DRURY, Robert (1525-93), of Hedgerley and Chalfont St. Peter, Bucks.

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

b. 2 Mar. 1525, 1st s. of Sir Robert Drury and bro. of Dru and William. m. c.1544, Anne or Agnes, da. of Nicholas Boorman or Bowerman of Brook, I.o.W., 2s. 3da. suc. fa. 1577.

Offices Held

J.p. Bucks from 1559, rem. by 1562, rest c.1577, commr. musters 1576, sheriff 1578-9.

Biography

The Buckinghamshire Drurys were descended from Sir Robert Drury of Hawstead, Suffolk, Speaker of the House of Commons in 1495. The Speaker’s son, Sir Robert of Hedgerley, moved into Buckinghamshire after his marriage to Elizabeth Brudenell, and in 1540 received a royal grant of the manor of Chalfont St. Peter (formerly belonging to the abbey of Great Missenden), with other monastic property at Chalfont St. Giles, Denham, Iver, Stoke Poges and Farnham. This, together with the Brudenell inheritance, gave the Drurys standing in the county, but, because of his father’s longevity, little is known of Drury’s own life. He or his cousin and namesake the son of Sir William Drury may have been one of the ‘esquires’ who attended Anne of Cleves on her journey from the coast, and there is similar doubt about the identity of the Robert Drury (no parentage or residence given) admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in January 1543. However, the ‘Mr. Drury’ who voted against a government bill in the Parliament of 1555 was in all probability our man. In his later years he carried out the usual duties of a country gentleman. He died, apparently intestate, on 5 or 6 Feb. 1593, and was buried at Chalfont St. Peter, where he was lord of the manor. He left other property at Hedgerley and Temple Bulstrode, Buckinghamshire, and in Bedfordshire. Administration of the estate was granted on 2 Mar. 1593 to the heir, his elder son Henry. The younger son Robert was presumably the Catholic priest of ‘a gentleman’s family in Bucks.’ executed in 1607.

Coll. Top. et Gen. vi. 91-2; C142/60/126, 234/43; A. Campling, Hist. Drury Fam. 73, 102; LC2/4/3, p. 130; CPR, 1555-7, p. 434; Lansd. 56, ff. 168 seq.; LP Hen. VIII, xv. 6, 171; Guildford Mus., Loseley 1331/2; Mill Stephenson, Mon. Brasses, 35; PCC admon. act bk. 1593, f. 48d; G. Anstruther, Seminary Priests, i. 104-5.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes