HAYDOCK, Christopher (by 1499-1566 or later), of Preston, Lancs.

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 1499, ?yr. s. of Gilbert Haydock of Cottam by Alice, da. of Robert Clifton of Clifton, Notts., and Westby, Lancs. m. by 1520, at least 2s.1

Offices Held

Mayor, Preston ?1520, in 1528, 1528-9, alderman by 1542.2

Biography

Christopher Haydock was almost certainly a member of the Haydock family of Cottam near Preston, although he appears in only one pedigree and that a modern one. The family was involved in Preston politics and Haydock, whatever his origins, was clearly a man of influence there: he was appointed mayor by the crown in an attempt to resolve the faction fights within the corporation caused by the interference of Sir Richard Houghton.3

The decree appointing Haydock mayor, which also ordered that two burgesses should be sent to discuss the town’s customs, is undated, but on 16 Feb. 1528 a royal letter commanded his acceptance and on 26 May a letter to Haydock himself, as the King’s lieutenant, berated the town’s disobedience in not having yet sent the two burgesses. Six months later articles were drawn up for ‘the good rule tranquillity and restfulness’ of the town by agreement between James Walton and Henry Clifton on behalf of the town and More and Audley on behalf of the duchy of Lancaster; by one of these articles Haydock was to serve as mayor until October 1529. He was probably still mayor at the parliamentary election of that year, the date of which is unknown, and his own return reflects his continued ascendancy in local politics. He was probably elected again to the Parliament of 1536 in deference to the King’s request for the return of the previous Members, and may even have sat in the two following Parliaments, for which the names of the Preston Members are lost. Nothing is known of his part in the proceedings of the Commons.4

Haydock appears as an inburgess and alderman in 1542, when his sons Evan and Thomas were also inburgesses, and again in 1562, and in August 1566 he was nominated one of the first 12 capital burgesses under the new charter of that year. In 1556-7 he engaged in a dispute with Sir Thomas Langton an outburgess of Preston, over the title to a messuage and lands there. In the absence of a will or of any other indication the date of his death is unknown.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Authors: L. M. Kirk / Alan Davidson

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from marriage. Chron. Eng. Canonesses, St. Monica’s, Louvain, ed. Hamilton, ii. peds. at end vol.
  • 2. J. B. Watson, ‘Lancs. gentry 1529-58’ (London Univ. M.A. thesis, 1959), 589; DL1/6, W11A, 5/5/352.
  • 3. H. Hornyold-Strickland, Lancs. MPs (Chetham Soc. n.s. xciii), 49; Pink and Beaven, Parl. Rep. Lancs. 140-1.
  • 4. DL1/6, W11A, 5/5/352, 42/95/ff. 102 and 102v. For discussion of questions arising out of these cases we are indebted to Prof. Margaret Hastings.
  • 5. Watson, 589; CPR, 1563-6, p. 407; Ducatus Lanc. ii. 286.