MAINWARING, George (bef.1551-1628), of Ightfield, Salop.

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. bef. 1551, o.s. of Sir Arthur Mainwaring by Margaret, da. and coh. of Sir Randolph Mainwaring of Peover, Cheshire. educ. Shrewsbury 1562; I. Temple 1565. m. Anne, da. of William More I of Loseley, Surr., 4s. 1da. suc. fa. 1590. Kntd. c.1593.

Offices Held

J.p.q. Salop by 1593, custos rot. c.1593-6, dep. lt. by 1608; member, council in marches of Wales by 1617.

Biography

Mainwaring’s wife came from a family high in Elizabeth’s favour, so presumably his relative obscurity was self-imposed. Perhaps, like his father, he disliked travelling outside Shropshire; perhaps his health was poor. In May 1601 his brother-in-law (Sir) Thomas Egerton I wrote to Sir Robert Cecil asking for the wardship of a son of ‘George Mainwaring who is sickly’. Still, in James I’s reign, when Ralph Eure, 3rd Baron Eure was made president of the council in the marches of Wales, Mainwaring became one of his five deputy lieutenants in Shropshire, and later he was appointed a councillor in the marches. He died at Ightfield 5 May 1628, leaving no written will. Three witnesses testified that,

being visited with sickness, but of perfect and sound memory, [he] did often and at several times since Michaelmas [1626] publish and declare his will and true meaning to be, that his eldest son Sir Arthur Mainwaring, knight, should have all his goods, chattels and estate whatsoever.

Sir Arthur, who was over 40 by the time he entered on his inheritance, was granted administration of the non-landed property in the month following his father’s death. Sir George’s inquisition post mortem, officially for Shropshire but listing also lands and houses in Cheshire and the city of Chester, was not taken until April 1631.

There was another George Mainwaring who held a minor Household post in the 1590s, travelled abroad with Sir Anthony Shirley, and died about 1612.

C142/231/75; Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxix), 348-9; Vis. Cheshire (Harl. Soc. xviii), 165; CSP Dom. 1591-4, p. 144; SP14/33, f. 4; Cal. Wynn Pprs. 130; E351/1795, ff. 12v, 54; Sloane 105 passim; PCC 9 Capell; HMC 7th Rep. 662; HMC Hatfield, xi. 193; SP14/33, f. 4; PCC 58 Barrington; Wards 7/85/161.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes