Edward Lewknor (died 1556)

Edward Lewknor (c. 1517[1] – 1556) was the representative of a branch of a prominent Sussex family, in an armigerous line descending in the distaff side from the Camoys barony.

Having attained standing as a member of parliament and by a position of service in the royal household, his career was ended abruptly by his involvement in Henry Dudley's conspiracy against Queen Mary I, and his consequent attainder.

[5] Margaret Copley's sister Eleanor was the third wife of Thomas West, 8th Baron De La Warr, who acted as feoffee for Edward's grandfather in securing the descent and uses of his estates according to the terms of his will.

It was then resurrected in Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys, descendant and heir of Elizabeth Radmylde's sister Margaret, who married John Goring.

Other estates including Kingston Buci were allocated to Anthony, and were in the administration of the widow and three other executors, and with the assistance of Sir Roger Copley, during minority.

Margaret Lewknor assumed sole responsibility as executor but Edward came into the wardship of one of the co-executors, Robert Wroth of Durrants, Enfield (Middlesex), and of Gray's Inn[19] (from 1531 attorney of the Duchy of Lancaster and M.P.

[40] The affray occurred at Tothill Fields behind the old Palace of Westminster: Hussey was reprimanded by the Privy Council, since parliament was sitting at the time, and he (and perhaps also Lewknor) ought to have been there.

In 1548 Margaret Lewknor was the demesne lessee of the manor of High Barns at Upper Beeding, Sussex,[44] a property seized by the Crown from the attainted Duke of Norfolk, which had been granted to Thomas Seymour in 1547.

[47] John Michell of Stammerham had been in tenure of High Barns in 1548, and was so still in May 1553, when Lewknor granted to him and his heirs the lands called New Park in Beeding.

Thomas Wroth, a signatory to the Letters supporting Jane Gray's succession, attended the King's deathbed and assisted in the proclamation of Mary, but was briefly imprisoned: soon afterwards he escaped to Italy, expecting worse consequences, and did not return to England until 1558.

Lewknor was not overtly implicated in Wyatt's rebellion of 1554 (incited by Mary's decision to marry King Philip II of Spain): he was lent a corslet from the Tower armoury to oppose it.

It was in the aftermath of the executions of Wyatt and of Jane Gray and Guilford Dudley, and in the context of the Marian persecutions, that Lewknor allowed his position within the royal household to be exploited as part of a more widespread resistance.

With a group of sympathetic gentlemen, Henry Dudley planned to raise an army of Englishmen exiled in Europe, and with assistance from the King of France to land in England and rally enough support to depose the Queen and instal Elizabeth as monarch.

Prompted by Sir Anthony Kingston, a fellow conspirator,[54] Peckham asked them to obtain a copy of the Will of King Henry VIII, by which they hoped to disprove Mary's title to the throne.

On 7 June Mary had given orders to William Paget for the leading exiles (Sir Thomas Wroth heading the list of nine names) to be summoned immediately to England, "all excuses, delayes, lettes, hindrances and other occasions happening to you whatsoever utterly sett ap[ar]te", to appear before the King and Queen and privy council on the last day of October to answer such matters as may be objected against them, not failing upon their faith or allegiance.

Frances Malet, priest to Sir Henry Bedingfeld (Lieutenant of the Tower of London), took a letter to the Queen about Lewknor, but could not obtain a positive reply.

Also the term of years in the manor of Kingston Buci, which had been held for life by Margaret Lewknor since 1538, but had before the time of his attainder reverted to him by his mother's death, was (with the exception of the advowson, fines, heriots, and lands in Henfield) now assigned to Dorothy for a payment of £200, together with all his goods and chattels.

The petition of Edward, Thomas, Stephen and William, and of Jane, Mary, Elizabeth, Anne, Dorothie and Lucrecie, 'sonnes and daughters to Edward Lewknor, late of Kyngeston Bowsey in the Countie of Sussex, Esquire,' addressed to Elizabeth that their father 'in the tyme of your heighnes syster, the Quenes ma[jes]tie that dead is, was attaynted of heighe treason...'[64] It was read in the House of Commons on 3, 10 and 15 March, when it was passed by them, and, being taken to the Upper House on 20 March, it received all three readings on the following day, all these being recorded in the Journal of Sir Simonds D'Ewes.