STUTTEVILLE, Martin (c.1569-1631), of Dalham and Southwood Park, Suff.

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. c.1569, 1st s. of Thomas Stutteville of Dalham by Anne, da. of Nicholas Whitney of Walden, Essex. educ. King’s Camb. 1585; L. Inn 1587. m. (1) Katherine, da. of John Holland; (2) Susan, da. of Thomas Isham of Lamport, Northants., 1s. At least 1 other s., several das. Kntd. 1604; suc. fa. 1606.

Offices Held

J.p. Suff., sheriff 1612-13.

Biography

As a young man Stutteville is said to have sailed with Drake, but almost all the information about him concerns Suffolk, where he lived as a country gentleman at Dalham. He also had rights in Southwood park, near Hargrave. Most of his property was in the extreme west of the county, and it is not clear how he came to be returned for Aldeburgh. He had been at Cambridge and Lincoln’s Inn at the same time as his co-Member Francis Corbett.

After his father’s death in 1606 he became active in county government, and his will, drawn up in his own hand on 4 Mar. 1626, describes him as still in ‘perfect health of mind and body’. During the last few years of his life he had trouble with his younger son John, who went up to Cambridge about the beginning of Charles I’s reign, and was described by his tutor as of little industry. As late as December 1630 father and son were still quarrelling, but Stutteville made no alterations in the generous bequests to John in his will. He died on 13 June 1631, aged 62.

Al. Cant. i(4), p. 181; Vis. Suff. ed. Metcalfe, 69, 103; J. Gage, Hist. Suff. Thingoe Hundred, 344; J. Peile, Biog. Reg. of Christ’s College, i. 366; PCC 85 St. John; Wards 7/81/200; C142/479/81.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes