Thomas Hakluyt Esq. (abt. 1492 - bef. 1543)

Born about 1492 in Eyton, Herefordshire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died before 15 May 1543 before about age 51 in Herefordshire, England

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Biography

http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Probate/PROB_11-30_ff_50-1.pdf THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/30, ff. 50-1 1 ________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY: The document below is the Prerogative Court of Canterbury copy of the last will and testament, dated 4 June 1539 and proved 15 May 1544, of Thomas Hakluyt (d.1544) of Eyton in Herefordshire, Clerk of the Council of Wales, whose second wife Katherine, named in the will, was the sister of Richard Trentham, (d.1547) grandfather of Oxford’s second wife, Elizabeth Trentham (d.1612). The testator names as executors his second wife, Katherine (Trentham) Hakluyt, her brother Richard Trentham (d.1547), and Thomas Smyth of Credenhill in Herefordshire. The will of Thomas Smith of Credenhill, TNA PROB 11/57, dated 18 July 1575, contains this clause: Item, I give and bequeath to every child of my late master, Thomas Hakluyt, deceased, that be now living, ten shillings. This bequest suggests that Thomas Smyth of Credenhill (d.1575) was the same person as the Thomas Smyth named as an executor in the testator’s will below. A further link between the two wills is a bequest in the will of Thomas Hakluyt (d.1544) to his godson, John Knight. In the will of Thomas Smyth of Credenhill mention is also made of a John Knight. For a discussion of the ancestry of the geographer, Richard Hakluyt, and his connection to Thomas Hakluyt (d.1544) of Eyton, see Parks, George B., “The Ancestry of Richard Hakluyt”, Notes and Queries May 10, 1924, pp. 335-7. See also the entry for Richard Hakluyt in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Hakluyt, Richard (1552?–1616), geographer, was one of six children of Richard Hakluyt, of London, member of the Skinners' Company, and his wife, Margery. The Hakluyts were an old Herefordshire family, which in Tudor times believed its name and ancient roots were Welsh in origin. Hakluyt's father died in 1557, his mother soon after, and Hakluyt came under the care of his cousin and namesake, Richard Hakluyt the lawyer (d. 1591). Hakluyt was educated at Westminster School (queen's scholar, 1564) and Christ Church, Oxford (BA, 1574; MA, 1577). Ordained priest by late 1580, he was a student (that is, fellow) of Christ Church until 1586, when he obtained a prebend at Bristol Cathedral. From 1583 to 1588 he was chaplain to Sir Edward Stafford, English ambassador in Paris, and from 1590 until 1616 was rector of Wetheringsett and Brockford, Suffolk, a living in the gift of Stafford's wife, Lady Sheffield. In 1602 he was made a prebendary of Westminster Abbey. Hakluyt married, first, Douglas Cavendish, who died in 1597 and with whom he had a son, Edmond, born in 1593; and, second, in 1604, Frances Smith. Hakluyt was buried in Westminster Abbey on 26 November 1616. In the will below the testator names his four unmarried daughters by his first wife, who is said to have been Mary (Lochard, daughter of Thomas Lochard of Greete, Shropshire?). In addition to the four daughters named in the will below, Isabel Hakluyt, Eleanor Hakluyt (wife of Thomas Coningsby), Katherine Hakluyt and Barbara Hakluyt, it appears that the testator had at least two sons by his first wife -- Thomas Hakluyt, father of the lawyer Richard Hakluyt (d.1591), and Richard Hakluyt (d.1557), father of the geographer, Richard Hakluyt (1552?-1616). For the identification of the lawyer, Richard Hakluyt (d.1591), and the geographer, Richard Hakluyt (1552?-1616), as grandsons of Modern spelling transcript copyright ©2007 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/ THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/30, ff. 50-1 2 ________________________________________________________________________ the testator and his first wife, Mary, see the History of Parliament biography of the lawyer, Richard Hakluyt (d.1591) at: HAKLUYT, Richard (by 1531-91), of the Middle Temple, London and Eyton in Leominster, Herefs. b. by 1531, 1st s. of Thomas Hakluyt of Eyton by Mary; poss. half-bro. of Thomas Hakluyt†. educ. M. Temple, adm. 4 June 1555. prob. unm. suc. fa. 1544.1
Offices Held
Associate bencher, M. Temple 12 May 1585. Commr. for customs 1571. Biography Richard Hakluyt was a cousin of his celebrated namesake, whom he introduced to the study of cosmography. His father was Thomas Hakluyt, clerk of the council in the marches of Wales, while the geographer’s father was a younger brother Richard, who had settled in London. It was Thomas Hakluyt who established his family at Eyton, on land conveyed to him by his kinsman John Hakluyt of Eyton. On his father’s death while he was still a minor Hakluyt came under the guardianship of his stepmother Catherine and her new husband Nicholas Depden, against whom and one Ralph Leighton he was to bring a chancery suit in 1552 alleging wrongful detention of deeds and occupancy of 20 acres of land at Eyton which had passed to him from his father. He had perhaps already begun the study of law although it was only in 1555 that he entered the Middle Temple. . . . . Hakluyt’s association with his younger cousin the geographer had begun with the death of Richard Hakluyt in 1557. As overseer of his uncle’s will Hakluyt was charged with assisting the widow and children, and his responsibility increased when she died soon afterwards. For further information on the family and career of the lawyer, Richard Hakluyt (d.1591), see also: http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Hakluyt_Richard_ca_1530-1591. Hakluyt wrote his will in 1587, "considering the mortal state of man and the pestilent fevers so commonly