GAMLIN (GAMBLIN, GAMLYN), John (by 1525-90/92), of Fulney Marsh, Spalding, Lincs. and King's Lynn, Norf.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1525, s. of Thomas Gamlin of Spalding. m. (1) by 1546, Audrey (d.1560), da. of Thomas Hampden of Hartwell, Bucks., wid of William Watson, 1s.; (2) Rose.1

Offices Held

Commr. sewers, Lincs. 1588; gov. Spalding g.s. 1588.2

Biography

There was a Gamlin family at Peterborough but it is not known to have included a John Gamlin and it was of too little account to have furnished a Member even under the impact of Queen Mary’s request for the election of residents. Outside the city the only John Gamlin found within easy reach lived at Spalding, with which Peterborough had long been connected through the abbey’s ownership of lands near that town; although after the Dissolution these lands passed into other hands, the dean and chapter of the new cathedral continued to hold other property in Lincolnshire. This tenuous link apart, nothing has been found to support Gamlin’s identification with the Member save his marriage, which allied him with families in Northamptonshire and neighbouring counties and even distantly with Giles Isham, the other Member for Peterborough on this occasion. His career was to carry him no higher than a place on the Lincolnshire sewers commission, but he prospered sufficiently to give 22 acres in the Lincolnshire parish of Croft towards the founding of Spalding grammar school, for which he procured letters patent in May 1588. In the same year he contributed £26 towards the Armada Fund and two years later he and his son Matthew endowed an almshouse in Spalding. Gamlin made a will on 1 Apr. 1590 at King’s Lynn, which was proved on 3 Feb. 1592. His son Matthew, an attorney who had been educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and Lincoln’s Inn, was knighted in 1603.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Alan Davidson

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from marriage. The Gen. ii. 386; iv. 26; Vis. Bucks. (Harl. Soc. lviii), 170; Bridges, Northants. ii. 242.
  • 2. Lincoln Rec. Soc. liv. p. lx.
  • 3. Northants. Rec. Soc. xii. 56, 59; xxi. p. xv; Lincs. Historian, iii. 105, 164; Lipscomb, Bucks. i. 395; ii. 302; LP Hen. VIII, xx; CPR, 1549-51, p. 20; 1555-7, p. 272; 1558-60, p. 467; VCH Lincs. ii. 486; PCC 7 Harrington.