ESTCOURT, Giles (d.1587), of Salisbury, Wilts.

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

2nd s. of Edmund Estcourt by Praxid, da. of William Button of Wilts. educ. L. Inn 1558, called 1565. m. Elizabeth, da. of William Webb of Salisbury, wid. of (?John) Rogers of Poole, Dorset, 1s. 2 or 3da.

Offices Held

One of the 24, Salisbury by 1559, of counsel to Salisbury; j.p. Wilts. from c.1563; Lent reader, L. Inn 1573, pensioner 1577; recorder, Poole 1582.

Biography

Estcourt came of an old Wiltshire family. He resided at the College House of St. Edmund’s, which he bought in 1576. One of the 24, he served the city as a lawyer, and would no doubt have been recorder had Salisbury had such an office at this time. He was excused from serving as mayor in 1568, but represented Salisbury in five Parliaments, serving on a number of committees dealing with weights and measures (23 May 1572), jeofails (15 Feb. 1576), cloth (16 Feb.), innholders (17 Feb.), unlawful weapons (2 Mar.), relief of vicars and curates (13 Mar.), disorders of sheriffs (4 Feb. 1581) and navigation (15 Mar. 1581). In March 1587 he was granted leave of absence by the House ‘but upon what reasons or grounds’ the clerk ‘very negligently omitted’ to state. Perhaps he was already ill. He made his will 16 Apr. and it was proved 6 July. In it he forgave the corporation all such money as was due to him ‘for serving of them in divers parliaments’. Although his estate included the manors of Chilhampton and Roulston, the farms of Burtford and Maddington and lands at Fisherton, Estcourt was heavily in debt, a circumstance he attributed to expense over litigation consequent upon the death of a former bishop of Salisbury, for whom he had acted as executor. Still, two daughter were to receive £500 apiece, provided that they married with their mother’s approval, 100 sheep went to his ‘friend’ John Popham, plate to John Hele, John Glanvile, Thomas Hannam and the bishop of Salisbury. As overseers he appointed his son-in-law Thomas Mompesson, esq., and his cousin and principal creditor Thomas St. Barbe, the last named being asked to deal fairly with the widow.

Estcourt also had connexions with Poole; while recorder of the town he tried unsuccessfully to have his son returned to Parliament. The family continued to represent west country boroughs throughout the seventeenth century.

Vis. Wilts. 1623, ed. Marshall, 56; Hoare, Wilts. Salisbury, 499, 593, Frustfield, 106-7; Vis. Glos. (Harl. Soc. xxi), 56; Hutchins, Dorset, i. 35; Mins. Proc. Sess. (Wilts. Arch. Soc. recs. br. iv), 1; Wilts. Arch. Mag. xxiii. 34; City of Salisbury mss D (34), passim Leger 1452-1567; CJ, i. 97, 106, 110, 115, 122, 134; D’Ewes, 416; PCC 47 Spencer, 33 Montague.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: M.N.

Notes