Arthur Hopton (1488–1555)

Sir Arthur Hopton (1488–15/16 August 1555) of Cockfield Hall in Yoxford, Suffolk was an English knight, landowner, magistrate, and Member of Parliament.

His father Thomas was the acknowledged natural son of Sir Robert de Swyllington (died 1391), of Swillington in Yorkshire (between Temple Newsam and Methley, south-east of Leeds), who also held lands around Blythburgh in Suffolk.

[7] Sir George (knighted in 1487[8]) married Anne Sotehill of Stockerston, Leicestershire,[9] but died aged 29 in 1490, very soon followed by his elder son John, a child.

[14] Sir George Hopton had left the child in the wardship of four trusted friends, and his executors Sir Robert Clere (c.1453–1529, of Ormesby St. Margaret, Norfolk) and William Eyre became engaged in lengthy Star Chamber proceedings for the recovery of Arthur's rights.

[15] It was then about a decade later that he made his first marriage, to Maud, daughter of Sir Robert Dymoke of Scrivelsby (died 1546).

Sir Robert had been knighted on the same occasion as Arthur's grandfather Sir William Hopton, and Robert's maternal grandparents Lionel Welles, 6th Baron Welles and Joan Waterton lay in a fine tomb at Methley, beside Swillington.

[33] Soon after this, in 1541 he disposed of his family manor of Swillington in Yorkshire, together with 60 messuages and two watermills and sundry lands, to Edward North, Esq., and two years later joined Sir Edward in conveying them together with lands in other Yorkshire parishes to Sir George Darcy (son of the attainted Lord Darcy, former owner of Temple Newsam), with the assistance of his son and heir apparent Owen Hopton, Esq.

[34] Owen Hopton received a settlement of Blythburgh and other manors at the time of his marriage in 1542 to Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Echyngham of Barsham, Suffolk.

[37][38] In April 1545 the king's Court of Augmentations granted the bailiwick and keeping of the manor-place, garden and orchard of his manor of Henham to trustees who vested it in Sir Arthur Hopton.