AGLIONBY, John (by 1532-75 or later), of Carlisle, Cumb.

Despite the local prominence of his family John Aglionby’s position in it has not been established beyond question, and little has come to light about him beyond the outline of his official career. It is not even clear whether he or Edward Aglionby II sat for Carlisle in Elizabeth’s first Parliament, as on that occasion the christian name of the Member is lost: although John Aglionby was then still active in Carlisle, where two years later he signed the Carlisle Dormont Book immediately after the mayor, Edward Aglionby’s Protestantism may have gained him the seat despite his removal to Warwickshire.3J. Foster, MPs, 22; E371/402(1); Carlisle Recs. (Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. and Arch. Soc. extra ser. iv), 86.

John Aglionby was not among those Members of Mary’s first Parliament who ‘stood for the true religion’, that is, for Protestantism. In 1564 Bishop Best was to describe him as ‘not staid in religion but to be admonished’. Six years later Bishop Barnes denounced him as ‘vanus, blasphemusque papista, nullum Dei habens timorem, raptor, pestis, perniciesque reipublicae’. This second condemnation was sufficient to secure Aglionby’s removal from the commission of the peace and the last reference found to him is as coroner in 1575. His son Edward sat for Carlisle in the Parliaments of 1584 and 1593.4Cam. Misc. ix(3), 50; VCH Cumb. ii. 78n; Cath. Rec. Soc. xxii. 17.