Edward Lewknor (c. 1517 – 1556) was the representative of a branch of a prominent Sussex family, in an armigerous line descending in the distaff side from the Camoys barony. Having attained standing as a member of parliament and by a position of service in the royal household, his career was ended abruptly by his involvement in Henry Dudley's conspiracy against Queen Mary I, and his consequent attainder. His children were restored in blood by Queen Elizabeth I.For a referenced account of Edward Lewknor, see R.J.W. Swales, 'Lewkenor, Edward (1518–56), of Kingston Buci, Sussex', in 'Local Politics and the Parliamentary Representation of Sussex 1529–1558' (PhD Dissertation, University of Bristol 1964), Vol. 2, pp. 288–291 (pdf p. 298).

Family origins Edward LewknorR.J.W. Swales, 'Lewknor, Edward (1516/17-56), of Kingston Buci, Suss.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.) The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558 (Boydell & Brewer, 1982) History of Parliament online. was the son of Edward Lewknor (died 1528) of Kingston Buci, Sussex,D.G.C. Elwes and C.J. Robinson, A History of the Castles, Mansions, and Manors of Western Sussex (Longmans & Co., London/G.P. Bacon, Lewes 1876), pp. 130–31 (Internet Archive). and his wife Margaret Copley, daughter of Roger Copley citizen and Mercer of London and of Roffey (in Horsham, Sussex – died c. 1482Admitted to freedom of Mercers, 1456: see L. Jefferson, The Medieval Account Books of the Mercers of London: An Edition and Translation, 2 vols (Ashgate, Aldershot 2009), II, Name Index (Google).) by his wife Anne, a daughter and coheiress of Sir Thomas Hoo, Baron Hoo and Hastings by Eleanor, daughter of Lionel Welles.D. Richardson, ed. K.G. Everingham, Magna Carta Ancestry 2nd Edition (Richardson 2011), II, pp. 8–10 (Google). Sir Thomas Hoo had two daughters named Anne: this was the younger. Margaret Copley's sister Eleanor was the third wife of Thomas West, 8th Baron De La Warr, who acted as feoffee for Edward's grandfather in securing the descent and uses of his estates according to the terms of his will.Will of Edward Lewknor of Kingston Buci (P.C.C. 1528). Inquisition post mortem: Edward Lewkenor (Sussex), T.N.A. Discovery Catalogue, Piece description C 142/47/41 (Chancery). Edward's father had a younger half-brother Richard Lewknor and three half-sisters, whose mother Anne (died 1538),Will of Dame Anne Echingham (P.C.C. 1538). daughter of John Everard of Cratfield and sister-in-law of John Tasburgh of St Peter, South Elmham,'Everard' (1), in W. Rye (ed.), The Visitations of Norfolk, 1563, 1589 and 1613, Harleian Society Vol. XXXII (London 1891), pp. 116-17 (Internet Archive). remarried to Sir Edward Echyngham of Barsham, Suffolk (died 1527).Will of Sir Edward Echyngham of Barsham (P.C.C. 1527).F.H. Suckling, 'Some Notes on Barsham juxta Beccles, co. Suffolk', The Genealogist XXI (1905), pp. 124-42, 243-50, and XXII (1906), pp. 52-61 (Internet Archive), 128-34, 149-54 and 212-22, at XXII, pp. 52-61.

