Sir John Sulyard (by 1518 – 1575), of Wetherden and Haughley, Suffolk, was a prominent East Anglian magistrate, landowner, High Sheriff, knight and standard-bearer, strongly Roman Catholic in religious affiliation, who sat in parliament during the reign of Queen Mary.
[1] Sir John Sulyard,[2] a Justice of the Court of King's Bench,[3] (the present subject's grandfather) is thought to have acquired the manor of Wetherden Hall (which had formerly belonged to Roger de Scales) in 1463 by fine, from Walter Bradley and his wife Joan:[4] in 1468 he had a grant of free warren in it.
At Sir John's death in March 1487/88, he founded the Sulyard chantry in the "spectacular" south aisle which he had commenced building at St Mary's Church, Wetherden.
[7] The manor passed by remainder to Dame Anne, and from her to her son Andrew Sulyard, Esquire of the Body to Henry VIII.
[13][22] (Elizabeth's sister Anne Jerningham was the wife of Sir Thomas Cornwallis, whose mother was the daughter of Edward Sulyard of High Laver.)
He was with the Earl of Bath, Sir Henry Bedingfield, Henry Jerningham, Clement Higham and others who rallied to Mary's support in Kenninghall, Norfolk on 12 July 1553, during the succession crisis surrounding Lady Jane Grey, in preparation for Mary's journey to London: their swift loyalty to her was decisive in bringing her to the throne.
In the parliament of Spring 1554, following Wyatt's rebellion, Sir Clement Higham replaced him at Ipswich, and Sulyard sat for Bodmin, and for Preston in November 1554.
[20] (While it became the Sulyards's principal seat,[31] the great mansion which stands at Haughley Park today was built around 1620, and was remodelled during the 19th century.
On 21 May 1556 he, with two men of Beccles, John Denny and William Poole, all having been condemned the previous day, were burned there as heretics by Sir John Sulyard:"Wherat many murmured, and thought he went beyond his commission, in that he put them to death without a writte from the lord Chauncelor of England, for his warraunt, which in so short time could not be obteyned, the said Chauncelour being then at London, which is at least lxxx myle from that place.
[34] He made his will as from Quidenham in 1569, requesting burial among his ancestors at Wetherden church, and granting his estates to his sons Edward and Thomas.
[35] He was survived by his widow Alice, who left Haughley Hall to live with her son Humphrey Bedingfield at Quidenham, where she died in 1577.
His monument, somewhat mutilated by William Dowsing, takes the form of an altar-tomb of pale veined marble, the frontal divided into three panel sections, each displaying a large shield with heraldic quarterings, framed by four fluted pilasters, with an entablature with projecting cornice above.
These support two tall pale and reddish-veined marble columns with capitals of the Corinthian order, which frame a central panel containing an escutcheon and crest with foliate surrounds, in carved relief in polychrome.
Above the main armorial feature, which is set within its own frame of scrolled strapwork terminals, is an upper horizontal entablature of veined marble with a deeply projecting cornice moulding supporting a pediment above.
[38] (d) (dexter) 1 & 4: (Carvell) Gules, a chevron Or between three lions' faces Argent[13] These therefore represent Sir John Sulyard and his three wives, and correspond to the four kneeling figures positioned beneath them.
And also by this doe manifest myselfe bounden and readie, as becometh a true and duetifull Subject, with Body, Lands and Goodds, to defend her Highness against the force of any Prince, Pope, Potentate, Prelate, or whatothersoever her Maiestie's Enemies, which God graunt she may overcome, and longe contynue her prosperous Raigne over us.