Family and Education

b. by 1521, 1st s. of Edmund Felton of Pentlow by Frances, da. of John Butler of Coventry, Warws. m. Margaret, da. of John Carew of Bury St. Edmunds, Suff., at least 6s. 6da. suc. fa. Dec. 1542.1

Offices Held

Bailiff to John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford by 1551; j.p. Essex 1554.2

Biography

The Feltons of Pentlow seem to have sprung from the same family as the more prominent Feltons of Playford, Suffolk. George Felton’s great-grandfather had acquired Pentlow towards the end of the 15th century and also possessed property in Suffolk. During the succession crisis of 1553 Felton rallied to Mary who rewarded him with an annuity of £10 for his services at Framlingham and put him on the Essex bench. His return for Lancaster to the second Parliament of the reign was presumably the work of the chancellor of the duchy, Sir Robert Rochester, to whom he was known through service to the Earl of Oxford. Apart from his Membership and part in local administration little else has been found about Felton. Removed from the bench by Elizabeth he was committed to the Fleet on 22 Apr. 1561 ‘for hearing mass’: in a letter, dated only 3 July but almost certainly of the same year, he appealed to the Privy Council from the prison for a pardon for the sake of his wife and 11 children. Another child, a daughter Margery, was baptized on 6 Oct. 1562. No will or inquisition survives to throw light on his death, but a kinsman described Felton as deceased when providing for his son Philip in 1570.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Alan Davidson

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from age at fa.’s i.p.m., C142/69/223. Morant, Essex, ii. 323; Wright, Essex, i. 565; Suff. Inst. Arch. Procs. iv. 14-64; RCHM Essex N.W. 209.
• 2. Essex RO, D/DPr/140 ex inf. Susan Flower; CPR, 1553-4, p. 18.
• 3. Feet of Fines, Essex, iv. ed. Reaney and Fitch, 87; Morant, ii. 323; PCC 18 Ayloffe, 38 Lyon; Lansd. 156, f. 91; SP12/17/19, 125/7; 15/11/8; Harl. 360, f. 34; Cath. Rec. Soc. i. 45, 49-51, 53; Essex Recusant, iii. 1-21; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 594; Suff. Inst. Arch. Procs. iv. 40.