Maurice Denys
Sir Maurice Denys (1516–1563) of
. He was the builder of Siston Court in Gloucestershire, which survives largely unaltered since his time. His excessive speculation and borrowing caused the ruination of the Siston branch of the Denys family.Early life
Denys was the second son of Sir William Denys (died 1533) of Dyrham and Siston, both in Gloucestershire, a courtier of King Henry VIII, by his second wife Anne Berkeley, a daughter of Maurice Berkeley, de jure 3rd Baron Berkeley (1436–1506). His father’s first wife, whom he had married in about 1482 and who was short-lived, was Edith Twynyho, but she died young.[2] His father was a great-grandson of
Barrister
Denys entered the Inner Temple in London, where he trained as a barrister. He was appointed Marshal (1542–44, 1546), Steward (1545–46) and Bencher (1547).
In 1537, King Henry VIII granted Denys the
Denys later bought the ancestral Denys
"Offers for sale the manor of Siston Glos., 6 miles (9.7 km) from Bath & from Bristol, heretofore the land of Sir Morris Dennis, present owner Mr Weeks. There is a new house of stone which cost £3,000 built by Dennis; a park which will keep 1,000 fallow deer & rich mines of coal which yield almost as great revenue as the land".[6]
Siston was built at about the same time as two of Denys’s connections were also building nearby in Gloucestershire:
Marriage
On 3 February 1545, Denys married Elizabeth Statham (died 1572), the widow of Nicholas Statham (died 1538), a member of the
On 8 May 1544, shortly before her marriage to Denys, Elizabeth had acquired lands in Great Sankey, Warrington, Cheshire, from Sir Thomas Boteler, who very soon thereafter "made a forcible entry upon and a tortious possession of a messuage and lands in Sankey" on account of which he was sued, before the end of 1544, in the joint names of Elizabeth and Maurice Denys. The couple then sold their Sankey lands to Denys's brother-in-law Walter Bucler, who on 1 January 1547 exchanged them with the king for other lands in Sankey.[18]
Acquires Wye College
In 1546 Denys acquired
"Walter Bucler to Maurice Denys and Elizabeth his wife. Mansion, etc., of the late College of Wye, Kent, manors of Perycourte and Surrenden, rectory of Promhill, pensions of 33s. 4d. out of Westwell rectory, 10s. out of Hothefield rectory and 8s. out of Estwell rectory, and all lands in Wye, Wydtheston, Nacolt, Henxsell, Goodmesham, Crondale, Charter Magna, Bethersden, Postlyng, Westbury and Promhill, Kent, which belonged to Wye College.[19]
On 22 February 1547, two days after the
"Sr. Anthony AUCHER, Knt. Mareschall of Callice; Governr. of Guisnes; Master of the Jewel House, in Times of HENRY YE EIGHT. EDWARD YE SIXT, and QUEEN MARY. Slayn at ye Loss of Callice"
The Feet of Fines for Middlesex contain the following entry for 1547, the first year of the reign of Edward VI:
"Sir Edward North, knight, Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations, and Alice his wife and Sir Maurice Denys and Elizabeth his wife. Premises and a chapel called Pardon Chapel, in the parish of Clerkenwell. Trinity, Anno 1".[20]
This comprised a chapel and presumably also the graveyard attached to St James's Church, Clerkenwell, then part of the London Charterhouse, known as the "Pardon Churchyard" and used to bury suicides and those executed as felons. It stood between Great Sutton Strest and Clerkenwell Road.[21]
Treasurer of Calais
In December 1548, under
Committed to Fleet prison
In June 1552, commissioners were sent to audit Denys's accounts and in July they were ordered to investigate what had been done with money he said he had not received. On 20 November he was called back to England and on the 26th was imprisoned in the Fleet. He was summoned to present himself to the Council on 29 January 1553, with commissioners to examine his case in April. Between May and August he appears to have been back in post as Treasurer of Calais, as he was receiving new instructions, but on 12 September was again committed to the Fleet, in due course to be released again.[4]
By now, Denys's wide-reaching purchases were proving too ambitious, and debts weighed on him heavily. He sold several estates, probably to defray debts incurred in his post at Calais.[4] In 1553, he sold Wye College in Kent to Sir William Damsell.[22] Siston was also mortgaged to Rowland Hayward before his death to satisfy his creditors.[4]
Greets Cardinal Pole
On 18 November 1554, under Queen Mary I, who had returned England to the Church of Rome, Denys was ordered by the Privy Council to go to Rochester Castle in Kent to join George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham of Cobham Hall and Cooling Castle in Kent, in welcoming Cardinal Pole back from his exile, who had recently landed at Dover and progressed via Canterbury Cathedral to Rochester. Pole was entertained at Cooling by Lord Cobham, and then with his magnificent following of 500 horsemen proceeded to Gravesend on the River Thames and thence by barge to the Palace of Whitehall to meet Queen Mary I and to complete the task of re-establishing the Roman Catholic faith in England.[23] Pole rapidly became one of the main forces behind the burning of many English protestant martyrs. Denys had no other government work under Mary, which may have been connected not only with his debts but also with his religious sympathies.
