INKPEN, Richard (d.1577), of Galaker, Hants.

Little is known about Inkpen, who was one of a number of puritan Middle Temple lawyers known to the 2nd Earl of Bedford, who was presumably responsible for his return at Bridport. In a list of lawyers drawn up in 1576 Inkpen was described as ‘learned’, ‘rich’ and ‘pro’. He died in 1577, administration of his estate being granted to his widow, who, in the next year, married another Middle Temple lawyer, Sir Matthew Carew, by whom she had a son, Thomas, the poet. Inkpen’s daughter and heir Elizabeth married the eldest son of Sir Edmund Anderson, chief justice of the common pleas.1Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 30; Roberts thesis, 86; M.T. Recs. i. 102, 113, 170; Cal. I.T. Recs. i. 472; Willan, Early Hist. Russia Company, 203; PCC Admons. 1572-80, p. 81; Poems of Carew, ed. Dunlop, pp. xiii, xiv, xliv.

There was, among other namesakes, a Richard Inkpen, duchy of Lancaster surveyor, who lived in Wiltshire and was possibly uncle of the man described above.2Somerville, Duchy, i. 447; PCC 8 Sainberbe; PRO Lists and Indexes, vii. 216; xiii. 102; Ducatus Lanc. pt. 4, pp. 166, 195, 201; VCH Hants, iii. 312.