Family and Education

m. by 1585, Margaret, 5s. (1 d.v.p.) 3da.1 bur. 16 Feb. 1616.2

Offices Held

Freeman, Nottingham by 1580, chamberlain, 1580-1, sheriff 1582-3, common councilman 1586-94, alderman 1594-d., mayor 1595-6, 1602-3, 1609-10.3

Biography

Hurt originally came from Haldworth in Yorkshire but became a prosperous Nottingham mercer who also owned several mills and ‘salt work[s]’ by the time of his death.4 Shortly after serving as mayor for the second time he was returned for the borough to the first Stuart Parliament, but left no mark on the surviving parliamentary records. In January 1606 the corporation agreed to pay him and his colleague, Anker Jackson, £20 for their expenses in the 1604 session after Hurt and Jackson began legal proceedings against the borough’s sheriffs for nonpayment. However, unlike Jackson, there is no evidence that he was paid subsequently, which perhaps indicates that he had ceased attending the Commons. On 9 Mar. 1607 the corporation records state that he was appointed to a committee concerning disposing of manure in the town, suggesting that he was absent from Westminster for at least part of the third session, and he served as mayor for a third time during the fourth session in 1610.5 He made his will on 1 Jan. 1616 and was buried in accordance with his wishes in St. Mary’s Nottingham on 16 Feb. 1616.6 No other member of the family sat in Parliament.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: George Yerby / Ben Coates

Notes

• 1. Notts. RO, Nottingham St. Peter’s par. reg.; Borthwick, Reg. Test. 34, ff. 72-3.
• 2. Notts. RO, Nottingham St. Mary’s par. reg.
• 3. Recs. of Bor. of Nottingham ed. W.H. Stevenson, iv. 421-9.
• 4. A. Henstock, S. Dunster and S. Wallwork, ‘Decline and regeneration: social and economic life’, Centenary Hist. of Nottingham ed. J. Beckett, 137-8; Borthwick, Reg. Test. 34, ff. 72v-3.
• 5. Recs. of Bor. of Nottingham, iv. 278, 284, 299.
• 6. Notts. RO, Nottingham St. Mary’s par. reg.; Borthwick, Reg. Test. 34, f. 72.