Henry Maynard

Infobox Person
name = Sir Henry Maynard


image_size = 150px
caption = Arms for Maynard of Estaines Parva
birth_name =
birth_date = 1547
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death_date = 1610
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resting_place = Little Easton Church
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nationality =English
other_names =
known_for = secretary to Lord Burghley
education =
employer =
occupation = politician, secretary and landowner
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religion = Protestant
spouse = Susan Pearson
children =
parents = John and Dorothy Maynard
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Sir Henry Maynard (1547-1610) was an English politician and secretary to Lord Burghley, and became (by steady accretion) a substantial landowner.

Origins

Maynard was the son of John Maynard, who had been MP for St Albans in the first Parliament of Mary I of England in 1553-1554 (being one of the 39 members who absented themselves, rather than acknowledge the authority of the Pope), and his second wife, Dorothy, daughter of Robert Perrot. [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yFI5AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA285&lpg=PA285&dq=%22sir+henry+maynard%22+knight&source=web&ots=nStWgmTLqS&sig=C1CFw7IHwzi-__BCs10DLlUMET8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA283,M1| Collins’s "Peerage" (1812), volume 6] ]

Political career

He was secretary to Lord Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, and served as MP for St. Albans in the parliaments of 1586, 1588, 1592 and 1597. "He sat on committees concerning , horse and cattle stealing, privileges, penal laws, painters and stainers, and fustians". [http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-1107103-144724/unrestricted/Hankins_dis.pdf|Jeffery Hankins, "Local Government and Society in Early Modern England: Hertfordshire and Essex, c. 1590-1630" (2003)] ] He was also summoned to the parliament of 1601 as a knight of the shire for Essex (UK Parliament constituency). He was High Sheriff of Essex in the last year of Elizabeth’s reign and was knighted by her. In July 1603, following the accession of James I, he was appointed as Deputy Lieutenant for Essex (the new Lord Lieutenant being the Earl of Sussex).

In 1595-6, he acquired the manor of Tooting Graveney from James Harrington. When the Queen visited in 1600, she was probably his guest. [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45393 | Daniel Lysons, "The Environs of London" (1792), volume 1] ] .

Family

He married Susan, the daughter and co-heir of Thomas Pearson, gentleman-usher of the Star Chamber (whose property included two inns in Queen Anne’s Gate called the White Hart and the Saracen’s Head [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=67615 | Montague Cox, "Survey of London", volume 10 (1926)] ] ), and had eight sons by her. The eldest, William, became the first Lord Maynard. Another, John, became a Knight of the Bath. [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LKIKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA348&dq=%22john+maynard+K.B.%22&as_brr=3| Burke's "Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies" (1844)] ]

Death and posterity

He made his will on 20 August 1609 and it was proved on 18 May 1610. Among other bequests, he left £2,000 to each of his daughters, Elizabeth and Mary, his London properties to his son Charles, and £500 and his leasehold properties in Warwickshire to his son Francis. He was buried at Little Easton, Essex, which he had purchased.

His epitaph in Little Easton Church reads:“Here resteth, in assured hope to rise in Christ, Henry Maynard, Knight, descended of the ancient family of Maynard, in the county of Devon; and Dame Susan, his wife, daughter and one of the coheirs of Thomas Pierson, Esq. to whom she bear eight sonnes and two daughters. He ended this life the 11th of May, 1610; his lady, six sonnes, and two daughters then living.”

References