CHETWYND, Walter (d.1638), of Grendon, Warws.; later of Ingestre, Staffs.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Family and Education

2nd s. of John Chetwynd of Ingestre (d.1592), being 1st by his 2nd w. Margery, da. of Robert Middlemore of Edgbaston, Warws. educ. Barnard’s Inn; G. Inn 1582. m. (1) Mary, da. and h. of John Mullins, archdeacon of London, 2s. 1da.; (2) Catherine, da. of Sir George Hastings, wid. of Edward Unton of Wadley, Berks. suc. half-bro. Sir William Chetwynd 1612. Kntd. 1604.1

Offices Held

J.p. Salop from c.1592, Staffs. by 1596; commr. musters, Staffs. 1601, sheriff 1607-8; mayor, Newcastle-under-Lyme 1613-14.2

Biography

The Chetwynds had been settled at Ingestre, four miles from Stafford, since at least the mid-fourteenth century. They had a remarkable parliamentary record, sitting for Staffordshire and its boroughs until well into the nineteenth century. Chetwynd’s father, sheriff of the county in 1578-9, died seised of property including the manor of Ingestre and three other manors in Staffordshire as well as the manor of Grendon in Warwickshire. While the bulk of the inheritance passed to Walter’s elder half-brother William, sheriff in 1600-1, Walter himself enjoyed the Grendon estate; at any rate this was given as his address when he was knighted. Obviously it was to his family’s standing that Chetwynd owed his elections at Newcastle-under-Lyme. On the first occasion the mayor was one Francis Chetwynd, whose relationship to him is, however, obscure. On the second occasion, Chetwynd was described as a gentleman of Gray’s Inn. By the time he achieved a county seat in 1614 he had succeeded his half brother at Ingestre and had himself been sheriff of Staffordshire. On at least one occasion, in July 1601, he earned the approval of the Privy Council for his alertness and reliability as a local official. He remained an active j.p. into Charles I’s reign.3

In his will dated 20 Apr. 1638, Chetwynd asked to be buried in Ingestre church. To each of his daughter’s four children he left £100, charged on his lands at Newport and Church Aston in Shropshire, and to his grandson Walter Chetwynd, later a well-known Staffordshire antiquary, he bequeathed a ‘great gilt cup’ and a ‘Turkey wrought carpet’ as heirlooms for the house of Ingestre. He also made small bequests to those who had cared for him in his last illnesses, and appointed his elder son Walter, sole executor, leaving him all his freehold land at Newport and Church Aston, and the residue of his personal estate. Chetwynd died 31 May 1638.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.E.M.

Notes

  • 1. Staffs. Peds. 1664-1700 (Harl. Soc. lxiii), 50; Dugdale, Warws. ii. 1101 seq.; T. Pape, Newcastle-under-Lyme, passim; J. C. Wedgwood, Staffs. Parl. Hist. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc.), i. 379-80 et passim.
  • 2. PRO Index 4208, p. 1; Staffs. Q. Sess. Rolls, iii. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc.), p. 171 et passim; APC, xxxi. 175; Pape, 81.
  • 3. Erdeswick’s Surv. Staffs. pp. xlix, 61 seq.; C142/236/64, 87; Pape, 45-6; APC, xxxii, 85; 1627-8, p.111.
  • 4. PCC 139 Harvey, 56 Evelyn; C142/565/189.