HONYWOOD, Sir Thomas (1587-1666), of Marks Hall, Markshall, Essex.

When this MP’s grandmother, Mary Honywood, died in 1620 at the age of 93, she left behind 367 descendants, an achievement which has often fascinated later genealogists.39Add. 16604, ff. 6-13v; ‘Posterity of Mary Honywood’, 397-411; Greenfield, ‘Honywood evidences’, Topographer and Genealogist, i. 568-76, ii. 169-85, 256-69, 433-46; Oxford DNB, ‘Mary Honywood’. She was also remembered as a model of Protestant piety.40Hist. Worthies of Eng. ii. 158-9. Her husband, Robert Honywood (d.1576), was the head of a Kent family who could trace their descent back to the reign of Henry II.41Vis. Essex, ii. 733-4. His heir, Robert, father of this MP, first married Dorothy Croke, of whose two sons only (a third) Robert survived infancy, but married for a second time on 9 July 1584, his bride being one of the daughters of Sir Thomas Browne, a wealthy Surrey landowner. Her first child, a son, died within days of his birth in 1585, but she had more luck when she gave birth two years later.42Add. 16604, ff. 6, 16; ‘Posterity of Mary Honywood’, 399; Greenfield, ‘Honywood evidences’, 170-1; According to his father, Thomas was born at about 4am on 15 January 1587 at Betchworth Castle, the Browne family seat in Surrey.43Add. 16604, f. 16v; Greenfield, ‘Honywood evidences’, 171.

In the 1600s the family was living at South Mimms in Middlesex.44I. Temple Admiss. 170. This changed in 1605 when the future MP’s father acquired an estate at Markshall, an Essex village between Colchester and Braintree, and set about rebuilding the manor house.45‘Markshall and the Honywood fam.’, 235; RCHME Essex, iii. 177-8. At his death in 1627, Robert Honywood left all his estates in Kent to his eldest son, Robert, whose interests were confined to that county.46PROB11/152/199. Thomas inherited the Markshall estate when his mother died four years later, becoming the head of the family in Essex.47PROB11/160/2; ‘Markshall and the Honywood fam.’, 235; Smith, ‘Markshall’, 163. This change in Thomas’s circumstances was recognised by the king the following year when he knighted him.48Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 200. That he only married in 1634, by which time he was in his late fifties, suggests that he had delayed that step until he had received his full inheritance. Over the following 13 years his wife gave birth to seven children.49Morant, Essex, ii. 163. The diary kept by Ralph Josselin, vicar of the neighbouring parish of Earls Colne, records details of his many visits to Marks Hall and shows that Honywood and, more particularly, his wife strove to maintain the highest standards of godliness within the household there.50Josselin, Diary.

Honywood proved to be one of the most committed parliamentarians in Essex. Throughout the 1640s he was to be found working as hard as anyone in the county for a victory for Parliament. Central to those efforts were his duties as a militia colonel and as a deputy lieutenant. Honywood, together with his brother-in-law, John Sayer*, spent much of the early years of the civil war struggling to raise troops for the parliamentarian army.51Essex RO, D/Y 2/7, p. 73; D/Y 2/9, pp. 81-123; D/Y 2/8, p. 59. By the spring of 1643 some of those troops had been formed into regiments to serve outside of Essex and Honywood had taken command of one of them as its colonel. That April they fought at the siege of Reading.52BHO, Cromwell Assoc. database; SP28/7, f. 337. However, almost all the men whom he and Sayer had assembled by early August 1643 deserted as soon as they left Essex.53Eg. 2647, ff. 5, 57, 89, 125. Honywood and Sayer therefore had to tell Sir Thomas Barrington* in September 1643 that they could only agree with the complaints from the 2nd earl of Manchester (Edward Montagu†) that Colchester was not pulling its weight in supplying men for military service.54Eg. 2647, f. 279. The muster of Honywood’s men at Halstead several weeks later may have been more successful.55SP28/227: Sir Thomas Honywood to Edward Birkhead, 1 Nov. 1643; SP28/129: acct. bk. of payments to Essex trained bands, Nov. 1643, ff. 9, 14, 45; L. Spring, The Regiments of the Eastern Association (Bristol, 1998), i. 32. That November he was one of the Essex deputy lieutenants who wrote to the Commons asking for powers to raise 800 horse for the defence of the county.56Harl. 165, f. 220v; CJ iii. 326a.

