Sir Edmund Rous (by 1521 – 1572 or later), of Dunwich, Suffolk, was an English landowner, magistrate, MP and Vice-Treasurer of Ireland.P. Hyde, 'Rous, Sir Edmund (by 1521-69 or later), of Dunwich, Suff.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 (from Boydell and Brewer 1982), History of Parliament Online.D. MacCulloch, Suffolk and the Tudors (Oxford 1986), p. 82. (date 1572)
Origins John Leland the antiquary, who lived in Sir Edmund's time, wrote:"Al the Rousis that be in Southfolk cum, as I can lerne, oute of the house of Rouse of Dinnington. Diverse of the Rouses of this Eldest House ly in Dinington Paroche Chirche buried under flat Stones. Antony Rouse, now the Heire of Dinington Haule, hath much enlargid his Possessions."J. Leland, ed. T. Hearne, The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary, Second Edition, 9 volumes (James Fletcher, Oxford/Joseph Pote, Eton 1744), VI, p. 14 (HathiTrust). Edmund was the second son of Sir William Rous of Dennington, Suffolk (presumed to have been MP for Dunwich in 1529),M.K. Dale/A.D.K. Hawkyard, 'Rous, Sir William (by 1471-1538/39), of Dennington, Suff.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 (from Boydell and Brewer 1982), History of Parliament Online. by Alice, daughter of the Judge Sir John Sulyard (died 1488) of Wetherden, Suffolk.'The Visitation of Suffolk, 1561: Rous, Rowse, of Denington', W.C. Metcalfe (ed.), The Visitations of Suffolk made by Hervey, Clarenceux, 1561, Cooke, Clarenceux, 1577, and Raven, Richmond Herald, 1612 (Editor, Exeter 1888), pp. 61-62 (Internet Archive).E. Foss, The Judges of England, 9 vols (1848-1864), V: 1485-1603 (Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, London 1857), pp. 74-75 (Internet Archive). He was a younger brother of Anthony Rous of Dennington (c. 1502-1546), Comptrouller of Calais 1542-44, who sat for Suffolk in 1545.M.K. Dale, 'Rous, Anthony (by 1502-46), of Dennington and Henham, Suff.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1982), History of Parliament Online. The name Edmund was recurrent in the Rous family, and this Sir Edmund should not be confused with his mid-14th century ancestor the Captain of Guernsey, nor his mid-15th century ancestor Edmund Rous of East Lexham.'Letter XXXI. Elizabeth Mundeford to John Paston', in J. Fenn (ed.), Original Letters Written During the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III, 4 vols (G.G.J. and J. Robinson, London 1789), IV, pp. 109-112 (Google). Neither should his brother Anthony Rous (died 1546), of Dennington and Henham, be confused with Anthony Rous of Badingham (died 1555, the son of Reynold Rous), who appointed "the right worshipfull Sir Edmunde Rous, knight", one of his executors in his will.Will of Anthony Rous of Badingham (P.C.C. 1555, More quire), written 1554.
Life Early career Edmund's elder brother Anthony was married (to Agnes Blennerhasset of Frenze) by 1523, was Treasurer to the 3rd Duke of Norfolk by 1536, and succeeded their father as senior heir in 1538/39. The younger brother, George Rous, was a servant of Cromwell's in 1538, trusted with overseas business.'245. Cromwell to Lord Lisle', in R.B. Merriman, Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, II: Letters from 1536 (Oxford University Press, Reprint 2000), p. 126 (Google). In April 1536 Thomas Cromwell ordered the arrest of John Offley, said to be detaining £104 received from Edmund Rous's factor at Calais.Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. X: January - June 1536 (HMSO 1536), p. 250. In 1537 the Duke of Norfolk wrote to Cromwell complaining that Sir Arthur Hopton's men had taken four of his servant Edmund Rous's horses from the Duke's land at Sibton, while actions were under way for suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace, but had not returned them.'216. Norfolk to Cromwell', in J. Gairdner (ed.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 12 Part 1: January–May 1537, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1890), pp. 108-09 (British History Online). Hence it appears that Edmund was the Duke's servant.Hyde, 'Rous, Sir Edmund', History of Parliament.
Anthony, as he succeeded their father Sir William around 1539, gave up the Duke's service, thwarted Norfolk's attempts to appropriate the younger heiress of Sir Edward Echyngham,'693. Anthony Rous to Cromwell', Letters and Papers, Henry VIII Vol. XIV Pt. 1 (HMSO 1894), p. 342 (HathiTrust). acquired some further manors and property in east Suffolk, and embarked on his short but lustrous career in connection with English possessions across the Channel.Dale, 'Rous, Anthony', History of Parliament. Edmund married Mary Paynell, a Lincolnshire heiress, by whom he had a daughter Margaret and possibly other children.A.I. Suckling, The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk, 2 vols (Author, London 1847), II, p. 459 (Google). When Anthony died in February 1545/46 he was succeeded by his son Thomas, so the senior Rous line did not descend to Edmund.
Landowner He has been called "impecunious", an "unscrupulous and disreputable knight".D. MacCulloch, Suffolk and the Tudors (Oxford 1986), pp. 46, 82. He was a justice of the peace for Suffolk from 1543 to 1547. During the 1540s Rous owned and leased various estates in Suffolk, including former monastic property at Dunwich, and manors including Middleton with Fordley (1544),W.A. Copinger, The Manors of Suffolk, Vol. 2: Hundred of Blything (Taylor, Garnett, Evans, & Co., Ltd., Manchester 1908), p. 125 (Internet Archive). and Westleton. He purchased Wetherden Hall, in Hitcham, Suffolk, in 1542 from Sir John Clere, and leased it to Sir John Spring of Lavenham: Spring however died in 1547, and by 1551 the hall had been purchased from Rous by George Waldegrave, nephew of Sir John Spring's wife.E. Martin, 'Two exceptional Tudor houses in Hitcham', Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, XXXVII Part 3 (1991), pp. 186-207, at pp. 200-01.
