GURLYN (GIRLING), Nathaniel (1596-1636), of Terrington, Norf. and Lincoln’s Inn, London

Gurlyn was left £250 and 22 and a half acres of copyhold land in Terrington by his father, a prosperous brewer in King’s Lynn.9 PROB 11/103, f. 365. The land was held by his mother until he reached his majority. Shortly after he came of age, Gurlyn married the daughter of a wealthy London merchant. Her jointure, which included the former property of the Augustinian Friars in King’s Lynn, enabled him to return to education, and after studying at Cambridge and Lincoln’s Inn he was called to the bar in 1622.

Gurlyn made no recorded impact on the 1626 Parliament, nor is anything known of his legal career until February 1636, when he was appointed joint prothonotary of Chancery at an annual fee of £100. Less than three months after assuming office he was dead. As his children had evidently predeceased him, he left most of his estate, including the lease of the manor of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Middlesex (valued at £600), to his brother-in-law, William Greenwood, whom he also appointed his executor in his will of 26 Apr. 1636.10 PROB 11/171, ff. 94-5. A separate conveyance allowed Gurlyn’s widow to maintain possession of her jointure lands until her death.11 G. Clinch, Bloomsbury and St. Giles, 10.