TUSSER (TYSSARD), Andrew (by 1524-59 or later), of London Frisby-on-the-Wreak, Leics.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1554
Nov. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1524, 2nd s. of William Tusser of London and Rivenhall, Essex by 1st w. Dorothy, da. of Thomas Smith of Rivenhall; bro. of Clement.1

Offices Held

Biography

Andrew Tusser was evidently a lawyer, but where he received his training is unknown. As a younger son he received only 40 marks under his father’s will of 1545 and his prospects of advancement were probably as poor as those for the other members of his family until the accession of Mary. In the spring of 1554 he entered Parliament with his brother Clement, who may have introduced him to Mitchell, and in the following autumn, when Clement sat for a different constituency, he reappeared for the same borough. Tusser was not himself among the Members found absent when the House was called early in 1555 but he acted as attorney for Edmund Plowden, one of those proceeded against in the King’s bench for this dereliction. If Tusser had hoped to find a place in 1555, he was to be disappointed, for he did not sit again. It may have been he, or one of his brothers, who by having Thomas Mynd arrested during this Parliament secured a mention in the Journal. This breach of privilege, if committed by an ex-Member, would assuredly have told against his subsequent election, as doubtless did his Catholicism after the death of Mary.2

In 1556 Tusser and his brother Thomas were accused in the court of requests of depriving Margaret Bishop of property in Frisby-on-the-Wreak. Whatever the outcome of the case, Tusser continued to live at Frisby, and in 1559 it was as a resident there that he sued out a general pardon. This is the last glimpse we have of him: he may have been dead or have left Frisby by 1571 when its inhabitants were assessed for subsidy.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: J. J. Goring

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from younger brother Thomas’s, DNB (Tusser, Thomas). Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 117; PCC 7 Coode.
  • 2. PCC 7 Coode; KB27/1180; CJ, i. 44.
  • 3. Req.2/25/90; CPR, 1558-60, p. 205; E179/134/204.