Family and Education

b. by 1523, yr. s. of Sir George Throckmorton, and bro. of Anthony^†, Clement, John I, Kenelm Nicholas and Robert. m. Frances, da. of Sir John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos of Sudeley, 2s. 3da.1

Offices Held

Gent. at arms by 1544, gent. pens. in reversion by Feb. 1547; gent. pens. by Apr. 1549-61/4; commr. musters, Warws. 1546; comptroller of petty customs, London 12 Sept. 1553; gov. household of Anne of Cleves 1554; master of Queen’s hawks in 1570.2

Biography

George Throckmorton was one of the three Throckmorton brothers who obtained court office after the marriage of their kinswoman Catherine Parr to Henry VIII. Like the other two, Clement and Nicholas, he was probably a Protestant—Nicholas Throckmorton was to recommend him to Elizabeth as a suitable replacement for the Catholic Sir Leonard Chamberlain as governor of Guernsey—but his religion did not prevent his remaining a gentleman pensioner throughout Mary’s reign: he attended the funerals of Henry VIII, Edwar VI and Mary.3

Throckmorton has to be distinguished in his early years from a kinsman and namesake of Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, who died in 1548. He served at the siege of Boulogne and when taken prisoner by the French was ransomed for the large sum of £1,000; in 1548 he was a captain at Boulogne when Sir John Brydges was deputy governor and lieutenant. His father had conveyed the lease of the manor of Great Alne to him by September 1550 when the Privy Council ordered an abatement of rent in reward ‘for his good service’. He spent part of Edward VI’s reign abroad, being in Venice in 1551 and 1552 to learn the language and gain worldly experience. If he was one of the four Throckmorton brothers who are said to have sent word to Mary of Edward’s death, the comptrollership of petty customs, forfeited by (Sir) Henry Gates, may likewise have been a reward for good service. He was returned for Warwick, at this time largely controlled by his family, when one of his brothers was sheriff and another a prisoner in the Tower.4

In 1559 Throckmorton accused his wife of attempting to poison him, but after her family had complained that he had been tampering with the witnesses a further inquiry found that she had been guilty of nothing more serious than an indiscreet and evidently unsuccessful use of potions to win her husband’s love. How the couple fared after this has not been discovered and the date of Throckmorton’s eventual death is unknown: the last reference found to him is in 1573 when his eldest brother granted him the wardship of a cousin.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: S. M. Thorpe

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Vis. Warws. (Harl. Soc. xii), 87 gives him as seventh son but this is the position in the family accorded to John Throckmorton I on his MI, Dugdale, Warws. 754; CPR, 1553-4, p. 439.
• 2. A. L. Rowse, Ralegh and the Throckmortons, 10; LC 2/2/ff. 41-43; 2/3(1), p. 113; E179/69/62; 407/1/2, 3, all ex inf. W. J. Tighe; Stowe 571, f. 31v; E407/1/1, 2; Lansd. 3(89), f. 197; LP Hen. VIII, xxi; CPR, 1553-4, p. 1; APC, v. 29; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 367.
• 3. EHR, lxv. 95; LC2/2, f. 42v, 4/1, 2.
• 4. Vis. Glos. (Harl. Soc. xxi), 163; C142/86/90; Rowse, 10-11; LP Hen. VIII, xix; CSP For. 1547-53, pp. 110, 345; APC, iii. 119; CSP Ven. 1534-54, p. 370; Lansd. 3(2), f. 3.
• 5. CSP For. 1558-9, pp. 500, 509; CSP Dom. 1547-80, pp. 137, 142; Rowse, 29; Coughton Ct. mss box 40.