William St Loe

His official positions included Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, Chief Butler of England and Member of Parliament for Derbyshire.

Their seat was a manor house, Sutton Court, Chew Magna, Somerset, built upon the foundations of a 13th-century castle.

Several generations of St Loes kept at the ready a force of a hundred mounted soldiers for the king's service and were repeatedly chosen as "Attendant Knights" at royal funerals.

Hardened by service with his father in Ireland, he received a courtly polish as a gentleman usher in the grand household of Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter.

The St Loe family, staunch Protestants, had been implicated in the movement to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne and in Wyatt's rebellion, for which he was held and examined in the Tower of London.