Family and Education

b. by 1515, 1st s. of Rhys Herbert of London and Coldbrook by 1st w. Elizabeth, da. of Sir Wistan Browne of Abbess Roding, Essex. m. (1) by 1536, Denise, da. and coh. of John Agmondesham of Leatherhead, Surr., 1s. Matthew; (2) Joan, da. of John ap Thomas of Llangatwg, Mon., 2s. inc. Charles^† 4da. suc. fa. by 1547.1

Offices Held

Commr. benevolence, Mon. 1544/45, relief 1550, goods of churches and fraternities 1553, sewers 1564, piracy 1565, musters 1570; j.p. Mon. 1547-63, q. 1564-79; escheator 1551-2; sheriff 1552-3, 1562-3, 1570-1; receiver, duchy of Lancaster, Monmouth 20 Feb. 1559-d.2

Biography

William Herbert was a descendant of a younger brother of the Earl of Pembroke killed at Edgcote in 1469. His grandfather lived to serve two Plantagenets and two Tudors, dying a knight and the chancellor of Monmouth, and his father’s career began with a spell at court and ended with a place in local administration. While in attendance upon the King in 1534 Rhys Herbert fatally wounded a man at Windsor but was pardoned three years later. He was perhaps the man appointed escheator in 1543, but he was dead by 1547 when William Herbert was appointed to the Monmouthshire bench and chosen as a knight of the shire in Edward VI’s first Parliament. According to tradition he also sat for the shire in the second Parliament of the reign, but as sheriff in early 1553 he was debarred from returning himself. Although the Journal does not mention him, he doubtless supported his uncle Anthony Browne II in the passage of the bills which Browne had helped to prepare. This was to be Herbert’s only appearance in Parliament, although he lived for another 30 years. His later career was divided between his own and local affairs. In 1558 he bought some lands in Abergavenny and the manor of Hardwick, and two years later he and his son Matthew sold some property in Surrey to a kinsman. During his second shrievalty he returned his son Matthew as one of the knights for the shire to the Parliament of 1563. He was last named to the bench in 1579 and presumably died shortly afterwards.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from marriage. G. T. Clark, Limbus Patrum Morganiae, 292-3; Bradney, Mon. i(2), 189; PCC 20 Stonard; VCH Surr. iii. 296; Vis. Surr. (Harl. Soc. xliii), 54.
• 2. E179/148/3; CPR, 1550-3, p. 112; 1553, pp. 360, 418; 1560-3, p. 444; 1563-6, pp. 28, 41; 1566-9, p. 239; APC, vii. 285; R. Flenley, Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 69, 126; Somerville, Duchy, i. 651.
• 3. Clark, 292-3; LP Hen. VIII, vii, xii; CPR, 1557-8, p. 444; 1558-60, p. 259; 1573-6, p. 289; SP12/145.