John Giffard (died 1613)
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John Giffard (1534–1613) was a Staffordshire landowner and Member of the English Parliament, notable as a leader of Roman Catholic Recusancy in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.
John Giffard's father was Sir Thomas Giffard of Caverswall Castle. The Giffards had their seat at Chillington Hall, near Brewood, from the late 12th century.[1] Sir Thomas, like his father, Sir John Giffard, had considerably expanded the family estates until they were the wealthiest landed gentry family in Staffordshire. Sir John was still alive when his grandson John was born, so Thomas Giffard was living at Caverswall, which he had acquired through his first wife, the heiress Dorothy Montgomery. Both Sir John and Sir Thomas were MPs of religiously conservative disposition, although both had generally acquiesced in the legislation that carried through the English Reformation.
John Giffard's mother was Ursula Throckmorton, daughter of Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court, Warwickshire, and Elizabeth Baynham. She was Thomas Giffard's second wife: Dorothy had died by 1529, leaving Thomas with a daughter, but no surviving sons. He married Ursula in 1529. She was part of a wealthy landowning family, generally of a similar religious conservative outlook to the Giffards. Her brother, George Throckmorton, was MP for Warwickshire in the English Reformation Parliament, elected in 1529. His sympathies were strongly Catholic and he was arrested in 1537, in the aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace, with which he was thought to sympathise. He made a rambling and confused confession of his part in the Catholic opposition, narrowly escaping with his life.[2]
In 1539, when John was still a child, Thomas Giffard bought the site of Black Ladies Priory, a dissolved Benedictine nunnery near Brewood.[3] Shortly after, the family moved into the house,[4] which Thomas had rebuilt as fine Tudor brick residence, set on a moated site, with fishponds. At about the age of 16, John Giffard married Joyce Leveson, and their first child, Walter, was born about a year into the marriage. By the age of 21, he was considered ready for parliament.[5]
Parliamentary career
John Giffard was first elected to as Member of Parliament for Lichfield in the first parliament of Queen Mary I's reign,[5] opened on 5 October 1553, four days after her coronation. Lichfield had been a parliamentary constituency in the Middle Ages, but had lost the right to elect MPs, only regaining it in 1547, after a gap of almost two hundred years.[6] The main influence on the selection of MPs was William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, who had been a close supporter of the regime of the Protector Somerset. Humiliated at Somerset's fall, he was one of the Privy Councillors who escaped from custody to recognise Mary as Queen during the succession crisis of summer 1553. He ensured that Lichfield returned MPs he could rely on. Giffard's senior colleague was Sir Philip Draycott, a friend of Paget who had shared his political fortunes.[7] Giffard himself was an obvious supporter of the Catholic Queen, with excellent connections in Staffordshire and neighbouring counties.
Giffard was able to travel up to London with his father, Thomas, who was elected to the same parliament as member for Staffordshire. Mary's first parliament legislated for a return to Catholic practice in the churches, reversing the reforms of Edward VI's reign to return the situation to that at the end of Henry VIII's. It did not restore links with the Papacy, and it set landowners minds at rest by leaving the monasteries and chantries dissolved.[8] The Giffards accepted these measures, which were fully in line with their own beliefs. The parliament lasted just two months and the members were home for Christmas.
Giffard was also elected to the next parliament, which assembled in April 1554. This time he represented the borough of Stafford. This time he was returned first in order of precedence,[5] with Humphrey Swynnerton, husband of his aunt Cassandra Giffard,[9] as his colleague. Swynnerton was an intensely pious Catholic, who spent much of his limited wealth on rebuilding the church at Shareshill.[10] Elections at Stafford took place among a small circle of burgesses, chaired by the bailiff.[11] The returning officer at Stafford was the High Sheriff of Staffordshire, at that time Thomas Giffard himself, completing the indenture in Latin for his own son and brother-in-law.
This parliament was even shorter, lasting just a month. Its main business was to pass the Act for the Marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain and the constitutionally important Act concerning Regal Power. The latter gave parliamentary authority to a queen regnant in England for the first time.[8] Once again, there was no prospect of a Giffard opposing the queen's wishes.
