Sir Edward Wotton

Sir Edward Wotton (1489–1551), was the Treasurer of Calais, and member of the Drapers' Company of London. He acquired the manor of Boughton Malherbe, Kent, by his marriage with Joan, only daughter and heir of Robert Corbie of that place, and was succeeded by his son Nicholas, who died on 9 April 1481 (Col. Inq. post mortem, Henry VII. i. 694); the latter's son. Sir Robert, born in 1465, was knighted by Edward IV, served as Sheriff of Kent in 1498-9, was made lieutenant of Guianes, and from 1510 to 1519 was knight-porter of Calais. He left issue two sons, Edward and Dr. Nicholas Wotton, and three daughters, of whom Margaret (d. 1541) was the second wife of Thomas Grey, second marquis of Dorset.

Edward first appears in the commission of the peace for Kent on 2 June 1524; subsequently his name was generally included in the commissions of the peace, of gaol delivery, and oyer and terminer for the county. He was knighted before 22 April 1528, and on 9 Nov. 1629 was appointed sheriff of Kent. He accompanied Henry VIII to Calais in 1532, landing on 11 Oct. (Chron. of Calais, p. 42), officiated at the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1534, and at the christening of Edward VI in 1537. He was again sheriff of Kent in 1536-6, and in December 1539 was one of the knights sent to Calais to receive Anne of Cleves. He seams to have eagerly adopted the principles of the Reformation, and in September 1538 a correspondent told Bullinger that Wotton had received one of the reformer's books ' with the greatest satisfaction, and is diligently engaged upon it' (Orig. letters, Parker Soc. ii. 612). In July 1540 Henry VIII intimated his intention of reviving the office of treasurer of Calais, and appointing to it his trusty 'councillor 'Sir Edward Wotton, whose patent was dated 24 Nov. following. The phrase does not necessarily imply that Wotton was a member of the English privy council, and he is not recorded as attending any of its meetings during Henry's reign. After the conclusion of the war with France he served on the various commissions appointed in 1648 for delimiting Henry's conquest, tbe Boulonnais (State Papers, Henry VIII, xi. 181 sqq.; Corr. Pol de Odet de Selve, passim.) According to Holinsbed, Henry VIII made Wotton lord chancellor; the offer, improbable in any case, is more likely to have been made to Sir Edward's brother Nicholas (Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, ed. 1685).

Henrv VIII nominated Wotton one of his executors and a privy councillor to his son Edward, though Wotton's official superior at Calais, Lord Cobham, was neither. Wotton remained a privy councillor when Somerset reconstructed the council in March 1646-7, but his duties at Calais prevented bis frequent attendance at the council board. In April he was again made a commissioner to settle the disputes as to the frontier of the Boulonnais, and the growing hostility of France kept him busy with preparations for defence. On 13 March 1547-8, however, he signed the council's letter ordering the administration of the sacrament in one kind only, and on 17 Jan. 1548-9 joined in proceedings against Thomas Seymour, baron Seymour of Sudeley. In September following he again came over to take port in Warwick's scheme for overthrowing Somerset. He was lodging in Warwick Lane, Holborn, on the 18th, he signed the council's manifesto against the Protector on 6 Oct., and accompanied the other councillors to Windsor six days later, when Somerset was arrested. In November he appears to have returned to Calais, but a year later he was again in attendance at the council. Hosted states that be died on 8 Nov. 1550, but he attended the council on the 22nd of that month, and in January 1550-1 was suppressing disorder in Kent. In the same year also he was included in various commissions among which the young king proposed to divide the work of the privy council. Apparently it was on 8 Nov. 1561 that he died (Inquisitio post mortem, Edward VI, vol. xciii, No. 113); he was buried in Boughton Malherbe church.

Personal

Wotton was born in 1489, was the eldest son of Sir Robert Wotton, by his wife Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Belkman. Sir Robert was grandson of Nicholas Wotton (1372–1448), who was sheriff in 1400 and lord mayor in 1415, and again in 1430, and represented the city in parliament continuously from 1406 to 1429 (Off. Ret. i. 269-316).

Wotton married, first, Dorothy, fourth daughter of Sir Robert Rede (she died on 8 Sept. 1529); and he married, secondly, Ursula, daughter of Sir Robert Dymoke and widow of Sir John Rudaton, lord mayor of London (Metcalfe, Visit. of Lincolnshire, p. 42). By her Wotton had no issue, but by his first wife he was father of Thomas Wotton (1521–1587).

References

• Albert Frederick Pollard, "Sir Edward Wotton", Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 63
• Brewer and Gairdner's Letters and Papers of Henry VIII
• State Papers, Henry VIII; Acts of the Privy Council, ed. Dasent, vols. i–xii.
• Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–90, For. 1547–53
• Stowe MS. 150 ff. 31, 42, 44, 51, 180 f. 168
• Harl. MSS. 283 and 284
• Cal. Inq. post mortem, Henry VII, i. 694
• Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. passim
• Chron. of Calais and Troubles connected with the Prayer-book (Camden Soc.)
• Lit. Remains of Edw. VI (Roxburghe Club)
• Corresp. Pol. de Odet de Selve, 1546–8
• Original Letters (Parker Soc.), ii. 612
• Parker Corresp. pp. 304, 370, 441
• Cranmer's Works, ii. 54
• Strype's Works (general index)
• Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, ed. 1685
• Lists of Sheriffs, 1898
• Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation, ed. Pocock
• Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth
• Hasted's Kent, passim, esp. iv. 176
• Archæologia Cantiana (general index)
• Todd's Deans of Canterbury, pp. 11–12
• Burke's Extinct Peerage.