Constituency Dates
Lichfield [1601], 1604, []1Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
Family and Education
b. c. 1560, 1st s. of John Dyott of Freeford, bailiff of Lichfield, by ?his 1st w. Margaret, da. of Robert Hill of Lichfield. educ. I. Temple 1576, called 1587. m. 1589, Catherine, da. of John Harcourt of Ronton Abbey, at least 1s. suc. fa. 1580.
Offices Held

Recorder, Tamworth 24 July 1598; bencher, I. Temple June 1599, Lent reader 1602, treasurer 1611 – 12; j.p. Staffs. 1609.2J. C. Wedgwood, Staffs Parl. Hist. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc.), i. 410; Vis. Staffs. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. v. pt. 2), 117–18; Erdeswick’s Surv. Staffs. 306; Add. 28175, f. 57.

Address
Main residence: Freeford, nr. Lichfield, Staffs.
biography text

Dyott’s father, a barrister, was proctor in an ecclesiastical court at Lichfield and bailiff of that city at least three times. In 1553 he bought from Robert Harcourt an estate at Freeford, nearby.

Dyott himself obtained the recordership of Tamworth on the resignation of Richard Broughton, who wrote to the town authorities: ‘Mr. Dyott of Lichfield may in his way towards and frowards London most pleasure you’. He asked that the Earl of Essex be consulted before any choice were made. Dyott remained in touch with his inn where he fulfilled various routine obligations and kept chambers until his death. At some point in his career he bought a house in Sadler Street, Lichfield, which eventually became the family residence. Returned for Lichfield to Elizabeth’s last Parliament, he spoke on 18 Nov. 1601 against monopolies and against a clause in the bill for better observing of the sabbath day which required husbands to pay fines for non-attendance at church by their wives. What if wives were wilful and would not go? ‘Every man,’ he remarked, ‘can tame a shrew but he that hath her’. During the same Parliament it seems that his professional services were required by the attorney-general to draw a bill of complaint in Star Chamber against George Belgrave in the case of the disputed election at Leicester. This prompted Cecil, 17 Dec., to suggest that Dyott should be punished by order of the House for seeking to diminish their prerogatives. William Ravenscroft opposed this, describing Dyott as ‘an honest man’ and blaming the attorney-general. In the event ‘there was no more said of this matter’.3Erdeswick, 305-6; Wedgwood, loc. cit.; Add. 28175, f. 57; Stowe 362, Hayward Townshend’s jnl. ff. 252-3.

Dyott died in 1622 and was buried in St. Dunstan’s chapel 27 Sept. His son Richard, who had been specially admitted to the Inner Temple in 1607, represented both Stafford and Lichfield in Stuart Parliaments.4Wedgwood, loc. cit.; Cal. I.T. Recs. ii. 29; Erdeswick, 307.

Author
J.E.M.
Volume
Commons 1558-1603
Notes
  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
  • 2. J. C. Wedgwood, Staffs Parl. Hist. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc.), i. 410; Vis. Staffs. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. v. pt. 2), 117–18; Erdeswick’s Surv. Staffs. 306; Add. 28175, f. 57.
  • 3. Erdeswick, 305-6; Wedgwood, loc. cit.; Add. 28175, f. 57; Stowe 362, Hayward Townshend’s jnl. ff. 252-3.
  • 4. Wedgwood, loc. cit.; Cal. I.T. Recs. ii. 29; Erdeswick, 307.