Family and Education

b. 7 Jan. 1527, 1st s. of Sir Ralph Lane of Orlingbury, Northants. by Maud, da. and coh. of Sir William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Horton; bro. of Ralph and William^†. m. (1) Catherine (d.bef. 29 Mar. 1563), da. of Sir Roger Copley of Gatton, Surr., 3s. inc. William^† 2da.; (2) Mary, da. of John Heneage of Benniworth, Lincs., wid. of Sir Thomas Andrew of Charwelton, Northants. and of Erasmus Cope of Canons Ashby, Northants., 1s. suc. fa. 26 Sept. 1540. Kntd. 2 Oct. 1553.1

Offices Held

J.p. Bucks. 1558/59, Northants. 1558/59-?d.; dep. lt. Northants. 1560; sheriff 1563-4; commr. musters 1569, eccles. causes, dioceses of Lincoln and Peterborough 1571.2

Biography

Robert Lane derived his wealth and position principally from his father’s marriage, and it was his mother who, after her husband’s death in 1540, acquired for £40 the wardship of the 13 year-old heir and an annuity of £10. Lane was licensed to enter upon his lands on 26 Apr. 1548 but as his mother continued to live at Horton he took up residence at the house which he had inherited at Hogshaw in Buckinghamshire: he was living there when he sued out his pardon at the accession of Mary.3

As a grandson of the 1st Baron Parr and a cousin of Henry VIII’s last Queen, Lane must early have gone to court, where one of his mentors is likely to have been his kinsman Nicholas Throckmorton; Lane’s senior by some dozen years, Throckmorton served successively in the households of Baron Parr, Queen Catherine Parr and Edward VI. When in 1549 Throckmorton forwent his allegiance to the Protector Somerset in favour of the Duke of Northumberland, Lane probably followed his lead, and Northumberland must have thought well enough of him to pair him with Throckmorton as the Council’s nominees for Northamptonshire in the second Edwardian Parliament. (It is possible that, like Throckmorton, Lane had sat in its forerunner: he could have replaced Henry Williams for the last session of January to April 1552.) Of Lane’s part in the brief but significant Parliament of March 1553 nothing is known. His role in the succession crisis which followed is likewise to be inferred only from the knighthood which he received at Mary’s coronation: if this was for loyalty during the previous summer Lane had probably declared for the Queen in Northamptonshire, where the issue was momentarily disputed. Yet Lane was to play only a minimal part in public affairs during the reign: this may have been due to his association with Throckmorton, in whose plotting against the government Lane appears nevertheless to have had no share, or with his brother-in-law Thomas Copleyduring that wayward figure’s Protestant phase. In 1564, however, Lane was himself to be adjudged an ‘earnest furtherer of religion’ and as such he gave many years of service to the Elizabethan regime. The date of his death is unknown but it took place about 1588.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: S. M. Thorpe

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from age at fa.’s i.p.m., E150/1222/10. The Gen. n.s. xxxi. 134-5; Bridges, Northants. i. 367; Vis. Northants. ed. Metcalfe, 15, 64, 185-7 which gives Lane the wrong parentage; Machyn’s Diary (Cam. Soc. xlii), 303; Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. li), 482-3.
• 2. HMC Montagu, 9; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 366; SP12/51/3, 67/23; CPR, 1569-72, p. 277.
• 3. Northants. RO, Gunning mss, box 1236; LP Hen. VIII, xvii; CPR, 1547-8, p. 265; 1553-4, p. 450.
• 4. CPR, 1553, p. 387; Strype, Eccles. Memorials, ii(2), 66; iii(1), 577; APC, vi. 282; Cam. Misc. ix(3), 35 where Lane’s surname is given as ‘Lawe’.