HONING, Edward (1550-1609), of Eye, Suff.; formerly of Darsham, Suff.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
Available from Cambridge University Press

Constituency

Dates

1593
1597
1601
1604 - May 1609

Family and Education

b. 21 May 1550, 1st s. of William Honing† of Carlton, Suff., clerk of the Signet 1543-69, and Frances, da. of Nicholas Cutler† of Eye. m. by 1573, Ursula (bur. 29 Mar. 1628), da. and coh. of Anthony Wingfield of Sibton, Suff., 2s. (1 d.v.p.) 7da. (2 d.v.p.). suc. fa. 1569. bur. 6 May 1609.1

Offices Held

Recvr.-gen. of Crown revenue, Suff. and Cambs. (sole) 1589-1604, (jt.) 1604-d., (jt.) Norf. and Hunts. 1600-3;2 freeman, Eye 1594;3 j.p. Suff. by 1596-d.;4 commr. sewers, Norf. and Suff. 1605, to inquire into lands of Gunpowder plotters, Suff. 1606, subsidy 1608.5

Biography

Honing was the grandson of a member of the London Fishmonger’s Company. His father, William, became clerk of both the Privy Council and the Signet and sat for Winchester in 1547. On the fall of Protector Somerset in 1550 he lost his Council clerkship, but retained that of the Signet until his death in 1569. Having acquired an estate in Suffolk, William was returned for Orford in 1553 and was appointed to the county bench.6

Honing first sat for Dunwich in 1589, when he entered Crown service as receiver for Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. He inherited property in and around Eye from his mother, whose brother, Charles Cutler, had twice represented the borough under Elizabeth. Honing himself was elected for Eye in 1593 and 1597. He strengthened his interest in the borough by acquiring a lease of the Crown manor in 1598, and was re-elected twice more, in 1601 and 1604.7 His colleague in 1604 was his kinsman Sir Henry Bokenham, whose father was described as Honing’s ‘especial friend’ in a subsequent Chancery suit.8

Honing only appears once in the surviving records of the 1604 session, when he was named the committee to consider the bill for defraying the expenses of the royal Household on 30 May.9 The following November his receivership of Suffolk and Cambridge was granted to him and his eldest son Wingfield jointly. In the second session Honing was appointed to committees for two bills relating to the dairy trade (28 Jan. and 4 Apr. 1606), a subject of considerable importance in the predominantly pastoral region of ‘High Suffolk’ in which Eye was situated.10 He was also named, on 16 May, to consider a Norfolk estate bill.11 In his only recorded speech, on 11 Mar. 1606, he supported composition for purveyance, and recalled a speech made 20 years earlier by Sir Francis Knollys†, the Elizabethan treasurer of the Household, who had said that without composition there would be ‘no ease in purveyors’.12

Honing left no trace on the records of the third session, and was buried at Eye on 7 May 1609. No will or grant of administration has been found. He was the last of his family to sit in Parliament.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

  • 1. ‘Description of a picture of the fam. of Honing’ Coll. Top. et Gen. vii. 398-9.
  • 2. CPR 31 Eliz. ed. S.R. Neal (L. and I. Soc. ccc), 73; C66/1523; CSP Dom. 1603-10, pp. 152, 164, 441.
  • 3. Letters of Philip Gawdy ed. I.H. Jeayes, 83-4.
  • 4. SP13/F/11, f. 31; SP14/33, f. 58v.
  • 5. C181/1, f. 125; 181/2, f. 3v; SP14/31, f. 38.
  • 6. HP Commons, 1508-58, ii. 382-3.
  • 7. HP Commons, 1558-1603, i. 248; W.A. Copinger, Manors of Suff. iii. 259, 262.
  • 8. C2/Jas.I/B34/22.
  • 9. CJ, i. 983a.
  • 10. CJ, i. 260b, 293b.
  • 11. Ibid. 309b.
  • 12. Ibid. 282b; HP Commons, 1558-1603, ii. 413.