Family and Education

m. Elizabeth, da. of Edward Wotton, MD, 3s. inc. John II 3da.1

Offices Held

?An official in the Star Chamber from 7 July 1565; jt. surveyor of customs on cloth and wines by 1568; engrosser of the great roll and clerk of the pipe July 1579.2

Biography

Morley, of ‘Saxham’, Suffolk, who purchased lands at Halnaker, Sussex, was an Exchequer official turned country gentleman. He evidently had some connexion with the Earl of Leicester, who in 1585 described him as ‘my friend’ when petitioning Burghley on his behalf, but his return to Parliament for Wycombe in 1584 was presumably due to the dean of Windsor. Morley had property in Old Windsor, but either Leicester or Burghley may have acted as an intermediary on his behalf. Burghley, to whom he must have been known through his work in the Exchequer, was presumably responsible for his return for St. Ives. Morley was recorded as serving on one committee in each of his two Parliaments, concerning the true payment of tithes (6 Mar. 1585), and a proviso to the bill for the continuation of statutes (17 Mar. 1587).3

He died 14 Nov. 1587. In his will, made 10 Nov., proved 22 June in the following year, he remembered a number of friends and the poor of St. Botolph’s, Old Windsor and Boxgrove. The widow and his son and heir John were the executors, and Morley’s brother-in-law John Sotherton, baron of the Exchequer, who also lived in St. Botolph’s, and Sir Walter Mildmay were appointed overseers.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: W.J.J.

Notes

• 1. J. Dallaway, W. Suss. ii. 182; Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. liii), 140; PCC 42 Rutland.
• 2. The Star Chamber office may have been a reversion: Inner Temple, Petyt mss, 39; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 310; PRO Index 16774, f. 18.
• 3. Mousley thesis, 620; VCH Berks. iii. 82; C142/218/20; PCC 42 Rutland; Lansd. 45, f. 84; D’Ewes, 364, 416.
• 4. PCC 42 Rutland.