HODY, William, of Weymouth, Dorset.

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

Offices Held

Biography

The identity of this Member has not been established. The 6th s. of William Hody of Pilsclon, Pilsdon, Dorset, by Bridget, da. of Sir John Smyth, baron of the Exchequer, was admitted to the Middle Temple from New Inn in 1581 and was still on the books in May 1583, but no record has been found of a call to the bar. The man who represented the combined boroughs of Weymouth and Melcombe in 1589 was certainly of the locality and, in the 1590s was a merchant engaged in a privateering venture with John Brooke. The law and privateering are an unlikely combination of activities and Pilsdon is not near enough to Weymouth to be significant. Still, the Hody family of Pilsdon was declining at this time, and younger sons sometimes had erratic careers.

Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 233; Roberts thesis; Vivian, Vis. Devon, 189; K. R. Andrews ‘Eliz. Privateering’ (London Univ. PhD thesis 1951), 293, 301, 365.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: P. W. Hasler

Notes