THROCKMORTON, Clement (by 1515-73), of London; Claverdon and Haseley, Warws.

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

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1553
Oct. 1553

Family and Education

b. by 1515, 3rd s. of Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton, Warws. by Catherine, da. of Sir Nicholas Vaux, 1st Lord Vaux of Harrowden; bro. of Anthony, George, John I, Kenelm Nicholas and Robert. educ. M. Temple. m. by 1545, Catherine, da. of Sir Edward Neville of Aldington, Kent, 6s. inc. Job 7da.2

Offices Held

Receiver, lands formerly of Evesham abbey 15 Dec. 1540; servant of Sir Richard Rich by 1541; surveyor, ct. augmentations, Warws. by Apr. 1542-53, Exchequer 1553-67; cupbearer, household of Queen Catherine Parr by 1544-8; commr. chantries, Leics. and Warws. 1546, 1548, relief Warws. 1550, loan, Warws. 1557; particular receiver for Queen Catherine Parr, Leics. and Warws. by 1547-8; j.p. Warws. 1547-72, q. 1573; constable, Kenilworth castle, Warws. 19 Sept. 1553-d.; member, High Commission 1572.3

Biography

Clement Throckmorton’s upbringing and early life appear to have left little trace, but by 1541 he was in the service of Sir Richard Rich, with whom he had a family connexion through a great-grandmother, Catherine Rich. His activities during the years that followed were largely dictated by his master’s chancellorship of the augmentations: they involved much travel, particularly with a view to ensuring that houses designated for the King’s progresses were fit for the purpose. The work was evidently rewarding both materially and in terms of patronage: in 1545 Throckmorton made his first purchase of monastic lands and he continued to buy property regularly until his death, in 1552 receiving a legacy of £400 from his father for land purchases. His rapid ascendancy in Warwickshire owed as much to his family’s standing there and his surveyorship in the augmentations as to the marriage of his cousin Catherine Parr to Henry VIII, an appointment in her household and his own marriage into a noble family.4

Throckmorton’s election to the last but one of Henry VIII’s Parliaments he doubtless owed to his father, perhaps assisted by his master Rich; the town of Warwick was amenable to Sir George Throckmorton’s influence and a number of Rich’s dependants were returned on this occasion almost certainly to smooth the passage of measures relating to the royal estates. Throckmorton was to sit for Warwick again, but in the next Parliament it was his brother Kenelm who was elected there while he transferred to Devizes, which formed part of Catherine Parr’s jointure as Queen. In the first Parliament of the new reign another brother, Sir Nicholas, sat for Devizes and Clement returned to Warwick; he was to be re-elected there to the two following Parliaments, in March 1553 with his brother John. That this sequence of elections was broken in 1554 is probably to be attributed to Throckmorton’s Protestant leanings—in Mary’s first Parliament he was one of those who ‘stood for the true religion’—and to the implication of his brother Nicholas and kinsman John Throckmorton II in plots against the government, although the family’s hold on Warwick was strong enough for two other brothers, George and Kenelm, to be elected there in turn. Throckmorton himself remained loyal to Mary: in February 1554 he helped to arrest the fugitive Duke of Suffolk and then rode to court to announce the capture to the Queen. Retained on the bench and appointed constable of Kenilworth, he was an important figure at both Warwick and Coventry. In 1555 he was one of the founder members of the Russia Company and in the following year he undertook the rebuilding of his house at Haseley in a style befitting his wealth and position.5

With the accession of Elizabeth, Throckmorton resumed his career in the Commons, sitting in every Parliament summoned before his death. The adherence of his eldest brother Robert to Catholicism compromised the senior branch of the family and enhanced his own influence as one who was described in 1564 as ‘a favourer of true religion’. Throckmorton died on 14 Dec. 1573 and was buried at Haseley.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: S. M. Thorpe

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from younger brother Nicholas’s. Vis. Warws. (Harl. Soc. xii), 88-89 Vis. Oxon. (Harl. Soc. v), 120; Dugdale, Warws. 655; C142/172/143.
  • 3. LP Hen. VIII, xvi, xxi; E163/12/17, no. 30; 314/22, nos. 1-5; 315/218, f. 15; LC2/2, f. 43; CPR, 1547-8, pp. 90, 136; 1553, p. 360; 1553-4, p. 25; 1555-7, p. 180; 1560-3, p. 444; 1566-9, p. 82; EHR, xxiii. 77; Somerville, Duchy, i. 561, 563n; W. C. Richardson, Ct. Augmentations, 337 n. 30; R. G. Usher, Rise and Fall of High Commission, 359.
  • 4. E314/22, nos. 1-5; LP Hen. VIII, xvi-xxi; A. L. Rowe, Ralegh and the Throckmortons, 10; VCH Warws, iii. 44, 73, 104, 106, 117, 139, 143, 144, 151, 194; iv. 223; v. 162; vi. 199, 222; CPR, 1553-4, p. 366; 1554-5, p. 109; 1555-7, p. 180; 1558-60, p. 423; PCC 22 Tashe; Coughton Ct. mss boxes 1-33, 54.
  • 5. Bodl. e. Museo 17; CPR, 1548-9 p. 135; VCH Warws. iii. 104; viii. 491; Narr. Ref. (Cam. Soc. lxxii), 163; Chron. Q. Jane and Q. Mary (Cam. Soc. xlviii), 129; Coventry chamberlain’s accts. 1554-5, p. 232; Warwick accts. 1546-69, mm. 24v, 37v, 70v; Pevsner and Wedgwood, Warws. 308; T. S. Willan, Muscovy Merchants of 1555, p. 125.
  • 6. Cam. Misc. ix (3), 7; C142/172/143; E. W. Badger, Mon. Brasses Warws. 27; Pevsner and Wedgwood, 308.