Edmund, then of Sibton, purchased lands and tenements in Westleton and Middleton from John Haughfen of Chillesford in 1547.Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich: Iveagh (Phillipps) Manuscripts, Westleton, ref. HD 1538/412/6 (Discovery Catalogue). He was the tenant of the site of the late monastery of Sibton, with the north grange and south grange, when Edward VI granted it, together with Rendham, to Sir Anthony Denny in 1547, and it was Sir Anthony who granted the manor of Rendham (Barnes) to him in that year.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward VI, Vol. I: 1547-1548 (HMSO 1924), pp. 243-45, and p. 145 (HathiTrust).W.A. Copinger, The Manors of Suffolk, Vol. 5: Hundred of Plomesgate (Taylor, Garnett, Evans, & Co., Ltd., Manchester 1909), p. 159 (Internet Archive). In 1550 he acquired the manor and messuage of Okynghill Hall at Badingham with its appurtenances, formerly of the Duke of Norfolk (attainted), as Thomas Hogan made grants to Edmund Rous, and to Anthony Rous of Badingham.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward VI, Vol. III: 1549-1551 (HMSO, London 1925), pp. 321-22 and pp. 332-33 (HathiTrust). Misprinted "1531" in Copinger, Manors, IV, p. 9 (Internet Archive). In September 1552 Edmund Rous, of Dunwich, had licence to grant his manor of Rendham Barnes to Robert Hacon of Rendham.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward VI, Vol. IV: 1550-1553 (HMSO 1926), p. 428-29 (HathiTrust).
In a land dispute of the later 1540s he legally challenged the existence of the Corporation of Dunwich.The National Archives (UK), Chancery: Rous v Waller, ref. C 1/1259/38-40 (Discovery Catalogue). In 1550 he complained to the Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations that there were still two chantries functioning in Dunwich, one for the Maison Dieu (a hospital for the poor) and one for the parish church of St James, which led to the seizure of the documents and common seal of the house from the representatives of the Bailiffs.J. Middleton-Stewart, 'Change and decay in East Suffolk: the vicissitudes of parish fortunes', Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History XLI Part 3 (2007), pp. 323-34, at p. 332 (Society pdf), citing The National Archives (UK), ref. E315/182/82.
Favour under Marian rule Sir Edmund was knighted c. 1550. His service in Ireland appears to have begun in 1553, possibly in respect of his loyalty to Queen Mary in the succession crisis of that year: he became Vice-Treasurer of Ireland by December 1553. He was, nonetheless, in England for the elections of April 1554, when he was returned as Member of Parliament for Great Bedwyn. In October 1554 he was appointed (with the governors of Ireland) a commissioner to oversee the sale of Crown lands in Ireland, and named to receive the proceeds on behalf of the Crown.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Philip and Mary, Vol. II: 1554-1555 (HMSO 1936), p. 103 (HathiTrust). In November 1554 he obtained the seat at Dunwich, and in 1555 that of Dover where he was nominated by Sir Thomas Cheney.Hyde, 'Rous, Sir Edmund', History of Parliament.
He remained Vice-Treasurer of Ireland in March/April 1555, when he was granted the lordship of Athlone, with custody of the castle there (newly reconstructed by Sir William Brabazon), during pleasure, provided that he found room for the Council there whenever it might visit those parts;'1555: No. 72 (2)', Appendix to the Ninth Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records in Ireland (HMSO Dublin, 1877), Appendix IV, p. 66 (Internet Archive). his term had ended by September 1555 when he obtained an Order of Council to conduct a naval expedition in the north of Ireland, ostensibly for the purposes of fishing, but really as a pretext for a private-enterprise expedition against Scots intruders from Kintyre, led by one Cole. This expedition took place in 1556.C.S. Knighton and D. Loades (eds), The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I, Navy Records Society (Ashgate Publishing, Farnham 2011), pp. 277, 313-14. This is probably related to a licence issued in October 1555 to Sir Edmund and six others, their servants, factors and attorneys, to buy and convey 300 tuns of wine in vessels of any parts in amity with the kingdom.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Philip and Mary, Vol. 3: 1555-1557 (HMSO 1938), p. 107 (HathiTrust).
He appears then to have maintained royal favour, for Robert Wingfield of Brantham (who calls him "a man ready in service") shows him in attendance upon Mary with Sir Nicholas Hare, Owen Hopton and John Tyrrell, and reports his appointment as submarshal when Henry Bedingfeld was Knight Marshal.D. MacCulloch (ed. and transl.), 'The Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield of Brantham', Camden Miscellany XXVIII, Camden Society, 4th Series XXIX (1984), pp. 181-301, at pp. 257, 259, 261. This was during that interval in the long service of Ralph Hopton as Knight Marshal between 1556 and 1558, whose staunch Protestantism became irreconcileable with that position in the household. Despite his absences from Parliament Rous suffered little distraint on that account during Mary's reign,Hyde, 'Rous, Sir Edmund', History of Parliament. but his costs rose against him. In 1557 he was awarded 1,000 marks in respect of his rights in the manor of Okenhill at Badingham, payable by the Duke of Norfolk's executors,Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich: Iveagh (Phillips) Manuscripts, ref HD 1538/120/6 (Discovery Catalogue). and this together with manors in Kent and debts owing to him in Ireland were granted by Edmund to Philip and Mary in respect of his debt to them of £3,420.The National Archives (UK), Exchequer: Grant, ref. E 355/304 (Discovery Catalogue).
Last years