He was the only son of George Lumley (who had been executed in the lifetime of his father for his role in the Pilgrimage of Grace), by Jane, second daughter and coheir of Sir Richard Knightley of Upton, Northamptonshire.

In a petition to Edward VI Lumley stated that he was a child at the death of his grandfather in 1544, to whose honours he did not succeed because of his own father's attainder, and in 1547 he obtained an Act of Parliament restoring him in blood, and enacting "that he, the said John Lumley and the heirs male of his body, should have hold, enjoy and bear the name, dignity, state and pre-eminence of a Baron of the Realm" whereby he became Baron Lumley (a new Barony being created of that name, in tail male ) and he was summoned to Parliament accordingly from 5 October 1553 to 5 November 1605.

Lumley married firstly, before the end of 1550, Lady Jane FitzAlan, the elder of the two daughters and co-heirs of Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel, by his first wife Lady Catherine Grey, daughter of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset.

She was buried 9 March 1576/77, at Cheam, Surrey (as were three of her children, all of whom died in infancy), near her father's estate, Nonsuch Palace.

However Queen Mary had sold the Palace of Nonsuch to Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel in 1556, and Lumley inherited it from his father-in-law in 1580.

He was buried at Cheam with his first wife; a tomb and monument there at St. Dunstan's Church memorialize Lumley and his two wives.