The Camoys descent His grandfather, also Edward (died 1522),Will of Edward Lewkenour of Kingston Bowcy (P.C.C. 1522–23). The date of Probate shown in the Register is earlier than the date of the will itself, and should probably read 1523. was the son and heir of Nicholas Lewknor of Kingston Buci (youngest son of Sir Thomas Lewknor of Horsted Keynes by Elizabeth Echyngham, stepmother of Baron Hoo and Hastings) and his wife Elizabeth (Isabella) Radmylde.As shown in the Drury Manuscript, British Library Add. MSS. 5523, fol. 110: see J.J. Howard (ed.), The Visitation of Suffolke, made by William Hervey, Clarenceux King of Arms, 1561, Vol. II (Samuel Tymms, Lowestoft/Whittaker & Co., London 1871), pp. 261–70, at p. 269. W.D. Cooper, 'Pedigree of the Lewknor Family', Sussex Archaeological Collections III (1850), pp. 89–102, at p. 102. Elizabeth and her sister Margaret Radmylde became the coheirs of their nephew William Radmylde, who died without issue. Their mother Margaret Camoys (born c. 1402), first wife of Ralph Radmylde, was granddaughter of Thomas de Camoys, 1st Baron Camoys (died 1421), and (with her sister Eleanor) coheir to her brother Hugh Camoys, 2nd Lord Camoys.D. Richardson, ed. K.G. Everingham, Plantagenet Ancestry, 2nd Edition (Richardson 2011), I, pp. 471 ff. Eleanor married Sir Roger Lewknor of Broadhurst, elder half-brother of Nicholas Lewknor.D. Richardson, ed. K.G. Everingham, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition (Richardson 2011), III, 'Lewknor', pp. 15–21 at pp. 18–19, and see p. 372. Hugh died in 1426, when the title went into abeyance until 1839. It was then resurrected in Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys, descendant and heir of Elizabeth Radmylde's sister Margaret, who married John Goring.C. Clark and W. Finnelly, Reports of Cases Heard and Decided in the House of Lords on Appeals and Writs of Error, and Claims of Peerage: During the Sessions 1831[-1846], Vol. 6, 1838 & 1839 (V. & R. Stevens and G.S. Norton, London 1842), pp. 789–867; see p. 818.

Lewknor descent and kin His great-grandfather Nicholas Lewknor of Kingston-by-sea otherwise Kingston Bowcy was the brother of Sir Roger Lewknor of Broadhurst and Horsted Keynes in Sussex. Sir Roger Lewknor and the heiress Alianora de Camoys were the great-grandparents of Jane Lewknor, Sir Richard Lewknor and Thomas Lewknor. The daughter of Sir Roger Lewknor and Alianora, Elizabeth, married John Wroth, and were the grandparents of Robert Wroth and the great-grandparents of Robert Wroth's children Sir Thomas Wroth and Dorothy Wroth.

Early life

Lewknor had a younger brother Anthony and sisters Eleanor, Mary and Barbara.W. Bruce Bannerman, The Visitations of the County of Sussex... in 1530 and 1633–34, etc., Harleian Society LIII (London 1905), pp. 25–30, at pp. 28–29. According to an Inquisition upon his father's death,Chancery, C 142/47/41. Edward was then 11 years old. His father's will, however, left estates including Hamsey (East Sussex) in feoffment to mature for him in October 1542. Other estates including Kingston Buci were allocated to Anthony, and were in the administration of the widow and three other executors, and with the assistance of Sir Roger Copley, during minority. Margaret Lewknor assumed sole responsibility as executor but Edward came into the wardship of one of the co-executors, Robert Wroth of Durrants, Enfield (Middlesex), and of Gray's InnAutumn reader, 1528: J. Foster, The Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521–1889 (Hansard, London 1889), p. 2. (from 1531 attorney of the Duchy of Lancaster and M.P. for Middlesex 1529–1535), a descendant of Sir Roger Lewknor and Alianora Camoys.'Wroth of Enfield', in G.J. Armytage (ed.), Middlesex Pedigrees collected by Richard Mundy, Harleian Society LXV (1914), p. 17. Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, III, p. 372.

