Constituency Dates
New Romney 1572
Family and Education
b. c. 1536, 1st s. of Ralph Wilcocks of Lydd and of West Park, Wrotham, and bro. of Edward. educ. I. Temple 1556, bencher 1573. m. Elizabeth, da. and h. of John Edolph of Romney and Brenzett, Kent, 1s. 2da. suc. fa. 1555.
Offices Held

Of counsel to New Romney by 1569.

Address
Main residences: Lydd, Kent; the Inner Temple, London.
biography text

After being a ward of Thomas Argall, an Exchequer official and registrar to the Prerogative Court at Canterbury, Wilcocks obtained possession of his father’s manor of West Park, Wrotham, in February 1557. He sold this in 1562. He also inherited an estate at Lydd, land at Snargate, and the manor of Warehorne. An entry in the New Romney archives of about 1569, records that the town was

to provide and buy for Mr. Wilcocks, counsellor, 4 fat wethers ... to be sent to London for him, towards the preparation of his reading dinner, the charge thereof to arise out of the common purse.

In 1572 Wilcocks and his brother were returned to represent the port in Parliament. He died between January 1574 and February 1576, and was buried in the Temple church, London. He had made a fortunate marriage and died a rich man, able to leave his son John, an infant, at least £2,000. The widow married again before the autumn of 1576.1PCC 38 More, 40 Windsor; L. Duncan, Monumental Inscriptions at Lydd, 47; CPR, 1555-7, pp. 378, 512; 1560-3, p. 402; HMC 5th Rep. 553-4; Kentish Wills, ed. Clarke, 79, 85-6; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. xlii), 70; Hasted, Kent, viii. 22-3, 429.

Author
M.R.P.
Volume
Commons 1558-1603
Notes
  • 1. PCC 38 More, 40 Windsor; L. Duncan, Monumental Inscriptions at Lydd, 47; CPR, 1555-7, pp. 378, 512; 1560-3, p. 402; HMC 5th Rep. 553-4; Kentish Wills, ed. Clarke, 79, 85-6; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. xlii), 70; Hasted, Kent, viii. 22-3, 429.