DANBY, James (1600-76), of New Building, Kirby Knowle, Yorks.

Danby belonged to a branch of the large, sub-gentry family, the Danbys of Kirby Knowle (a parish a few miles east of Thirsk) and was related to Edward Danby, whose daughter Anne was the mother of John Wastell*.14Raine, ‘Mr Justice Rokeby’, 6-7; Anon. ‘Danby v. Sydenham’, 87; Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. iii. 254-5. At his marriage in 1632 to a kinswoman of Lady Margaret Hoby – wife of the godly East Riding knight Sir Thomas Posthumus Hoby† – he was styled a yeoman; and in the normal course of events he could not have aspired to a seat in Parliament.15‘Paver’s marr. lics.’ ed. J. W. Clay (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. xl), 20; Anon. ‘Danby v. Sydenham’, 82, 89. His relation to Wastell, who represented Northallerton in the Long Parliament and was an important figure in the North Riding during the 1650s, undoubtedly played a large part in securing his return in 1659.16Infra, ‘John Wastell’; Abstracts of Yorks. Wills ed. J.W. Clay (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. ix), 166.

By 1633, Danby was employed as bailiff of the estate at Thorpe Bassett (near Malton) – his wife’s home parish – of the Catholic grandee, William Lord Howard of Naworth, son of Thomas 4th duke of Norfolk.17Household Bks. of the Lord William Howard ed. G. Ornsby (Surtees Soc. lxviii), 290, 302, 355. By the mid-1640s, he was either the steward or land agent of the Yorkshire properties of Lord Howard’s grandson, Charles Howard*, who was made the ward of the influential Yorkshire parliamentarian Henry Darley*.18Add. 32163, ff. 3, 31; Castle Howard Archives, A5/25, 29; F4/3/1; Raine, ‘Mr Justice Rokeby’, 9. It was possibly as a land agent that Danby was party to a series of transactions between 1635 and 1651 involving property near Malton and York. The other parties included the 3rd Baron Fairfax (Sir Thomas Fairfax*), Sir William Strickland*, Sir Thomas Widdrington* and Henry Arthington*.19Hull Hist. Cent. U DDSY/x1/80/5-7; U DDBH/3/95. Danby was described in these indentures either as a yeoman or gentleman of York, having moved to the city by the time of his marriage in 1632.20‘Paver’s marr. lics.’ ed. Clay, 20.

Nothing is known about Danby’s activities during the civil war, although his family evidently remained in the royalist stronghold of York until at least the autumn of 1643, when one of his daughters was baptized in the civic parish of St Michael le Belfrey.21E134/1652-53/HIL10; St Michael le Belfrey Par. Regs. ed. Collins, 211. Perhaps distrusted on account of his connection with the royalist Howard family – which he maintained during the civil war – he was left out of all parliamentary commissions for Yorkshire during the 1640s.22SP20/11/18; Raine, ‘Mr Justice Rokeby’, 9. In January 1648, the Lords – possibly at the prompting of Howard’s father-in-law Edward Howard*, 1st Baron Howard of Escrick – passed an ordinance for appointing Danby registrar of the civil courts at York, but the Commons ignored this draft legislation.23LJ ix. 622a. In May, he and Wastell purchased church lands in Northallerton, but when the borough of Northallerton was put up for sale by the parliamentary commissioners in 1651, it was bought by Wastell and Darley.24Coll. Top. et Gen. i. 8, 291. With his purchase (from a Yorkshire Catholic) of the manor of Kirby Knowle in 1654, Danby was evidently deemed ‘qualified and capable’ to elect MPs under the Instrument of Government, signing the indenture returning George Lord Eure, Francis Lascelles, Thomas Harrison II and George Smithson for the North Riding to the first protectoral Parliament that year.25C219/44/3, unfol.; Raine, ‘Mr Justice Rokeby’, 6.

In the elections to Richard Cromwell’s* Parliament of 1659, Danby was returned for Northallerton.26Supra, ‘Northallerton’. Although he owned property in the Northallerton area, he may well have owed his return to the considerable local influence of his ‘cousin’ John Wastell, who would make Danby a trustee in his will later that year.27Infra, ‘John Wastell’; Abstracts of Yorks. Wills ed. Clay, 166. Danby received only two appointments in this Parliament – to committees for supplying the northern counties with a godly ministry and to draw up a declaration concerning the customs farmers.28CJ vii. 600b, 639a. He participated little in debate, but, when he did so, he invariably sided with the conservative element in the House. Thus on 9 February, he supported the allies of the Cromwellian court in their efforts to have the reading of a petition deferred so that the House could proceed with debate upon the bill of recognition (the bill to confirm Richard Cromwell as lord protector).29Burton’s Diary, iii. 152-5. On 7 March, in a debate on the disputed election at Malton, he favoured the return of George Marwood and Philip Howard over that of the republicans Major-general Robert Lilburne* and Luke Robinson*.30Burton’s Diary, iv. 42-5. Besides his own likely preference for the less radical candidates, Danby would have been keen to serve the interests of his employer, Charles Howard, who was Philip Howard’s brother. Danby made his last recorded contribution to the House’s proceedings on 16 April, in a debate on the Quakers, when he moved that a law be passed to prevent them ‘railing’ at ministers during divine service.31Burton’s Diary, iv. 440.

As an opponent of the Quakers, and possibly of the sects in general, Danby may have welcomed the Restoration. However, as the Restoration settlement took shape, whatever enthusiasm he may have had for the new order apparently diminished, and in June 1661 he was included on a list of persons ‘disaffected to his majesty in Yorkshire’.32HMC Var. ii. 117. There is also evidence that he was peripherally implicated in the abortive Farnely Wood Plot, in Yorkshire, in 1663.33Add. 33770, f. 34. He certainly had strong links with the county’s Nonconformist community after the Restoration – his eldest daughter, Ursula, marrying the godly lawyer, (Sir) Thomas Rokeby, who numbered Danby among his clients by 1662 and would emerge in the 1670s as the principal legal adviser of the dissenters in northern England.34C5/469/36; D. Scott, ‘Politics, Dissent and Quakerism in York, 1640-1700’ (York Univ. DPhil. thesis, 1990), 194, 166, 413; Raine, ‘Mr Justice Rokeby’, 3-4. Danby, for his part, profited from his association with the Howards and other ‘distinguished families in Yorkshire’ such that in 1668 he was able to settle £1,000 upon his daughter on her marriage to Thomas Rokeby’s brother.35Borthwick, Prob. Reg. 57, f. 271v; Raine, ‘Mr Justice Rokeby’, 7.

Danby died late in 1676 and was buried at Kirby Knowle on 19 December.36Kirby Knowle par. reg.; Stephenson, ‘Monumental brasses’, 290. In his will, he assigned his estate in Kirby Knowle to his son-in-law Thomas Rokeby and three other gentlemen to hold in trust (for purposes not specified).37Borthwick, Prob. Reg. 57, f. 271v. He made bequests totalling about £220 and charged his estate with a legacy of £10 a year. None of his immediate family sat in Parliament.