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 I.J.J. Goring, 'Sulyard, John (by 1518-75), of Wetherden, 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.
Sulyard of Wetherden Sir John Sulyard,C. Richmond,'The Sulyard Papers: The Rewards of a Small Family Archive', in D. Williams (ed.), England in the Fifteenth Century, Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 1987), pp. 199-228. a Justice of the Court of King's Bench,'Sulyard, John', in E. Foss, Lives of the Judges, Vol. V: 1485-1603 (Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, London 1857), pp. 74-75 (Internet Archive). (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:W. Rye (ed.), A Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Suffolk (Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, Ipswich 1900), 3 Edward IV, no. 4, p. 307 (Internet Archive). View original (CP 25(1)/224/120-121) at AALT Img 005. in 1468 he had a grant of free warren in it. His Hall, of which two truncated 15th century timber ranges survive in a much-remodelled farmhouse, stood at the moated site near to what is now Wetherden Hall Farm.'Wetherden Hall: a Grade II Listed Building in Wetherden, Suffolk', British Listed Buildings, Source ID: 1246334, English Heritage Legacy ID 487312. It is observed that he was tutor to Prince Edward from 1473 until the boy's disappearance in 1483, and received the favour of Richard III,See his commissions of the peace, and of oyer and terminer, under Richard III in Parliamentary Papers, Vol. XXXVIII: Reports from Commissioners (14 Vols), Vol. 14. Appendix II to the IXth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, (1847-1848), pp. 17-30 (Google). and that Wetherden was near to Gipping, seat of Sir James Tyrrell, who was apparently implicated in the prince's death.D. MacCulloch, 'Wetherden, St Mary's church: The church', in "Excursions 2011", Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology XLII Part 4 (2012) at pp. 549-51 (Society's pdf).
The judge first married Agnes (daughter of Richard Hungate'Kimpton: Manor of Parkbury', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Hereford Vol. III (VCH, London 1912), pp. 29-33 (British History Online).See Nina Green's Introduction to the Will of Eustace Sulyard (PCC 1547), "THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PROB 11/31/508" (Oxford-Shakespeare pdf online, 2010).Calendar of the Close Rolls, Henry VI, Vol. VI: 1454-1461 (HMSO, London 1947), p. 349 (HathiTrust).), by whom he had sons Edward (of High Laver, Essex, died c. 1495) and William, and daughter Elizabeth.'Pedigree of the family of Sulyard of Wetherden and Haughley', in G.W. Marshall (ed.), The Genealogist (George Bell and Sons, London 1880), IV, pp. 226-34, at pp. 227-29 (Internet Archive). Marshall makes Anne Hungate the daughter of John Hungate. Secondly he married Anne, daughter and coheir of John and Elizabeth Andrews of Baylham, Suffolk,cf. Will of Elizabeth Andrewes (P.C.C. 1474). Abstract: N.H. Nicolas, Testamenta Vetusta: Being Illustrations from Wills, 2 Vols (Nichols & Son, London 1826), I, pp. 328-331 (Internet Archive). and by her he had sons Andrew and John, and daughters Elizabeth, Anne and Alice,'Sulyard of Wetherden' in W.C. Metcalfe (ed.), The Visitations of Suffolk made by Hervey, Clarenceux, 1561, Cooke, Clarenceux, 1577, and Raven, Richmond Herald, 1612 (Private, Exeter 1882), pp. 69-70 (1561), and p. 168 (1612) (Internet Archive). the uterine cousins of Sir Andrew Wyndsore of Stanwell, Middlesex (whose father Thomas Wyndsore married their mother's sister Elizabeth Andrews).
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.Will of Sir John Sulyard of Weston, Norfolk (P.C.C. 1488, Milles quire).C. Richmond, John Hopton, A Fifteenth Century Suffolk Gentleman (Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 247 and n. 346 (Google). Its roof has been called "a riot of heraldry... a complete record of the Sulyard family's formidable gentry connections up to 1488." After 1488 Dame Anne remarried to Sir Thomas Bourchier of Knebworth, who died in 1491,'Manor of Knebworth', 'Parishes: Knebworth', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Hertford Vol. 3 (V.C.H., London 1912), pp. 111–118. (British History Online. Retrieved 8 November 2016).D. Richardson, ed. K.G. Everingham, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition (Richardson 2011), pp. 469–72, at p. 471. and she survived until 1520.Will of Dame Anne Bourgchire of Wederden (P.C.C. 1520). Dame Anne completed the south aisle with the porch, adding heraldry from her second marriage to Bourchier.
