Family and Education

b. 1551, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Henry Savile I of Lupset and Barrowby by his 2nd w. Joan, da. and h. of William Vernon of Barrowby. educ. St.John’s, Oxf. by 1566; L. Inn 1568. m. (1) 1583, Lady Mary Talbot, da. of George, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, 1s. George Savile II, d.v.p.; (2) by 1599, Elizabeth (bur. 25 Jan. 1626), da. of Sir Edward Ayscough of South Kelsey, Lincs., wid. of George Savile of Stanley, Wakefield, Yorks., 3s. 4da. suc. fa. 1569. Kntd. June 1587; cr. Bt. 1611.

Offices Held

J.p. Yorks (W. Riding) from c.1573; commr. musters 1595, sheriff 1613-14.1

Biography

Despite his family connexions, little is known about Savile. His first marriage linked him with both the Manners and Talbot families and brought him the Rufford estates in Nottinghamshire. In 1603, upon the death of his unstable cousin Edward Savile, he also succeeded to Thornhill near Wakefield, thereafter living as a country gentleman, not overburdened with local offices. He appears to have been on friendly terms with Sir Robert Cecil, with whom he sometimes corresponded about dogs and falcons. He was of sufficient standing to get himself returned for Boroughbridge in the Parliament of 1586 and to obtain a county seat in 1593. So far as is known he took no part in the proceedings of the 1586 Parliament, but as a knight of the shire in 1593 he could have served on committees concerning the subsidy (26 Feb. and 1 Mar.), springing uses and perpetuities (9 Mar.), maintaining weirs (28 Mar.) and cloth (14, 15, 23 Mar.). He died 12 Nov. 1622, and was buried at Thornhill.2

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N.M.S.

Notes

• 1. GEC Baronetage, i. 49; Foster, Yorks. Peds. W. Riding; HMC Rutland, i. 273; Gooder, Parl. Rep. Yorks. ii. 36.
• 2. Yorks. Arch. Jnl. xxv. 16-19; HMC Rutland, i. passim; J. Hunter, Antiquarian Notices, 26; HMC Hatfield, v. 382; vii. 171; J. B. Greenwood, Early Eccles. Hist. Dewsbury, 210; D’Ewes, 474, 496, 501, 507, 512.