Robert Wroth's eldest son Thomas Wroth was of a very similar age to Edward Lewknor.H. Miller, 'Wroth, Thomas (1518–73), of Durants, Enfield, Mdx. and London', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558 (Boydell & Brewer 1982), History of Parliament online The Wroth household was of Protestant sympathy: Robert Wroth became a friend of Thomas Cromwell's, and from 1534 until his death two years later Wroth shared with Cromwell the stewardship of Westminster Abbey.H. Miller, 'Wroth, Robert (1488/89-1535), of Durants, Enfield, Mdx.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558 (Boydell & Brewer 1982), History of Parliament online Thomas was sent to St John's College, Cambridge, but did not take a degree.J. & J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses I.iv (Cambridge University Press, 1927), pp. 468–69. At his father's death in 1536 he became a ward of the Crown, and in that year he entered Gray's Inn.Foster, Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, p. 11. It is claimed (but does not appear) that Lewknor was admitted in the same year.R. Chapman, 'The Parochial History of Hamsey', Sussex Archaeological Collections XVII (George P. Bacon, Lewes 1865), pp. 70–103, at p. 79. Cromwell at once obtained a grant of the marriage and wardship of Thomas Wroth,J. Gairdner, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. XI (HMSO 1888), 943: Grants October 1536 (item 6). and in 1538 sold the marriage to Sir Richard Rich, who arranged that Thomas should marry his daughter Mary Rich.Gairdner, Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, XIV (ii), Miscellaneous: December 1538 & May 1539, p. 324; XV, 613: Grants April 1540 (item 9), 733: Grants May 1540 (item 64). (British History Online)

Marriage The wardship and marriage of Edward were granted to his mother in May 1533.Gairdner, Letters and Papers, Henry VIII VI, 578: Grants May 1533 (item 37). However Robert Wroth in his will written in 1535 explicitly required that his ward Edward Lewknor should marry his daughter Dorothy: if either were to refuse or mislike the match, Dorothy was to have the financial benefit arising from the dissolution of the wardship.Will of Robert Wroth of Durrants, Enfield (P.C.C. 1536). Edward and Dorothy were accordingly married. Dorothy's mother Jane was the daughter of Sir Thomas Hawte (a Woodville descendant), who had died in 1505, and his wife Isabel (Elizabeth) Frowyk, sister of Sir Thomas Frowyk.R. Hovenden (ed.), 'De Haut', The Visitation of Kent taken in the years 1619–1621 by John Philipot and William Camden, Harleian Society XLII (London 1898), pp. 212–14, at p. 214.Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, II, p. 9. The union reinforced existing ties of kinship among the numerous posterity of Sir Thomas Lewknor, and reinvested two Camoys lines. The manor of Kingston Buci was in 1537 settled upon Margaret Lewknor for life with an additional twenty years' tenure with remainder in tail male to Anthony Lewknor.A.P. Baggs, C.R.J. Currie, C.R. Elrington, S.M. Keeling and A.M. Rowland, 'Kingston by Sea: Manor and other estates', in T.P. Hudson (ed.), A History of the County of Sussex, Vol. 6 Part 1: Bramber Rape (Southern Part) (V.C.H., London 1980), pp. 132-38 (British History Online), between notes 57 and 58. The settlement is described in Calendar of Patent Rolls, Philip and Mary, III: 1555-1557 (HMSO 1938), pp. 451-52 (HathiTrust). Anthony was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1542.Foster, Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, p. 15.

Margaret Lewknor lived until at least 1551,West Sussex Record Office: Conveyance with livery of seisin, ref Holmes, Campbell & Co/983; and Quitclaim, ref Holmes, Campbell & Co/1084 (Discovery Catalogue). and was no doubt instrumental in arranging the marriages of Edward's sisters. Eleanor became the wife of Giles Sentbarbe, Rector of Hamsey c. 1541–1555.Church of England Clergy database: Giles or Egidius Sayntbarbe, Sentbridge, Senbar, etc.: parish of Hamsey. Mary married John Michell the younger of Stammerham (in Horsham),A.P. Baggs, C.R.J. Currie, C.R. Elrington, S.M. Keeling and A.M. Rowland, 'Horsham: Manors and other estates', in T.P. Hudson (ed.), A History of the County of Sussex Vol. 6 Part 2: Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) Including Horsham, (V.C.H., London 1987), pp. 156–66. a resident of Horsham, whose parliamentary connections may have assisted Lewknor's own ambitions.R.J.W. Swales, A.D.K. Hawkyard, 'Michell, John II (died 1555), of Stammerham, Suss.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1509–1558 (Boydell & Brewer 1982), History of Parliament online. Lewknor's sister Barbara married Sir John Dawtrey.

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