The manor passed by remainder to Dame Anne, and from her to her son Andrew Sulyard, Esquire of the Body to Henry VIII.'Wetherden', in W.A. Copinger, The Manors of Suffolk: Notes on their History and Devolution, 7 volumes (Taylor, Garnett, Evans, & Co., Ltd, Manchester 1910), VI, at p. 240 (HathiTrust). Andrew married Margaret, daughter of John Lyston, but died without issue in 1538. His brother John married Margaret, daughter of Robert Baker of Wetherden, and they were the parents of John Sulyard the present subject.'Haughley', in W.A. Copinger, The Manors of Suffolk: Notes on their History and Devolution, 7 volumes (Taylor, Garnett, Evans, & Co., Ltd, Manchester 1910), VI, at p. 202-04 (HathiTrust). At his death in 1539 the father John asked to be buried at Wetherden near to the graves of his father and mother, and arranged for prayers for his late wife Margaret. He made his son John Sulyard his principal legatee and his executor together with Sir William Drury of Hawstead.The will of Sir John Sulyard of Wetherden (P.C.C. 1539, Cromwell quire).
Life John Sulyard was educated as a lawyer at Clifford’s Inn. He married three times. His first wife was Elizabeth Bedingfield, daughter of the younger Sir Edmund Bedingfield (1479-1553) of Oxborough, Norfolk, by whom he had one daughter. He succeeded his father in 1540, and by the following year he had married his second wife, Elizabeth Jerningham, daughter of Sir John Jerningham of Somerleyton, Suffolk and his wife Bridget, daughter of Sir Robert Drury of Hawstead; they had two sons and two daughters.('Sulyard'), in J.H. Druery, Historical and Topographical Notices of Great Yarmouth (Nichols & Son, London 1826), at pp. 175-76 (no. 14, John Jernegan) and pp. 185-86 (Memoir of Sulyard) (Google). (Elizabeth's sister Anne Jerningham was the wife of Sir Thomas Cornwallis, whose mother was the daughter of Edward Sulyard of High Laver.) His third wife was Alice Carvell, daughter of Humphrey Carvell (Kervill) of Wiggenhall St. Mary, Norfolk. Alice was the widow of John Bedingfield of Quidenham (died 1546/47), son of Peter Bedingfield,'Bedingfield', in W.Rye (ed.), The Visitations of Norfolk, 1563, 1589, and 1613, Harleian Society XXXII (London 1891), pp. 26-27 (Internet Archive). a son of the elder Sir Edmund Bedingfield K.B. (died 1496/97), the builder of Oxburgh Hall.P. Ryan (ed.), 'Diocesan returns of recusants for England and Wales, 1577', The Catholic Records Society XXII: Miscellanea 12 (London 1921), pp. 1-114: Norwich, pp. 54-62, at p. 55 and note (issuu).
Sulyard was with the Marquess of Northampton and others, including Sir Henry Bedingfield, Sir William Waldegrave, Sir John Cutts and Sir Thomas Cornwallis, to attack and suppress the rebels at Norwich during Kett's Rebellion in 1549.(A. Neville), The History of the Rebellion in Norfolk in the Year MDXLIX (Printed by J. Crouse for Martin Booth, Norwich 1750), p. 16 (Google). He maintained his allegiance to the Roman Catholic faith and to the succession of Queen Mary, and this was the foundation of his public career, which was mostly encompassed within Mary's reign. 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.J.G. Nichols (ed.), The Chronicle of Queen Jane, and of Two Years of Queen Mary, Camden Society XLVIII (1850), pp. 3-7, and p. 175 (Internet Archive); citing Lansdowne MS 1236, fol 29. A family tradition alleged that Mary had rested one night at Wetherden Hall on her way from Kenninghall to Framlingham.J.H. Druery, Historical and Topographical Notices of Great Yarmouth (Nichols & Son, London 1826), pp. 185-86 (Memoir of Sulyard) (Google).
Sulyard was elected a Member of Parliament for Ipswich in October 1553, in the parliament for which Henry Bedingfield and Henry Jerningham were Knights of the Shire, and Thomas Cornwallis the sheriff of Ipswich. He was appointed gentleman pensioner and standard bearer late in 1553, in which he remained until the end of Mary's reign. 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. From that year he served as a Justice of the Peace in Suffolk until 1561.
The manor and park of Haughley, with lands and liberties in Haughley, Stowmarket, Newton, Bacton, Wetherden, Shelland and Harleston, and all park liberties, were granted or confirmed to him in fee in June 1554 by Queen Mary in gratitude for his loyalty towards her.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Mary I, Vol. I: 1553-1554 (HMSO 1937), pp. 156-57 (HathiTrust).An original deed of grant of Haughley to Sulyard bearing the great seal of Philip and Mary and dated 1556 was given to the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology in 1924 by Sir Henry Jerningham. See Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology XVIII Part 3 (1924), front matter, p. xvii.R. Norwich, "By Metes and Boundes: rediscovering the Survey of the Manor of Haughley, c. 1554" (Updated edition, 2014), Academia.edu document. This manor was anciently associated with Haughley Castle and the lordship of Hugh de Montfort. (While it became the Sulyards's principal seat,A. Dimock, 'Haughley Park and the Sulyards', Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History XII Part 1 (1904), pp. 88-96 (Society's pdf). the great mansion which stands at Haughley Park today was built around 1620, and was remodelled during the 19th century.Historic England Listing: 'Haughley Park and attached garden walls on three sides' (First listed 1955), Historic England.)