Name John Guildford | ||
Sir John Guildford (by 1508–1565) was an English Member of Parliament for Gatton, New Romney and Kent and was appointed Sheriff of Kent in 1552.
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Life
John Guildford was the only son of George Guildford, esquire, second son of Sir Richard Guildford by his first wife, Anne Pympe. His mother was Elizabeth Mortimer, the only daughter and heir of Robert Mortimer, slain at Bosworth on 22 August 1485, of Landmere in Thorpe-le-Soken, by Elizabeth Howard, daughter of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk. He had two sisters, Mary, who married Owen West, and Anne, who married firstly Walter Woodland, and secondly Richard Lynne.
Guildford was elected MP for Gatton in 1529, knight of the shire for Kent in 1542 and MP for New Romney in Oct 1553. He was knighted in 1542.
He became involved in a dispute over the inheritance of his uncle Edward Guildford's lands, his adversary in the legal process being Edward's son-in-law John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Dudley acted on behalf of his wife Jane. Dudley claimed the manor of Halden in Sussex, and other lands in Kent and Sussex, despite John Guildford's assertion that his uncle had intended him to inherit; Edward Guildford had left no will. Five years later Dudley sold the manor with others to Thomas Cromwell.
Marriages and issue
Guildford married firstly, before 1534, Barbara West, the daughter of Thomas West, 8th Baron de la Warr, by his third wife, Eleanor Copley, daughter of Roger Copley, esquire, by whom he had six sons, including Sir Thomas, George, Henry and James, and six daughters, including Dorothy Guildford (d.1584), who married Thomas Walsingham and was the mother of Sir Thomas Walsingham, patron of Christopher Marlowe; Mary Guildford, who married George Harlakenden, and Elizabeth Guildford, who married, as his second wife, William Cromer (d. 12 May 1598), Sheriff of Kent.
He married secondly, Mary Fitzwilliam, widow of John Shelley (d.1550) of Michelgrove in Clapham, Sussex, and daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Milton, Northamptonshire, by whom he had a son, Richard Guildford.