WILLOUGHBY, William (1584-1617)

Willoughby spent his early years not at Knaith, his family’s ancestral seat, but at another Lincolnshire house, Little Coates, which belonged to his maternal grandfather, Sir Christopher Hildyard. Despite his aristocratic pedigree, he grew up in relatively straitened circumstances. His father, William, despite being heir to the Willoughby barony, owned barely any property until 1599, when he inherited the Suffolk manor of Parham, which gave the peerage its territorial suffix. When William died two years later, administration of his estate was granted to two creditors, a sure sign of financial difficulties.14 Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. lii), 1088; C142/328/169; PROB 6/6, f. 97. The crown possessed a marginal claim to the 16-year-old Willoughby’s wardship, and although in the end this was not confirmed, Willoughby found himself in limbo for the next year, while his paternal grandfather, Charles Willoughby^*, 2nd Lord Willoughby and a neighbouring peer, Roger Manners^*, 5th earl of Rutland, competed to become his guardian.15 C142/264/122, 165; Hatfield House, CP 94/5; CP 113/23. No Court of Wards decrees have been found relating to Willoughby, and the crown never sold his wardship: WARD 9/88; 9/150; 9/160. Rutland effectively emerged the victor from this contest, as he exploited the uncertainty to arrange a marriage between his own sister and Willoughby, and thereafter exerted considerable influence over the young man. Willoughby was knighted in 1603 at Rutland’s country seat, Belvoir Castle, Lincolnshire, and when he decided to go abroad two years later it was the earl who obtained his licence to travel. No details of this trip are known, but it was possibly in order to fund it that Willoughby in January 1606 sold two properties inherited from Hildyard.16 HMC Rutland, i. 395; iv. 442, 458; Shaw, ii. 102; C54/1831.

The financial picture barely improved after Willoughby succeeded his grandfather as 3rd Lord Willoughby in December 1611.17 C142/328/169. His ancestral estates generated barely £900 a year, and he was now liable for a livery payment to the crown of more than £3,000. Consequently, within months of inheriting his title, he took steps to improve his landed income, in some cases quadrupling his tenants’ rents, an unpopular process which later prompted at least one enclosure riot.18 Hatfield House, CP 113/23; PROB 11/132, f. 315v; STAC 8/308/13. Willoughby was almost certainly present at Belvoir Castle when James I visited in August 1612, as he lent furnishings for the occasion, and contributed towards the catering. However, he seems rarely to have attended court otherwise, and made little impression socially even at local level. In September 1613 he was so short of money that he leased out Parham manor, concealing the fact that it formed part of his wife’s jointure estate.19 HMC Rutland, iv. 479, 488-9; CSP Dom. Addenda, 1580-1625, p. 659.

During the 1614 Parliament, Willoughby attended the Lords for all but seven sittings, being formally excused on 18 Apr. on account of a brief illness. He was named to five out of the nine committees appointed during this session. Following his nomination to the bill committee concerning Sabbath abuses, he was selected to attend a conference about this measure. He was also named to confer with the Commons about the bill to place the children of James’s daughter in the royal line of succession, and appointed to help scrutinize the bill to avoid lawsuits over wills of land.20 LJ, ii. 692b, 694a, 695a, 699b, 708b, 713b.

Over the next three years, Willoughby’s financial position continued to deteriorate, with further piecemeal land sales, and a long succession of loan agreements.21 LC4/34/37, 54, 279; 4/37/47, 94; C54/2222/31, 44; 54/2229/21; 54/2308/32. Although summoned to London in April 1616 for the trial of the earl and countess of Somerset, he apparently continued to eschew the court ordinarily, except when the king again visited Belvoir in August that year. Willoughby may have helped to promote a scheme in early 1616 to improve river navigation between Lincoln and the east coast, but in general he seems not to have been prominent in local government.22 APC, 1615-16, pp. 414-15, 505; HMC Rutland, iv. 510. In the summer of 1617 he hosted ‘three great lords’ who were passing through Lincolnshire, but soon afterwards he fell dangerously ill. Still ‘sick in body’ on 26 Aug., he made his will, ordering further land sales and leases in order to provide for his four infant children. To his heir Francis he bequeathed his armour and half the contents of his main seat at Knaith, along with an allowance to cover his education. He also, somewhat optimistically, assigned his daughters dowries of £2,000 each, despite simultaneously listing debts of more than £10,000, including his old livery payment to the crown, which remained uncleared. This was in fact a conservative figure; a subsequent, more painstaking assessment of his finances increased the total to nearly £13,500.23 HMC Rutland, i. 452-3; PROB 11/132, ff. 315-16; SP15/43/58. Willoughby died two days later, and was buried in Lincoln Cathedral. His barony passed to his son Francis^†, 4th Lord Willoughby. (The standard account of the succession, which claims that Willoughby was succeeded by a son named Henry, is incorrect).24 CP, xii. pt. 2, p. 705. For the details, see appendices in vol. 1.