Family and Education

b. by 1518, 2nd s. of John Eyre of Wedhampton by 2nd w. Joan, da. of John Cuffe of Broughton Gifford; half-bro. of John Eyre^†. m. (1) Elizabeth, wid. of Thomas Fawshire of Southampton, Hants; (2) Joan, wid. of George Tourney (d. Jan. 1539) of Salisbury and Motcombe, Dorset, 1s. Thomas^†; (3) Edith, wid. of William Kynte or Knite of Salisbury.1

Offices Held

Member of the Forty-Eight, Salisbury 1540, of the Twenty-Four by 1555, auditor 1541, 1544, 1547, 1549, 1551, 1555, 1557, constable 1545, mayor 1558-9; churchwarden of St. Thomas’s by 1546-52 or later; high collector, subsidy 1547, collector of gift to King 1552; member of council, Southampton by 1566-70 or later, mayor 1566, warden for the defence of Southampton 1570.2

Biography

Robert Eyre, a younger son in a family long established near Devizes, settled at Salisbury where by 1539 he had entered into partnership with a mercer, George Tourney, whose widow he was later to marry. He traded through Poole from 1541-2 and in 1541 he and Thomas St. Barbe bought most of the lead stripped from the convent of Amesbury by its new owner the Earl of Hertford. The only occasion on which Eyre is known to have been assessed for subsidy in Salisbury was in 1550, when he paid 20s. on goods worth £20 in the Market ward; but in 1542 he had bought tenements in Castle Street from Sir Henry Long and he may have owned property elsewhere. His civic career seems to have been uneventful and all that is known of his Membership of Parliament is that on 13 Jan. 1559 he and his fellow-Member John Hooper claimed and were allowed expenses amounting to £12 4s. for 61 days, thus receiving the standard rate of 2s. a day without any addition for travel.3

Shortly afterwards Eyre vanishes from the records of Salisbury only to reappear in Southampton, where he attended council meetings from 1566 to 1570.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. F.T. Baker

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Salisbury corp. ledger B, f. 292v; Hoare, Wilts. Frustfield, 56; Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv, cvi), 59-61.
• 2. Ledger B, ff. 292v, 294, 298v, 299v, 301v, 305v, 307v, 308, 313, 314, 317v, 319; Churchwardens’ Accts. of St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum (Wilts. Rec. Soc. 1896), 273-4, 276, 278; E179/197/240; Third Bk. of Remembrance, ii (Soton rec. ser. iii), 98, 119.
• 3. Wilts. N. and Q. iii. 297; iv. 563; v. 30; E122/207/6, 122/5, 7; 179/198/256; PCC 24 Dyngeley; ledger B, ff. 319, 320v.
• 4. Ledger B, ff. 325, 335v; Third Bk. of Remembrance, ii. 98, 102, 104-5, 109-10, 112-17, 122, 167.