ALCOCK, Robert (d.1583), of Canterbury and Marden, Kent.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

educ. G. Inn 1546, called 1548. m. (1) Jan. 1562, Parnell Barlinge; (2) one Fisher; at least 2s. 1da.

Offices Held

Lent reader, G. Inn 1564, double reader 1572, treasurer 1576; of counsel to Canterbury by 1561, rem. 1568, rest. 1570; common councilman 1566-82; recorder, Sandwich 1566; commr. eccles. causes, Kent 1566, j.p.q. from c.1569.

Biography

Alcock, no doubt related to John Alcock, sometime mayor of Canterbury who died in 1525, had a distinguished career at Gray’s Inn, which he entered probably after a period at an inn of chancery, the interval of two years between his admission and his call being too short to cover his whole legal training. He was a regular member of the ‘pensions’, or meetings of the governing body of the inn, until 4 June 1578, when his name disappears from the records.

By 1561 he was receiving 40s. p.a. from Canterbury corporation as one of their legal counsel, and he was married at St. Alphage church there the following year. In March 1568 a quarrel with the corporation led to his dismissal. He was accused of giving counsel to his father-in-law, Mr. Fisher, in a suit against the city, and of

evil words and intolerable speech towards Mr. Mayor and certain of the aldermen, withsaying and affirming that he cared not for the city nor their fee.

He was reappointed in May 1570, and in the following September he was allowed the ‘whole arrearage of his fee’. A list of lawyers drawn up about 1576 referred to him as ‘of Canterbury, poor’. He retired from the common council on grounds of sickness in September 1582. On 29 Oct. 1583 the corporation appointed another legal counsel in place of Alcock, ‘deceased’.

Hasted, Kent, xii. 222 n; Reg. St. Alphage, Canterbury, ed. Cowper, 106; Canterbury burmote bk. 1542-78, ff. 206, 222, 243, 246; 1578-1602, ff. 48, 66; J. M. Cowper, Canterbury Freemen, 2; Chamberlains’ accts. 1561-2; W. Boys, Sandwich, i. 423; Lansd. 22, f. 51; 683, ff. 64, 70.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes