WILLOUGHBY, Charles (c.1537-1611)

The Willoughbys of Parham were a junior branch of the same family which held the barony of Willoughby de Eresby. The peerage was created in 1547 for Willoughby’s father William^† (1st Lord Willoughby of Parham), a middle-ranking courtier and sometime lord deputy of Calais, who latterly served as lord lieutenant of Lincolnshire, the county where almost all his property was situated.22 CP, xii. pt. 2, p. 672, 701-2; CSP Dom. 1547-53, pp. 4, 233; APC, 1556-8, p. 336. In 1570 Willoughby inherited more than 5,000 acres there, along with the Suffolk manor of Parham, which supplied the barony’s territorial suffix, but the estate was heavily encumbered with jointures. Even when the last of these finally expired in 1599, Willoughby’s annual income was no more than £900, making him one of the poorest of the Elizabethan peers. Such financial constraints help to explain why Willoughby, though active locally as a magistrate and deputy lieutenant, never established a profile at court.23 WARD 7/13/61; Hatfield House, CP 113/23; L. Stone, Crisis of the Aristocracy, 469, 760. His economic vulnerability became clear in 1601, when his eldest son died prematurely. Willoughby’s heir was now his 16-year-old grandson William^*, later 3rd Lord Willoughby. Anticipating that the boy would become a royal ward, Willoughby began negotiating to purchase his wardship, but found himself in a bidding war with his wealthy but disgraced neighbour Roger Manners^*, 5th earl of Rutland, who had only recently participated in the abortive rebellion of Robert Devereux^†, 2nd earl of Essex. In the event, the crown’s claim to wardship was never established, but Willoughby was nonetheless pushed into allowing William to marry Rutland’s sister, thereby giving the earl permanent influence over the family’s affairs.24 C142/264/122, 165; Hatfield House, CP 94/5; CP 113/23; CSP Dom. 1601-3, p. 89; HMC Rutland, iv. 442.

In 1603 Willoughby was already in his mid-sixties, and although the new reign saw him continue his administrative role in Lincolnshire, he made little impact in Parliament, probably due to his age and declining health. During the first Jacobean session, which began on 19 Mar. 1604, he attended fairly regularly until 23 May, missing only seven sittings, but thereafter he went absent with leave. His solitary appointment was to the committee for the bill to relieve Thomas Lovell in a dispute over Fen drainage in Lincolnshire.25 LJ, ii. 280a, 305b; PA, HL/PO/PB/1/1603/1J1n67.

Willoughby was only marginally more active when Parliament reconvened in 1605, once again maintaining a good attendance record during the early stages, but absenting himself from 4 Mar. 1606, at around which time he presented his proxy to the lord chamberlain, Thomas Howard^*, 1st earl of Suffolk. Although he was recorded as present on 13 May, this was probably a clerical error. This time he received six nominations to bill committees, the topics ranging from the attainder of the Gunpowder plotters, and the avoidance of unnecessary delays in execution, to the coal trade in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland.26 Ibid. 355b, 364a, 367a, 370a, 371a. For the third Jacobean session, which began in November 1606, Willoughby evidently obtained leave of absence from the outset, and again awarded his proxy to Suffolk. He was recorded as present in the Lords on 16 Dec. 1606 and 27 Feb. 1607, but once again this was probably an error, as there is no corroborative evidence that he sat.27 Ibid. 449b. Willoughby also stayed away from both sessions in 1610, once more handing his proxy to Suffolk.28 SO3/4, unfol. (27 Jan. 1610); LJ, ii. 548b, 666b.

Little is known about Willoughby’s life outside Westminster during his declining years. In 1606 a long-running feud with two of his Lincolnshire neighbours, Sir Philip and Sir Edward Tyrwhitt^‡, came to a head when Willoughby sued them in Star Chamber for assault and stealing his deer. This incident has been cited as proof that Willoughby belonged to the local puritan faction led by Henry Clinton^*, 2nd earl of Lincoln, the Tyrwhitts’ enemy, but no other evidence to support this claim has emerged.29 STAC 8/310/29; HP Commons, 1604-29, vi. 595. Two years later, Willoughby briefly came under government scrutiny, when he was accused of owing the crown nearly £1,300 in rent for a Gloucestershire manor which he did not in fact possess.30 SP14/37/48.

Willoughby died in December 1611. No will or grant of administration for his estate has been found. His barony descended to his grandson William, who had come of age six years earlier.31 C142/328/169.