CHEYNEY (CHEYNE), Francis (1550-1620), of Chesham Bois, Bucks.

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. 1550, 2nd s. of John Cheyney of Drayton Beauchamp and Chesham Bois by his 1st w. Winifred, da. of John, 1st Baron Mordaunt of Turvey, Beds. educ. St. John’s, Camb. 1562; I. Temple 1569. m. Mary, da. of Thomas Powle of Aldersbrook, Essex, s.p. Kntd. 1603.

Offices Held

J.p. Bucks. by 1591, sheriff 1589-90, 1603-4.

Biography

Cheyney inherited Chesham Bois on the death of his father’s second wife in accordance with a settlement made in 1569. His elder brother unsuccessfully disputed the inheritance, which, however, passed, on Cheyney’s death without issue, to his nephew. Cheyney also inherited Drayton Beauchamp in Buckinghamshire, which he held despite an attempt by Edward Thurland and Robert Dawe in 1602 to seize the lease, and he enjoyed a lease of the advowson and parsonage of Marsworth in the same county. It is not clear how Cheyney came to be returned twice for Cardigan Boroughs. He had some Chancery connexions through his wife’s family, and his neighbour and ‘loving and good friend’ William Tothill of Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire, an overseer of Cheyney’s will, was one of the six clerks towards the end of the reign.

Cheyney died 5 Jan. 1620, his will being proved on the 25th of the month. ‘My deceased father’, Cheyney wrote, ‘left me a pattern of charity and devotion whose steps I ever desired to imitate’, and what is known of his life confirms his concern with charitable causes. He wrote of his wife, ‘who hath been always careful of me and of my health in the time of my several visitations with sickness’, and expressed the wish to be buried ‘without wordly pomp’ in Drayton Beauchamp. A niece, ‘ever tractable and most loving to me’ received £100. His heir and executor was a nephew and namesake.

Harvey, Vis. Bucks. 1566, ed. Metcalfe, pp. 9-10; CSP Dom. 1591-4, p. 129; VCH Bucks. iii. 219, 342n, 397; Buck. Rec. Soc. ii. 111; PCC 4 Soame.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: H.G.O.

Notes