WOTTON, Thomas (1587-1630)

Wotton was the only surviving son of Edward Wotton^*, a household official and diplomat who was raised to the peerage in 1603 and converted to Catholicism. Wotton may have shared his father’s religious persuasions, which became public knowledge in 1618, as he failed to hold any more senior public office than that of commissioner of sewers. Nevertheless, in May 1623, perhaps anticipating the success of the Spanish Match, he apparently hoped to succeed Edward La Zouche^*, 11th Lord Zouche, as lord warden of the Cinque Ports.6 L. Yeandle, ‘Sir Edward Dering of Surrenden Dering and his “Booke of Expences” (1617-28)’, Arch. Cant. cxxv. 218.

Wotton inherited his father’s barony on 4 May 1628,7 C142/451/99. during the first session of the third Caroline Parliament. He presumably received a writ of summons to the upper House soon thereafter. However, there is no evidence that he attended at any time before Parliament was prorogued on 26 June, or during the 1629 session. Moreover, his name appears in the parliamentary record only once, at a call of the House on 9 Feb. 1629, when he was marked as absent.8 LJ, iv. 25a. No explanation for his failure to attend is given, and there is no indication that he received leave to stay away or that he appointed a proxy.

Wotton died at his house in Boughton Malherbe, Kent on 2 Apr. 1630. His only son having died in infancy, the peerage thereupon became extinct. In a short, undated will, he asked for a private burial, ‘without any manner of vain pomp or sumptuousness’, in the local parish church, which occurred ten days later. Wotton appointed his wife as his executrix and bequeathed her all his property, with the exception of £6, which he bestowed upon the poor of the parish of St Mary le Strand in Westminster and two bequests to servants.9 Cowper, 310; Kent Hist. and Lib. Cent., DCb/PRC32/49, f. 109r-v. His widow subsequently purchased the wardship of his younger daughters for £26 12s. 4d.10 Coventry Docquets, 473. A small picture of Wotton, mentioned by his widow in her will, is no longer known to survive.11 HMC Var. ii. 23.