HODGKINSON, James, of Preston, Lancs.

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 William Hodgkinson, alderman of the Preston merchant guild. m. Elizabeth, da. of Alexander Rushton or Rishton of Sparth, 2s.

Offices Held

Alderman, Preston merchant guild 1562, 1582.

Biography

In 1563 Hodgkinson was returned for Preston instead of the nominee of the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Roger Ascham, whose name appears on the earlier Crown Office lists for this Parliament. Either this was an unprompted intervention by a local magnate such as the 3rd Earl of Derby, or it was an attempt by the borough to gain a measure of independence from the duchy by enlisting the support of another patron sufficiently powerful to oust the duchy influence, as happened at Liverpool in the case of Ralph Sekerston. Apart from references to him on the guild merchant rolls, almost no information about Hodgkinson has been found. He came of an old Preston family which owned considerable property in the town and in the sixteenth century was seldom without a representative on the corporation. He was living in 1582, but in this year four namesakes were members of the guild merchant, and it is impossible to tell from later lists at what date the MP died. The James Hodgkinson who was an alderman in 1602 was presumably a younger relative. No will or inquisition post mortera mortem has been found.

Dugdale, Vis. Lancs. (Chetham Soc. lxxxv), 142; C193/32, lists 4-6; Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. Pubs. ix. 22, 31, 33, 43, 46.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes