Family and Education

b. c.1520, 2nd s. of Henry Hussey^† of Slinfold by Eleanor, da. and h. of John Bradbridge of Slinfold. m. Margaret, da. of William Apsley of Thakeham, at least 3s. 1da. suc. bro. Sir Henry^† 1557.1

Offices Held

J.p. Suss. from 1559.

Biography

As early as 1290 a Henry Hussey was a knight of the shire, and the family tradition of parliamentary service continued after the sixteenth century. Hussey’s father and elder brother sat for Horsham or New Shoreham several times in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, and his first cousin Anthony represented both boroughs during Mary’s reign. In 1559 the two seats at Horsham and one at New Shoreham (Richard Fulmerston’s) went to nominees of the Duke of Norfolk. Perhaps, therefore, Hussey also owed his 1559 seat to the Duke, whom he certainly knew. The same patronage may have operated at Horsham in 1571, although it is possible that Hussey, by now a Sussex justice of the peace, head of his family and owning property in and around Horsham, may have come in through his own local influence.2

Having inherited the manor of Leigh, in Cuckfield, from his father, he added to his property there not only by purchases from the Duke of Norfolk, but by acquiring the impropriated rectory of Cuckfield. He sold land in the Horsham district to his brother-in-law Ninian Ward in 1564 and again (unless this sale was by his son, also John) in 1572, but at his death he still owned large estates. His chief house in Cuckfield, called Payne’s, was presumably inherited from his maternal grandmother Agnes, daughter and heir of John Payne of Cuckfield. He also owned houses and fields in Itchingfield, Rusper and Slinfold, all within a radius of about five miles from Horsham, together with land within the town boundaries. His subsidy assessment in 1546 was on £20 in lands, but by 1560 it had risen to £40, where it remained on the 1563 list, and probably until his death. He was classified as a ‘favourer of religion and godly order’ by his bishop in 1564, and he took no part in the affairs of either of his parliaments, unless it was he, and not Thomas Hussey I. who was the ‘Mr. Hussey’ who on as May 1571 attended a conference with the Lords for the bill against corrupt presentations.3

He died between 25 June 1571, when he made his will, and 6 Mar. 1573. He asked to be buried in the parish church in Cuckfield, bequeathing his parsonage there, with its lands, to his wife. His younger sons, Henry and Edmund, were given annuities of £20 and 20 marks; his daughter Anne was to receive £100 on her east birthday, and the same amount at her marriage if this was approved of by her mother and her brother John, his father’s sole executor and residuary legatee.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes

• 1. Suss. Rec. Soc. xiv. 129; Mousley thesis, 559.
• 2. W. Albery, Parl. Hist. Horsham, 12.
• 3. VCH Suss. vii. 158; CPR, 1549-51, p. 109; 1557-8, p. 5; 1566-9, p. 302; W. V. Cooper, Hist. Cuckfield, 119-20; Mousley thesis, 559; Suss. Rec. Soc. xiv. 129; E179/190/225, 267, 274; Cam. Misc. ix(3), p. 10; CJ, i. 92.
• 4. PCC 9 Peter.