George Speke (abt. 1523 - 1584)

Born about 1523 in Whitelackington, Somerset, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 10 Mar 1584 at about age 61 in Whitelackington, Somerset, England

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Biography

Sir George Speke (c.1530-84), of White Lackington, Som. Sheriff of Somerset in 1562–63 and was Member of Parliament for Somerset 1572-83 (1) Offices Held: J.p. Som. 1559, q. 1577, sheriff 1562-3; commr. oyer and terminer, Cornw., Devon, Dorset, Hants, Som., Wilts. 1564; commr. piracy, Som. 1577, musters by 1588.

Name and Spellings

His surname is variously written Speke or Speake.

Birth and Parentage

Born c.1530, s. and h. of Sir Thomas Speke† by his 1st w. Anne, da. of Sir Richard Berkeley of Stoke. (1)

He was the eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas Speke (1507-1551) of Whitelackington, MP for Somerset in 1545, twice Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset in 1540 and 1550, and a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Edward VI. His mother (his father's 1st wife) was Alice Berkeley, daughter of Richard Berkeley and sister of Sir Maurice Berkeley.(2)

Marriages

Married: (1) Elizabeth, da. of Sir Andrew Luttrell of Dunster, wid. of Richard Mallet of Currypool, 1s. 2da.; (2) Dorothy, da. of Edward Gilbert of London, 1s. 2da. suc. fa. 1551. KB Jan. 1559.

Firstly to Elizabeth Luttrell, widow of Richard Mallet of Currypool, the daughter of Sir Andrew Luttrell (1484–1538), feudal baron of Dunster, of Dunster Castle in Somerset, Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset in 1528 by his wife Margaret Wyndham (d.1580), a daughter of Sir Thomas Wyndham (d.1521) of Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk, by his first wife Eleanor Scrope, daughter and heiress of Richard Scrope of Upsall Castle, Yorkshire.(2)

Secondly he married Dorothy Gilbert (d.1589), the daughter of Edward Gilbert of London, aGoldsmith.

Children

By Elizabeth he had a son and two daughters: Sir George Speke, of Whitelackington, eldest son and heir, who married Phillippa Rosewell, daughter of William Rosewell of Ford, Devon. Barbara Speke, wife of William Thornhill of Thornhill.(2) Anne Speke, wife of Sir George Trenchard of Wolverton.

By Dorothy he also had a son and two daughters: Hugh Speke (born 1567), who married Elizabeth Beche, daughter and heiress of Henry Beche of Hartley Court, Berkshire.(2)

Life and Death

The earliest reference found to Speke himself is his summons before Lord Chief Justice Portman in 1555 for misdemeanours in Neroche forest, but after this youthful escapade he settled down to the usual administrative and judicial functions of a country gentleman in his shire. (1)

He succeeded his father in 1551 and was knighted in 1559. He was a Justice of the Peace for Somerset from 1559 and was appointed High Sheriff of Somerset for 1562–63. He was elected a Member of Parliament for Somerset in 1572. (2)

Speke was connected with William, 1st Earl of Pembroke, at whose funeral in 1570 he acted as one of the four assistants of the body. In the previous year, Pembroke had been examined by the Privy Council on suspicion of complicity in the scheme to marry Mary Queen of Scots to the Duke of Norfolk, and Speke was one of those he called as a witness for the defence. (1)

Speke’s return at a by-election in 1576, occasioned by the death of Sir Hugh Paulet, probably owed nothing to this connexion. Sir Maurice Berkeley I, the other knight of the shire, was Speke’s uncle and the two families were sufficiently influential to secure him a turn as knight of the shire. Several of his friends and relations were already sitting: his wife’s nephew George Luttrell for Minehead; George Trenchard, his son-in-law, for Dorchester; and John Popham, one of the ‘trusty kinsmen and friends’ who acted as overseers of his will. Speke sat on the committees which drafted the subsidy bills on to Feb. 1576 and 25 Jan. 1581. His other committees concerned ports (13 Feb. 1576), cloth (16 Feb. 1576 and 4 and 13 Feb. 1581) and the referring of legal actions back to the county of origin (16 Jan. 1581). (1)

Speke died on 10 March1584. ^[1](1)

To his ‘well beloved wife Dorothy’ he left furniture at White Lackington ‘as long as she lives there without absenting herself above 40 weeks in one year, and shall live sole and unmarried’. To Dorothy also he left the tithes of Ilminster, ‘the stone jug covered with silver, late the Countess of Pembroke’s’, wood for her household at White Lackington and 20 kine, a bull and a plough of eight oxen. There were small bequests to his daughters and younger sons, and the residue of the estate went to the eldest son. son, who was sole executor. (1)

Sources

1. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78183744/george-speke: accessed 9 January 2023), memorial page for Sir George Speke (1527–10 Mar 1584), Find a Grave Memorial ID 78183744, citing Saint Mary's Churchyard, Whitelackington, South Somerset District, Somerset, England; Maintained by CMWJR (contributor 50059520)

(1) http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/speake-(speke)-sir-george-1530-84

(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Speke_(died_1584)

(3) Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp. 2103-4, pedigree of Speke of Jordans

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ayswAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA296&lpg=PA296&dq=pawley+cornwall&source=bl&ots=DhXt3nlssy&sig=VB55Z137o-HpwfUQllr02FdhH4Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi0k4PsnLrRAhWEJ5QKHVhCDPoQ6AEIKDAB#v=onepage&q=Luttrell&f=false