reigning." Although all evidence suggests that he was healthy at the time, he died in 1591; his will was proved on March 4 of that year. It indicated no wife, children, or burial place. He left his farm in Eyton, in succession, to Richard Hakluyt (the younger)'s brothers, Oliver and Edmund, followed by Hakluyt himself. The lawyer left some of his belongings to his sisters, the "eldest and beste beloved" Winifred Bruton, Barbara Evissham, and Elnor Conesbie. Modern spelling transcript copyright ©2007 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/ THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/30, ff. 50-1 3 ________________________________________________________________________ In the will below the testator also mentions unnamed children by his second wife, Katherine (nee Trentham). According to Richardson supra, these children were four sons, Thomas Hakluyt, Rowland Hakluyt, George Hakluyt and Charles Hakluyt, and three daughters, Mary Hakluyt (who married Sir Edmund Walter (d.1592) of Ludlow, Shropshire, Chief Justice of South Wales), Elizabeth Hakluyt and Anne Hakluyt. After the testator’s death, his widow, Katherine (nee Trentham) Hakluyt, married secondly, Edmund Foxe (c.1515-1550), for whose will see TNA PROB 11/33, ff. 218-19, by whom she had a son, Edward Foxe, who became the ward of Sir Nicholas Bacon (1510-1579); and thirdly, Nicholas Depden (c.1520-1588). See the History of Parliament biographies of Edmund Foxe (c.1515-1550) and Nicholas Depden (c.1520-1588), available online. For the will of the testator’s son, Richard Hakluyt (d.1557), father of the geographer, Richard Hakluyt (1552?-1616), see TNA PROB 11/39, f. 129. For the will of the testator’s grandson, Edmund Hakluyt (d.1592/3), son of Richard Hakluyt (d.1557), see TNA PROB 11/81, f. 135. For further background on the Trentham family, see the will of Thomas Trentham (d.1581/19), great-grandfather of Oxford’s second wife, Elizabeth Trentham (d.1612), TNA PROB 11/19, f. 136; the will of Richard Trentham (d.1547), grandfather of Oxford’s second wife, Elizabeth Trentham (d.1612); the will of Sir William Devereux (b. c. 1525, d. 28 September 1579) of Merevale, Warwickshire, TNA PROB 11/61, ff. 333-4; and Richardson, Douglas, Plantagenet Ancestry, 2nd ed., Vol. III, (Salt Lake City, 2011), pp. 352-4. LM: T{estamentum} Tho{me} Hackluyt In the name of God, Amen. The 4th day of June the 31st year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King Henry the 8th, I, Thomas Hackluyt of Eyton, being in perfect mind and remembrance, make and ordain my testament and last will and testament as ensueth: First, I bequeath my soul to God, and my body to Christian burial where it shall please God to end my life; Item, I give and bequeath to every of my daughters which I had by my first wife as hereafter followeth, that is, to wit, to Isabel twenty pounds, and to Eleanor twenty pounds, to Katherine forty marks, and to Barbara forty marks; And if the said Isabel, Eleanor, Katherine, Barbara or any of them shall decease before the time of their marriage, then I will that the parts aforesaid of any of them so deceased shall remain to the use and behoof of the rest of my daughters by my second wife; Modern spelling transcript copyright ©2007 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/ THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/30, ff. 50-1 4 ________________________________________________________________________ And forasmuch as I have good confidence in the said demeanour and wisdom of Katherine, my wife, that she will see the bringing up of my children which I have by her, I therefore give and bequeath all the rest of my goods unto her and to them, that is to say, she to have thone half of my said goods, as money, plate, corn, cattle, stuff of household and debts to her only use, and my said children by her to have thother part thereof when they shall come to their lawful age for their preferment and learning and marriage, as by the discretion of my said wife shall be thought expedient by th’ advice of Richard Trentham, esquire, and Thomas Smyth of Credenhill, which Richard and Thomas with my said wife I make mine executors of this my present testament; Also I will that my godson, John Knight, have of my gift six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence to be paid out of the said rest, that is to say, out of my wife and her said children’s part; And in witness that this is my last will and lawful mind, I have subscribed my name. Per me Thomam Hackluyt. Probatum fuit suprascriptum testamentum coram d{omi}no apud London xvto die mensis Maij Anno Domini mill{es}imo quingentesimo xliiijto Iuramento Iohannis Kydde notarij publici procuratoris executor{um} in h{uius}mo{d}i testamento no{m}i{n}at{orum} Ac approbatum et insinuatum Et com{m}issa fuit administratio om{n}i{um} et singulor{um} bonor{um} dict{i} defunct{i} prefatis executoribus De b{e}n{e} et fideliter administrand{o} eadem Ac de pleno et fideli Inuentario etc exhibend{o} Necnon de plano et vero comp{ot}o inde reddend{o} Ad sancta dei Eu{a}angelia Iurat{i} [=The above-written testament was proved before the Lord at London on the 15th day of the month of May in the year of the Lord the thousand five hundred forty-fourth by the oath of John Kyd, notary public, proctor of the executors named in the same testament, and probated and registered, and administration was granted to the forenamed executors of all and singular the goods of the said deceased, sworn on the Holy Gospels to well and faithfully administer the same, and to exhibit a plain and faithful inventory etc., and also to render a plain and true account thereof.] Modern spelling transcript copyright ©2007 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/

Sources

• James, Duncan. "The Herefordshire Hakluyt Houses". The Journal of the Hakluyt Society, January 2017, Page 3.