Even in 1643 Parliament had recognised him to be a dependable servant who could be entrusted with sensitive local offices. His appointment to the standard local commissions was doubtless taken for granted.57A. and O. Other appointments were more selective. Together with Nathaniel Bacon*, Sir Harbottle Grimston* and Squier Bence*, he was given the task in the spring of 1643 of overseeing Landguard Fort.58CJ iii. 260a. Later that year he headed the list of men appointed to sequester the Essex estates of some of the most prominent royalists in the county, including those of the Catholic peer John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers.59CJ iii. 430b. In early March 1644 he attended meetings of the Eastern Association committee at Cambridge.60SP28/25, ff. 345, 396. Later that same month Lady Honywood kept a day of humiliation at Marks Hall to pray that Sir William Waller* would defeat Lord Hopton (Sir Ralph Hopton*) and that Prince Rupert would be forced to retreat.61Josselin, Diary, 15. The following month Parliament appointed Honywood and a number of other Essex gentlemen as special commissioners to control the felling of trees for the use of the navy.62CJ iii. 430b; A. and O. That summer he and his regiment rendezvoused with Waller’s forces at Newport Pagnell, probably after the defeat at Cropredy Bridge (29 June).63Josselin, Diary, 15, 19; SP28/129: acct. bk. of parliamentarian army in Essex, 1643-4, fo. 9; SP28/153: acct. of Edward Birkhead, 1643-4, p. 37. They then took part in the brief siege of Greenland House at Henley-on-Thames.64BHO, Cromwell Assoc. database. But within days Honywood obtained permission from the Committee of Both Kingdoms for his men to return to Essex so that they could be present at home for the harvest.65CSP Dom. 1644, pp. 340, 346. Much less is known about Honywood’s activities over the next four years, probably because the Essex militia, and Honywood as one of its senior commanders, were not called upon to take part in any missions beyond the county boundaries.

In June 1648 the war came to Essex, when the rebel forces under the command of the 1st earl of Norwich (Sir George Goring†) crossed over the Thames from Kent. This was Honywood’s big chance to distinguish himself. As most of the members of the county standing committee were then captured at Chelmsford, it was left to Honywood and Thomas Cooke* to rally the rest of the county. Sir Thomas had been lucky in that heavy rain had prevented him attending the meeting at Chelmsford at which the county committee had been seized.66Josselin, Diary, 127. In an action which won praise from the Commons and the Derby House Committee, the two of them were able to reach the county magazine at Braintree before Norwich’s men did.67CJ v. 587b; CSP Dom. 1648-9, pp. 105, 108. They then joined forces with Edward Whalley* to lay siege to the rebel redoubt at Colchester.68Fairfax Corresp. ed. Bell, iv. 35; CSP Dom. 1648-9, pp. 108, 110, 111, 112, 148, 149; Winthrop Pprs. v. 266; G.F. Townsend, The Siege of Colchester [1874], 11-12n. There was a tradition that some of the troops brought in by Fairfax to reinforce them were stationed in the park at Marks Hall and it is known that Josselin took refuge there for the duration of the siege.69Smith, ‘Markshall’, 163; Josselin, Diary, 130-2. Honywood headed the delegation which accepted the town’s surrender on 27 August.70A Diary of the Siege of Colchester (1648, 666.f. 13.6); LJ x. 478a. He was later credited with having been the person who persuaded Sir Thomas Fairfax* against allowing the troops to sack the town.71A. Clark, ‘Dr Plume’s pocket-book’, Essex Review, xiv. 68.

The leading part Honywood had played in the suppression of the second civil war helps explain why, although only a local figure, he was among those men appointed as judges in January 1649 to try Charles I.72A. and O. He refused to serve. His doubts about sitting in judgment on his king did not, however, extend to serving the republic which was instituted in King Charles’s place. Since the end of the siege of Colchester, Honywood had been acting, in effect, as the town’s governor. He and Cooke were ordered to carry out the demolition of the town’s defences in June 1649.73CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 181. The new royalist uprising in Norfolk in late 1650 persuaded the council of state to order Honywood to raise troops to garrison the castle and to concentrate the militia forces there.74CSP Dom. 1650, pp. 449, 450-1. At the same time he was included on the high court of justice which was appointed to try the captured rebel leaders at Norwich.75A. and O. In the meantime, the new council of state had commissioned him to be the colonel of one of the Essex regiments of foot. It was a measure of his importance as a militia officer that by the end of 1650 he was colonel of regiments of foot, horse and dragoons within the Essex militia.76CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 499; 1650, pp. 469, 504, 508, 513. His officers included John Maidstone*. He and Cooke were keen to persuade the council of state in late 1650 to fund the construction of a fort on the Isle of Mersea to protect the approaches to Colchester and Chelmsford from the sea.77CSP Dom. 1650, p. 461. Honywood was told by the council in March 1651 to raise 300 men to reinforce the garrison at Colchester.78CSP Dom. 1651, pp. 86, 90, 108, 185, 281. He was also, as one might expect, one of the most active members of the local militia commission.79SP28/227: warrants of Essex militia commrs. Aug. 1650-Oct. 1651; SP28/153: acct. of Thomas Morrell, June 1651. Few of his colleagues were more vigorous members of the Essex commission of the peace throughout the 1650s.80Essex QSOB ed. Allen, 1-133.