In August 1556, Denys failed to honour two payments to the Crown, one of 1,000
Denys was pardoned and rehabilitated by
Death
In November 1562 Denys was at Portsmouth to pay soldiers and may have remained there. He died at Portsmouth on 25 August 1563, probably of the plague, which had broken out there. The "Cecil Papers" at Hatfield House contain the following entry, which followed a similar one three days before:
"Sir Adrian Poynings to the Queen. Concerning the state of payments to the troops from Newhaven (i.e. Le Havre) at the death of Sir Maurice Denis (sic) Treasurer. Wherwell 28 August 1563.[24]
Denys had made a complicated
Succession
At his death Denys left a large debt of £7,500 due to the Crown. His heir to his surviving estates, including Siston, was his nephew Richard Denys (1525-1594),[25] a member of parliament, son and heir of his elder brother Sir Walter Denys (c.1501-1571), of Dyrham. The inheritance of such a debt was a burden to Richard, who had also inherited debts from his own father, largely contracted due to his entanglement in Sir Maurice's land purchases and speculations.[26] Richard appears to have redeemed the mortgage to Sir Rowland Hayward (c.1520-1593), twice Lord Mayor of London, but in his desperation to retain Siston turned to fraud. In 1568 he sold Siston to Richard Wyke[27] (alias Week, Weeks) for £3,200, but although he had received part of the purchase price, he refused to complete the transaction. In 1570 Wyke won his case in Chancery and was deemed the lawful owner.[28] Nevertheless in 1576 Richard Denys purported fraudulently to convey Siston to the Crown, as security for having been granted the right to pay off his debt of £7,500 in annual instalments of £100, and was returned £1,500 of Sir Maurice's other assets previously seized by the Crown as security. This was a very favourable deal, as Cecil noted, for the £1,500 on its own could be converted into a perpetuity producing an income of £100 per annum to repay the debt due to the Crown.[29] He then attempted to evict Wyke from possession. However, clearly Siston was no longer his property to utilise in such way as security, and his scheme ultimately failed. The sequence of events of Richard Denys's fraudulent scheme are well recorded, in the handwriting of no less a legal expert that Sir Robert Cecil, who in 1607 had been offered the opportunity to purchase Siston by Robert Wyke, then in the Wood Street Compter debtors' prison.[30] He examined in great detail the facts of the devolution of title from Sir Maurice Denys and recorded his findings in his papers, which survive in the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House. (See s:Cecil Papers (1607) re: Siston Court, Gloucestershire. He was not satisfied that the estate was free of further legal troubles and declined the opportunity.[31] Richard Denys died in poverty in 1594[32] and in 1608 Wyke sold Siston to Sir Henry Billingsley.
Dame Elizabeth Denys's Jewels
A deed dated 2 February 1563 is preserved amongst the charters of
"A Deed whereby Dame Elizabeth Dennys, wife of Sir Mauryce Dennys of St. John's Street, in county Middlesex, knight, acknowledges the receipt from Thomas Carne of Wenny county Glamorgan, Esq., of a cheyne of gold with a button, a jewyll with an unicornes horne, thre dyamondes, and one obligacian of £40 for a ring which must be delyvered the last day of this instant Februarye and if the said Thomas shall pay £30 on 31st May next then a
recognisaucedated 21st Dec. 1561 to be void. Signed, sealed, and attested by Thomas Marshall junior son of Thomas Marshall, notary".
