RAYMOND, John II (by 1510-60), of Little Dunmow, Essex.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Oct. 1553

Family and Education

b. by 1510, 1st s. of William Raymond. m. by 1530, Margaret, da. of one Barker, at least 5s. 1da.2

Offices Held

Auditor to 1st and 2nd Earls of Sussex; dep. chamberlain, the Exchequer by 1534-51; ?writer of the counter roll 1534-6; commr. tenths of spiritualities, Colchester and Essex 1535.3

Biography

John Raymond was one of the most trusted servants of both the 1st and 2nd Earls of Sussex, who were great landowners in Essex, particularly in the neighbourhood of Maldon. It must have been the 1st Earl who procured Raymond’s return for Maldon in 1536, for the borough almost certainly expected its Members to serve without payment, and unlike his fellow-Membere William Harris II he was then a man of modest means: in 1547 he was to be assessed for subsidy at £24 in lands, although at £95 ‘for lands appointed to the will of the earl’, that is, the 1st Earl of Sussex, who died in 1542. An executor of the will, Raymond was given a legacy of £20 and annuities totalling £5 6s.8d. a year. It was to this Earl that he also owed his appointment in the Exchequer for at the time Sussex was one of the two chamberlains; Raymond was to retain the office under the next chamberlain, Thomas Wriothesley. The 2nd Earl, who died in 1557, also appointed Raymond one of his executors and left him ‘a goblet gilt without a cover’. He presumably secured Raymond’s re-election for Maldon in October 1553; the Members elected in 1539 and 1542 had undertaken to serve without wages and the same condition must have applied in 1553. As a Member of this Parliament Raymond was not one of those who ‘stood for the true religion’ against the initial measures to restore Catholicism. Nothing further is known of his role in the Commons but he was doubtless concerned with the unsuccessful bill against the 2nd Earl of Sussex’s divorced wife.4

Little has come to light about Raymond’s parentage or personal life. He may have been a native of Little Dunmow or have settled there when he took service with Sussex, who owned the site and lands of the dissolved priory of Dunmow and was thus landlord as well as master to Raymond, a lessee of some of the priory lands as early as 1531. As John Raymond gentleman he held land at Harlow and Sheering in 1548 and in October 1550 bought land at Fairsted, which he resold by fine for £100 in 1556; under Edward VI and Mary he spent £220 on the purchase of land in Essex by fine. By his will of 7 Mar. 1560 proved on the following 25 June he asked to be buried ‘without any pomp or sumptuous funeral’ and left legacies of varying sums up to £20, among the beneficiaries being several grandchildren and three sons, George, Giles and Francis; three sons so named were among the children born to Raymond before his being made a Member and freeman of Maldon in 1536. The testator did not mention the earls of Sussex, but he did bequeath by his will ‘one gilt cup with a cover glass fashion’, perhaps the one left him by the 2nd Earl three years before.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: D. F. Coros

Notes

  • 1. Essex RO, D/B3/1/2, f. 112.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 95; Essex RO, D/B3/1/2, f. 112.
  • 3. PCC 1 Alen, 33 Wrastley; E405/115/29; E405/202-4, 210; LP Hen. VIII, viii.
  • 4. Strype, Eccles. Memorials, iii(1), 503; PCC 1 Alen, 33 Wrastley; E179/110/320; CJ, i. 31-32.
  • 5. C24/36/32; NRA 5232, p. 34; CPR, 1548-9, pp. 74, 387; 1549-51, p. 228; Essex RO, D/B3/1/2 passim; D/ABR2, ff. 37-40; CP25(2)/57/423 nos. 52, 56; 70/581 no. 38, 583 no. 13, 585 no. 33.