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PEYTON, John III (1579-1635), of Wells, Norf.
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Biography Detail
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. 1579, o.s. of John Peyton I by his w. Dorothy. educ. Queens’, Camb. 1594; travelled abroad (Italy, Eastern Europe) 1598, 1601. m. 25 Nov. 1602, Alice, da. of John II of Isleham, Cambs., 3s. 6da. Kntd. 1603; suc. fa. 1630.
Offices Held
Gent. of privy chamber c.1603; lt.-gov. Jersey 1628-33.
Biography
Peyton no doubt owed his return at Castle Rising to his father’s local influence. He left no mark on the records of the 1601 Parliament, and there is nothing of interest to say about him before he rode north to meet James I in March 1603. He was in high favour during the first months of the reign before he became too friendly with his father’s prisoners, Cobham and Ralegh. In his later years he served in the Netherlands and with his father in Jersey, and in 1628 became lieutenant governor of that island on his father’s retirement to England. In 1630 he succeeded to his father’s estates, but died four years later, burdened by lawsuits and illness, in March or April 1635. Administration of his estate was granted on 24 Apr. to his widow.
He wrote an account, now in Cambridge University Library, of his travels as a young man, and had other literary interests. He was a friend of his neighbour, Sir Robert Cotton.
DNB; Vis. Suff. ed. Howard, ii. 119 seq.; R. E. Chester Waters, Chester of Chicheley Mems. ii. passim; Al. Cant.iii. 354; HMC Hatfield, viii. 166; x. 434; CSP Dom. 1598-1601, p. 419; Chamberlain Letters ed. McClure, i. 189, 194; Norwich Cent. Lib. N.R.S. 18407, 33, B.7; Camb. Univ. Lib. 2044 K.K. v.2.
