DYSMARS, Christopher (d.1564), of Fifield and Lockeridge, Wilts.

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

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1554

Family and Education

?s. (or other rel.) of John Dysmars or Dymer by his w. Dorothy. m. c.1536, Joan, da. of Edmund Chatterton of Marlborough, s.p.1

Offices Held

Clerk of the peace, Wilts. from 1537.2

Biography

Dysmars came of an old though obscure Wiltshire family, settled in the county by Edward I’s reign. There is no obvious parliamentary patron for him. His constituencies suggest a connexion with Sir John Thynne, but he had other influential friends in the county: some of his landed property near Wilton was held of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and in 1549 he had been supported in a King’s bench case by the evidence of John Hungerford and Henry Clifford. He was a considerable landowner in Wiltshire, with property at Fifield, Staverton, Lockeridge and Overton—some of it formerly belonging to Sampford preceptory. At Bupton he leased land from the bishop of Salisbury, and early in Elizabeth’s reign he sold houses in Marlborough (where in 1558 he witnessed the will of Geoffrey Daniell) to Lawrence Chatterton, presumably a relative of his wife. His inquisition post mortem mentions property in several other Wiltshire parishes, including Swindon, near Wootton Bassett.3

The post of clerk of the peace usually required legal training, but Dysmars is not known to have attended attended an inn of court or chancery. Before 1558 he had as clerk become involved in several complicated lawsuits, and apparently not all the judgments went in his favour, but he seems to have remained in office until his death on 15 July 1564. By an agreement of March the same year most of his lands had been settled on his cousin John Dismars or Dymer (as he is usually styled) and his heirs male, with reversion to John’s two brothers.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes

We are indebted to Mr. R. L. Davids for help with this biography.

  • 1. LP Hen. VIII, xviii(1), p. 539; Wilts. N. and Q. iii. 231; C1/1346/52-5; St. Ch. 2/25/167.
  • 2. LP Hen. VIII, xii(2), p. 166.
  • 3. C142/140/197; Wards 7/40/10; LP Hen. VIII , xii(1), p. 586; xviii(1), p. 539; J. Aubrey, Wilts. Topog Colls. ed. Jackson, 166; Wilts. N. and Q. iv. 503; PCC 4 Loftes.
  • 4. C1/1346/52-5, 57-61; St. Ch. 3/5/14; Wards 7/40/107; Wilts. Arch. Mag. xxxv. 462.