WINGFIELD, John (c.1560-1626), of Tickencote, Rutland

Wingfield’s uncle, the 1st Lord Burghley, was responsible both for his education and his appointment as feodary of Lincolnshire. His first wife brought him a comfortable estate in Rutland, which he increased by purchase.6 VCH Rutland, ii. 276; Blore, ii. 63-4. However, after her death in 1602 he seems to have entered the service of his cousin Robert Cecil, 1st earl of Salisbury. He was apparently far from sharing the parliamentary ambitions of his elder brother Robert, though he played some part in local administration in Rutland. He also lacked social ambition, allowing his son John in 1619 to obtain a knighthood, which honour he had presumably refused for himself.7Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 171.

Wingfield contributed £5 to the Benevolence raised after the dissolution of the 1614 Parliament.8 E351/1950, unfol. At the general election of 1620/1 Wingfield was returned for Stamford, three miles from Tickencote, on the nomination of Salisbury’s brother, the 1st earl of Exeter (Thomas Cecil†).9The Gen. ii. 154. A ‘Mr. Wingfield’ was appointed to three legislative committees, on sheriffs’ accounts (15 Mar.), Hollyman (8 May) and the shortening of Michaelmas term (20 Nov.), and also made two speeches, on lawyers’ fees (29 May) and an imposition on malt (30 Nov.), but whether this was Wingfield himself or William Wingfield, Member for Lichfield, is unclear.10 CJ, i. 555a, 615a, 641a; CD 1621, iii. 342; vi. 215. Following the dissolution, Wingfield contributed £10 to the Benevolence raised for the recovery of the Palatinate.11 SP14/156/15. In the summer of 1622 he and Sir William Bulstrode* discussed composition for purveyance with John Coke*, who had been instructed to enter into a series of local agreements on behalf of the Crown, but negotiations were broken off for want of authority from the Rutland freeholders.12 HMC Cowper, i. 74 (misdated 1611); M. Young, Servility and Service: The Life of Sir John Coke, 91-2. In 1624 he was one of the arbitrators appointed in the dispute between Boston and the county over responsibility for repairing the town sluice.13 CSP Dom. 1623-5, p. 182.

Wingfield was elected to his third and final Parliament in the last year of his life, when Sir George Manners*, who could no longer secure election at Grantham, presumably because of his Catholic connections, probably gave his interest to the 2nd earl of Exeter (William Cecil†) in return for a seat at Stamford in the next election for his stepson (Sir) Edward Baeshe*. Wingfield left no trace on the records of the second Caroline Parliament, and died six weeks after the dissolution, being buried at Tickencote on 29 July 1626. In his will, dated 26 Apr. 1626, he left £20 as a stock to discharge all duties payable to the parish church by the local cottagers. Portions totalling £4,535 were provided for his younger children. His heir survived him by only five years, but his grandson Francis represented Stamford in the Convention as a strong supporter of the Restoration.14 PROB 11/149, f. 392.