FREEMAN, Robert I.

The identity of the Robert Freeman elected to the third Parliament of Mary’s reign has not been established. He may have been either a local man chosen in deference to the Queen’s wish for the return of resident Members or a nominee of (Sir) Thomas Cawarden, the patron of Bletchingley, who on this occasion was elected one of the knights for Surrey. Freeman’s fellow-Member Humphrey Cholmley came from a family in Bletchingley, but no Freeman similarly linked with the locality has been traced. It is equally unclear whether he was also the Member for Southwark in 1558 and 1559, although as a dyer and a supplier of cloth that Robert Freeman may have had dealings with Cholmley over tanning or with Cawarden in the office of the revels.