Notes
- ^ Sutton, p. 462
- ^ She was a daughter of John Twynyho (died 1485), a rich cloth merchant of Cirencester, a member of parliament for Bristol in 1472-5 and in 1484, and sister-in-law to John Tame (died 1500), of Fairford, Glos., the business partner of John Twynyho. The marriage settlement is contained in a charter dated 21 Ed IV (1482)
- ^ 'St John's Gate and St John's Lane ', in Survey of London: Volume 46, South and East Clerkenwell, ed. Philip Temple (London, 2008), pp. 142-163 [1]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Stanley T. Bindoff, 'Denys, Sir Maurice', in The House of Commons: 1509-1558, vol. 2, pp. 31–33, 34-37
- ^ Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vol. xvii, p. 443
- ^ Cecil Papers, vol. 19, p. 433. (124.72)
- ^ Cecil Papers, vol. 24., 6/5/1609
- ^ Anne Sutton, p. 412, note 9
- ^ Anne Sutton, p. 392
- ^ Anne Sutton, pp. 461-2, note 111
- ^ Sutton, Anne F., The Mercery of London: Trade, Goods and People, 1130-1578, Aldershot, 2005, p. 548, short biog. of Nicholas Statham; p. 392, his will; p. 462, Denys admitted to Mercers
- ^ Ireland, William Henry. England's Topographer: or a New & Complete History of the County of Kent, 1830
- ^ Ireland, W. H., A New & Complete History of the Co. of Kent, London, 1830. Vol. 4, Sutton, pp. 368-373
- ^ Sutton, Anne F. The Mercery of London: Trade, Goods and People, 1130-1578, Aldershot, 2005, p. 548, short biog. of Nicholas Statham
- ^ The house on milk Street had been let to Nicholas Statham. In 1550, when the tenant was Hugh Edwards, the Mercers' Company sold the house to Sir John Gresham. Sutton, Anne, p. 526
- ^ PROB 11/27, folio 174, will of Elizabeth Denys
- ^ Sutton, Anne, op.cit. p. 548; p. 392, note 75 re. bequest; PROB 11/56 folios 25-26 & 235v-36 for upholding of her wishes
- ^ Beaumont, William. Annals of the Lords of Warrington, 1872, Part 2
- ^ Patent Rolls, 38 Henry VIII (25 December 1546, Westminster, part 12, membrane 45); Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 21 Part 2: September 1546-January 1547 (1910), pp. 203-248
- ^ London and Middlesex Fines: Edward VI, A Calendar to the Feet of Fines for London & Middlesex: volume 2: Henry VII - 12 Elizabeth (1893), pp. 68-86
- ^ John Strype, "Survey of London"
- ^ Bindoff, op. cit., vol. 4, p. 9
- ^ Gairdner, James, Reginald Pole, Dictionary of National Biography, vol 46, 1896, pp.35-46 [2]
- ^ Cecil Papers, vol 1. no.924
- History of Parliament biography [3]
- History of Parliament biography of Sir Walter Denys (by 1501-1571)[4]
- ^ "Wyke", as he spelled his own name in his letter to Sir Robert Cecil, dated 13 December 1607, Cecil Papers at Hatfield House, CP123/113, Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, Volume 19 (1607), pp.374-5. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1965 [5]
- ^ Cecil Papers, CP123/5, December, 1607, Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, Volume 19 (1607), p. 396. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1965 [6]
- ^ Equating to an interest rate of 6 2/3%
- ^ Letter from Robert Wyke to Cecil, dated 13 December 1607, Cecil papers, CP123/113,
- ^ Cecil Papers, CP98/69; CP123/5 "The estate of Siston and in whome the right thereof truely remayneth", dated December 1607
- History of Parliament biography [7]
- ^ Clark, George T. Cartae et Alia Munimenta quae ad Dominia de Glamorgan Pertinent, vol. 5, Charter no 1436, pp.2059-60
References
- T. F. T. Baker, "Denys, Sir Maurice", in
Stanley T. Bindoff (ed.),
- Sir John Maclean (ed.), Visitation of the County of Gloucester Taken in the Year 1623 by Henry Chitty & John Phillipot (London, 1885), pp. 49–52