Honywood saw military action for the last time in 1651 when Charles Stuart invaded England. His militia regiments were among those which were sent to join the army which advanced to repel the invaders.81CSP Dom. 1651, pp. 363, 366, 372; SP28/227: Essex militia commrs. to Robert Smith, 2 Sept. 1651, 9 Oct. 1651. Honywood’s men are known to have taken part in the climactic battle at Worcester on 3 September and it is likely that Honywood was present with them.82Josselin, Diary, 255; Essex QSOB ed. Allen, 3-4. When he and the other Essex militia officers stopped at Oxford on their way back, they were awarded doctorates in civil law in recognition of their contribution to the great victory.83Ath. Ox. iv. pt. ii. 168; Al. Ox. By this stage the Honywoods had probably got to know John Owen*, the preacher to the council of state who was also vicar of Coggeshall, one of the neighbouring parishes to Markshall, very well.84Josselin, Diary, 274. When John Thurloe* warned Hezekiah Haynes* of a possible uprising in March 1654, Haynes summoned Honywood ‘and others of good affection in these parts’ to Colchester to secure the county.85TSP iii. 228. Haynes commented to Thurloe on the ‘very good appearance’ of Honywood’s regiment of foot after it had been mustered at Colchester on 16 March.86TSP iii. 247, 253, 285.

Honywood was one of the more obvious candidates for the Essex seats in the 1654 Parliament. Quite apart from the fact that he was wealthy and well-connected, he was now among the most prominent public figures in the county. He would have stood a strong chance of becoming one of the Essex knights of the shire even under the old electoral system. Lady Honywood held a prayer meeting at Marks Hall three days before the Parliament opened.87Josselin, Diary, 330. Honywood’s participation in the proceedings of his first Parliament seems to have been limited. He was named to just three committees, those on the office of sheriff (4 Dec. 1654), on the heretical works published by the Socinian, John Biddle (12 Dec.), and on the bill to abolish purveyance (22 Dec.).88CJ vii. 394b, 400a, 407b. His name was one of those mentioned in October 1654 when the civil lawyers were considering which MPs might support their petition for the encouragement of civil law.89Bodl. Tanner 51, f. 10.

Honywood was probably among those who welcomed the appointment of the major-generals in the autumn of 1655. He was friendly with Haynes, who became the deputy major-general with jurisdiction over Essex, and he had a direct interest in a well-funded militia.90Josselin, Diary, 406. He is known to have been one of the Essex gentlemen who told Haynes how pleased they were to have been appointed commissioners for securing the peace of the nation in December 1655.91TSP iv. 320; SP28/227: order of commrs. for securing peace, Essex, 30 Jan. 1657. He was already sitting on the commission created by the council of state to adjudicate on the factional disputes dividing the Colchester corporation, and his appointment as custos rotulorum in July 1656 was further evidence that he was becoming indispensable to the smooth running of county administration within Essex.92CSP Dom. 1655, pp. 354; C231/6, p. 340; Essex QSOB ed. Allen, p. xxxvi.

