 3; 179/104/211; Som. Med. Wills (Som. Rec. Soc. xxi), 193-4; VCH Hants, v. 161, 181, 183; PCC 71 Spencer; C142/212/38.