HASILWOOD, John (by 1485-1544), of Waltham, Essex and London.

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 1485. educ. M. Temple, adm. 1502.1

Offices Held

Teller, Exchequer 23 June 1506-d., comptroller of customs, port of London 1532-6 or later, commr. tenths of spiritualities, Essex and Colchester 1535; j.p. Essex 1534/35-d.2

Biography

Although several contemporaries named John Hasilwood were connected with London or the home counties, only two fall for consideration as the Member of the Parliament of 1529. One of them, the son and heir of Edmund Hasilwood of Maidwell, Northamptonshire, succeeded his father in 1527 at the age of 30 years and more, and served on commissions in Northamptonshire and Leicestershire until his death in 1550. Edmund Hasilwood had been warden of the Fleet prison, and his son, who held the post in 1529, was known as Hasilwood ‘of the Fleet’; he was also doubtless the ‘Mr. Hasilwood esquire’ who appears on Henry VIII’s funeral list, and the King’s servant of that name who bought property in Northamptonshire in 1549.3

A stronger claim can be made, however, for the second, John Hasilwood ‘of the Receipt’. The wardship of the infant lord of the borough of Buckingham, Henry Carey, may not have been granted to his aunt Anne Boleyn until later, but the nomination of Members there would clearly have lain with the crown or with persons acting on its behalf as Buckinghamshire was one of the counties falling within the King’s demand that election writs should be sent to him. In these circumstances it is more likely that the exchequer official was nominated for Buckingham than his namesake of Maidwell and his patron may have been the Buckinghamshire magnate, Sir John Dauntesey, another teller of the Exchequer who had become principal officer of the court of general surveyors in 1517. Another and more interesting possible patron was the courtier Henry Norris, a friend of the King and of Anne Boleyn, who in 1534 was to secure Hasilwood a new grant of his exchequer appointment to be held jointly and in survivorship with Roger Chaloner: this grant was made in response to a petition from Norris to the King after Cromwell had refused a similar petition because he favoured another. Norris may also have furthered the candidacy of Hasilwood’s fellow-Member, Edward Lloyd, a wardrobe official, with whom Hasilwood shared a connexion with the Leathersellers’ Company. His dependence on Norris would go far towards explaining the most puzzling feature of Hasilwood’s, and his fellow-Member Edward Lloyd’s Membership, namely, its termination at the close of this Parliament. Cromwell’s direction to Buckingham to elect two new Members to the next one, coinciding as it did with the King’s general request for the return of the previous Members, is scarcely to be explained save on the ground that the sitting Members were unacceptable, and this Hasilwood’s connexion with the doomed Norris is likely to have made him.4

Hasilwood’s origin is obscure: as he acquired lands at Waltham Holy Cross, Essex, he may have been a kinsman of the family living at Bulmer in the same county, where the eldest son of Richard Hasilwood who died in 1556 was called John. Hasilwood was doubtless the man of that name admitted to the Middle Temple on 26 Apr. 1502, chosen as master of revels in the following November and, as ‘Hasilwood junior’, elected as butler for Christmas 1503. There is no reference to him at the Middle Temple after 1520 when a chamber in ‘le Maunce’, late of Master Hasilwood, was assigned to two other men, but in 1544 he was to bequeath 40s. towards the upkeep of the buildings of that inn, of which he was a fellow. In mid career he appears to have served the 3rd Duke of Buckingham: by 1519, with ‘Mistress Philips’ of London, he was joint keeper of the duke’s park at Writtle in Essex and by the following year the pair had lent over £1,800 to the duke, who at about the same time was paying two annuities to Hasilwood. Hasilwood’s activity in local government from the 1530s may have been the reason for his sharing of his exchequer appointment.5

On all commissions from 1535 Hasilwood was described as ‘senior’, but his will, dated 16 Jan. 1544, is strangely silent about his kinsfolk. Calling himself of Waltham, he asked to be buried in the church of St. Helen, Bishopsgate. He left £10 for the repair of highways between London and Waltham. His lands there were to be sold if they had not been disposed of already. He had some connexion with the Leathersellers’ Company to which he had delivered £300 and plate to be used towards the purchase in 1543 of the site of St. Helen’s priory, Bishopsgate, from (Sir) Richard Cromwell alias Williams*. The priory was to serve as the Company’s Hall and in exchange for Hasilwood’s donation the Leathersellers were to support four bedesmen and three bedeswomen to pray for his soul and those of his friends. (The name ‘Hasilwood House’ at present borne by one of the Company’s properties in Bishopsgate commemorates the benefaction.) The executors of Hasilwood’s will, which was proved on 2 May 1544, included Sir Robert Tyrwhitt I, and Robert Smith of the Exchequer. Sir Richard Lyster, chief baron of the Exchequer, was appointed overseer.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: S. T. Bindoff

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first appointment.
  • 2. E36/266, ff. 63, 67; LP Hen. VIII, i, ii, viii, xi, xiii, xv-xvii; E122/81/14, 82/6; Req.2/18/75; E371/300, m.43.
  • 3. PCC 1 Alen, 32 Alenger; P. Boyd, Roll of Drapers’ Co. London, 89; C. Welch, Reg. London Freemen, Hen VIII and Edw. VI (London and Mdx. Arch. Soc. 1908), 49, 86; C142/72/57, 58; The Gen. i. 43-44; E150/690/7; Vis. Worcs. (Harl. Soc. xxvii), 75; CPR, 1547-8, p. 94; 1548-9, p. 353; 1549-51, p. 175; 1553, pp. 316, 349; C1/640/30; LP Hen. VIII, iv.
  • 4. LP Hen. VIII, iv, v, vii, x; W. C. Richardson, Tudor Chamber Admin. 256-7.
  • 5. C142/105/45; M.T. Recs. i. 3, 4, 7, 11, 63; SC6/Hen. VIII, 5841, m.4v; SP1/29, f. 180; Royal 14B 35. A5, 9; D. ff. 1, 17; 7F 14. ff. 1-19; C. Rawcliffe. The Staffords, Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham, 240.
  • 6. PCC 6 Pynnyng; W. H. Black, Co. Leathersellers, 87 seq.