The Essex elections for the new Parliament in 1656 probably presented Honywood with few difficulties. Before he went up to London to take his seat, he was given ‘the best, and most solemn advice I could’ by Josselin.93Josselin, Diary, 379. During the time that he remained in the Commons, Honywood sat on a wide variety of committees. Many of these were appointed to consider private bills introduced by those seeking to confirm or undo land settlements.94CJ vii. 463b, 468a, 472a, 488b, 496b, 505b, 529b. Honywood acted as a teller on three occasions, although never in a division of major significance.95CJ vii. 512a; 532a, 549a, 560a; Burton’s Diary, ii. 194, 256. In the case of the division of 9 May 1657 by which the committal of a petition from some of the inhabitants of Colchester was defeated, the issue may have centred on the disputed outcome of the most recent parliamentary elections in that town. If so, it seems more likely that Honywood and Sir John Reynolds* were siding with those who supported the pro-government candidates.96CJ vii. 532a. Honywood was included on the commission for the security of the protector, although only as an afterthought.97CJ vii. 435b; A. and O. His attitude towards the Humble Petition and Advice is difficult to determine with any certainty, but he was named to two of the committees which made the arrangements for it to be presented to Cromwell, making it likely that he broadly sympathetic.98CJ vii. 514a, 538b. He was also among those appointed to attend on the protector to seek his approval for a day of thanksgiving for the victory by Robert Blake* over the Spaniards and to ask him to assent to the assessment bills.99CJ vii. 541a, 545b.

When this Parliament reassembled in January 1658, Sir Thomas did not resume his seat in the Commons but instead took his place as ‘Lord Honywood’ in the new Other House.100TSP vi. 668; HMC Lords, n.s. iv. 504. Honywood was one of the less obvious choices for that honour. For all his importance at a local level and military record of unusual distinction for someone who had only ever been an officer in the militia, he was hardly a national figure. The council of state had presumably recognised that he had been impeccably loyal to the protectorate. Maidstone, his former subordinate, may have influenced his nomination. During this first session of the Other House, Honywood maintained a perfect attendance record, being present in the House on all 14 days it sat between 20 January and 4 February 1658.101HMC Lords, n.s. iv. 507-25. His two committee appointments were those to consider a naturalization bill (28 Jan.) and the bill to increase the penalties for profaning the sabbath (29 Jan.).102HMC Lords, n.s. iv. 519, 520. He took the oath required from Members of the Other House in the Additional Humble Petition and Advice.103HMC Lords, n.s. iv. 525. On 23 November 1658 he walked as a peer in Cromwell’s funeral procession.104Burton’s Diary, ii. 527.

He resumed his seat in the Other House when it reassembled at the start of the next Parliament on 27 January 1659. The following day he was included on the committee for petitions.105HMC Lords, n.s. iv. 525, 527. Over the next two months he missed only five days on which the House was sitting.106HMC Lords, n.s. iv. 525-52. His attendance then ceased abruptly. From 25 March onwards he failed to appear at Westminster.107HMC Lords, n.s. iv. 553-67. Whether this was because he wished to make some sort of political statement or because he had business elsewhere is unclear. The length of the absence makes the former more likely. His nephew, Robert Honywood, sat as MP for New Romney in this Parliament.

Honywood acted with his usual efficiency when faced with the prospect of a royalist uprising in the summer of 1659. In early July the council of state ordered him to muster the Essex militia as a precaution and the following month they recommended to Parliament that he become colonel of the regiment to be raised in Essex. Dudley Templer* became his lieutenant-colonel.108CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 16; CJ vii. 749a. Although the rebellion never got off the ground in the south east, Honywood arrested two suspects and sent them up to London.109CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 118. On 1 September Parliament confirmed him in office as a militia colonel.110CJ vii. 772a.

Honywood had been thoroughly implicated in the events of the 1640s and 1650s. Although not a regicide, he had had the opportunity to become one and he could not deny that he had accepted a peerage from Cromwell. There was little reason for him to think that he would prosper under the restored monarchy. He was, in any case, already in his early seventies. In December 1660 he took the precaution of applying for and obtaining a pardon under the great seal for his actions over the previous 20 years.111PSO5/8, unfol.; Essex RO, D/DM/F20/5. He died on 26 May 1666 and was buried at Markshall six days later, with Josselin officiating.112Josselin, Diary, 501, 528; Morant, Essex, ii. 169; Smith, ‘Markshall’, 164. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Thomas, but, as the latter died without issue in 1672, the estates passed to Sir Thomas’s younger surviving son, John Lamotte Honywood†.113PROB11/321/384. Following John’s suicide in 1694, the lands were inherited by the senior branch of the family in Kent. Despite the large number of cadet branches deriving from Sir Thomas’s grandmother, the male line of the family died out in the late nineteenth century.114‘Markshall and the Honywood fam.’, 264-5; Smith, ‘Markshall’, 173-4.