CHEWTE, Charles, of Wrenham, Suff. and Kelvedon, Essex.

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

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

s. of Arthur Chewte of Wrenham by Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Henry See of Herne, Kent. educ. M. Temple 1587, called bef. 1623. m. Ursula, da. of John Challoner of Fulham, Mdx., at least 1s.

Offices Held

Duchy of Lancaster feodary in Essex, Herts., Mdx., Surr. and London 1591; member of the mineral and battery works 1603.

Biography

The Chewtes were an old but obscure family in Taunton, Somerset, whence, in the sixteeenth century, they removed to Wrenham. Junior branches of the family were seated in Kent and in Ireland. Chewte himself owed his parliamentary seat at Thetford to his duchy of Lancaster office. On 12 Mar. 1593 he was named to the committee considering the poor law, and as Member for Thetford he may have attended the committee for kerseys (23 Mar.). A letter from the lieutenant of the Tower to Cecil in 1604 named a Charles Chewte among those who were to be allowed access to Sir Walter Ralegh in the Tower, but the significance of this is not clear. In 1620 Chewte was mentioned in the will of his brother-in-law William Challoner of Bristol. From his wife’s family derived the name of Chewte’s son, Chaloner, the lawyer and Speaker in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament.

Berry, Hants County Fams. 118; Burke, LG, 339; Somerville, Duchy, i. 611; F. Grant, Smelting of Copper in the Swansea District, 58; Manning, Lives of the Speakers, 334; D’Ewes, 499, 507; HMC Hatfield, xvi. 193; PCC 98 Soame.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: G.M.C.

Notes