WOTTON, Edward (c.1549-1628)

Wotton was descended from William Wotton, a late fourteenth century London merchant. William’s son Nicholas^‡ (d.1448) became lord mayor of London, which city he represented in the Commons, and acquired a large estate in Kent, either by marriage or purchase, including Boughton Malherbe, which became the family seat. Wotton’s grandfather, Sir Edward (?1489-1551), was treasurer of Calais and a privy councillor; his great uncle, Nicholas Wotton, was a prominent diplomat.57 J. Bower, ‘Wotton Survey’, Arch. Cant. cxxxii. 259-61; HP Commons, 1386-1421, iv. 905-7; Oxford DNB, lx. 372-3.

Wotton’s father confined himself to the affairs of Kent, but Wotton himself embarked on a diplomatic career. In later life he described himself as having been ‘bred’ in the ‘school … under Sir Francis Walsingham^‡’.58 Stowe 171, f. 316. However, his conspicuous failure to share his patron’s Protestant zeal led to suspicions that he was a Catholic as early as 1579.59 CSP Span. 1568-79, p. 677. Wotton spent most of the late Elizabethan period unsuccessfully seeking office. Reported to be a candidate for the office of secretary of state in 1591, in 1595 he lobbied William Cecil^†, 1st Lord Burghley, for the treasurership of the chamber.60 CSP Dom. 1591-4, p. 97; J. Strype, Annals of the Reformation (1824), iv. 346-7. He was again a candidate for the secretaryship in 1597, as well as for the offices of lord warden of the Cinque Ports and vice chamberlain.61 HMC De L’Isle and Dudley, ii. 243, 248, 286. Having failed to secure any of those posts it was reported, in 1598, that Sir Robert Cecil^* (later 1st earl of Salisbury), who had been appointed secretary, was trying to secure Wotton a barony, and that Wotton had promised an unnamed intermediary £1,000 to secure the support of Robert Devereux^†, 2nd earl of Essex. However, this also came to nothing.62 Ibid. 313-14; Letters and Memorials of State ed. A. Collins, ii. 88. He was finally successful in December 1602, ‘when nobody looked for it’, being suddenly appointed comptroller of the household and a privy councillor. It was reported that Lady Walsingham, the wife Sir Francis Walsingham’s kinsman Sir Thomas Walsingham^‡, was ‘the principal author’ of his advancement. She was reputedly Cecil’s mistress and may have used her influence on Wotton’s behalf. Whatever the truth of the matter may have been, in January it was reported that Wotton had put new life into the court, ‘being always freshly attired, and for the most part all in white’ from head to foot.63 Chamberlain Letters, i. 179, 180; Letters and Memorials of State ed. A. Collins, ii. 262; HP Commons, 1604-29, vi. 658.

The accession of James I and the first Jacobean Parliament, 1603-11

Wotton signed the proclamation acknowledging the accession of James I on 24 Mar. 1603.64 Stuart Royal Proclamations I: Jas. I ed. J.F. Larkin and P.L. Hughes, 3. Reappointed to his posts by the new monarch, he received the last of the four baronies conferred on 13 May, following Cecil, Robert Sidney^* (subsequently 1st earl of Leicester) and Wotton’s immediate superior, the treasurer of the household, William Knollys^* (subsequently earl of Banbury). A briefing prepared in the summer of 1603 for the Spanish ambassador sent to negotiate a peace treaty with England described Wotton as very able and favourable to Catholicism, and a supporter of freedom of conscience.65 Spain and the Jacobean Catholics I: 1603-12 ed. A.J. Loomie (Cath. Rec. Soc. lxiv), 6. The Spanish ambassador subsequently described Wotton as ‘a distinguished man and … judicious’, and remarked that he had ‘shown himself well disposed to Spain’.66 A.J. Loomie, ‘Toleration and Diplomacy’, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. n.s. liii. 53.

Wotton had recently been appointed lord lieutenant of his native county when the Kent election for the first Jacobean Parliament was held in February 1604, but there is no evidence that he tried to influence the outcome.67 HP Commons, 1604-29, ii. 187. Wotton attended 61 of the 71 sittings of the 1604 session, 86 per cent of the total. He was excused for ‘want of health’ on 3 Apr., having already missed the previous day’s sitting, but he returned on the 4th.68 LJ, ii. 272b. Appointed to 30 of the session’s 70 committees, he made no recorded speeches. This may reflect the paucity of the sources, but there is no evidence that Wotton was ever a frequent speaker in the upper House. As a privy councillor it was probably inevitable that Wotton would be named to attend the key conferences with the Commons, such as those about wardship, the Union, and ecclesiastical affairs; indeed, he appears to have been appointed in his absence on the latter occasion.69 Ibid. 266b, 278a, 282b, 284a, 303a. As comptroller he had an official interest in the bill for assigning money for the expenses of the household, to which he was named on 14 May.70 Ibid. 298b. Despite his Catholic sympathies he was appointed to consider legislation against importing Catholic books and for executing the laws against Jesuits, seminary priests and recusants.71 Ibid. 290a, 298a, 314a, 324b.

It was presumably because Wotton was a Kentish landowner that on 3 Apr., despite not being recorded as present in the chamber, he was named to the committee for the bill to naturalize Sir James Erskine (subsequently 6th earl of Buchan [S]), which measure included confirmation of a grant to Erskine of marshland in Kent.72 Ibid. 272b; HMC Hatfield, xvi. 46. The Kentish connection, as much as his court position, probably explains why Wotton, along with two other peers who were natives of that county, Sidney and Edward Neville^*, 8th or 1st Lord Abergavenny, were appointed on 9 June to arbitrate between Sir Edward Hales^‡ of Woodchurch, Kent, and Nicholas Reading, a yeoman of the chamber, who had been arrested by Hales for debt.73 LJ, ii. 317a. On 2 June Wotton was named to the committee to consider a bill to confirm a lease which had been made by the collegiate church of Westminster abbey and, on 20 June, he signed the report of the committee that the bill should not be proceeded with.74 Ibid. 311a; HMC Hatfield, xvi. 145-6.

In July 1604, following the prorogation, Wotton, who had heard that James I intended to confer a barony on Sir Edward Denny^* (subsequently earl of Norwich), pressed the case of Sir Nicholas Bacon^‡, whose eldest son had married Wotton’s daughter, and who had apparently been promised a peerage by the king. However, nothing came of his efforts.75 HMC Hatfield, xvi. 186. The following month Wotton was employed to greet the constable of Castile, who had arrived to conclude the peace with England.76 Ibid. 208. The following year Wotton’s eldest son, Pickering, accompanied Charles Howard^*, 1st earl of Nottingham, to Spain to ratify the treaty. Pickering subsequently died in Spain, having converted to Catholicism on his deathbed.77 R. Treswell, ‘Relation of such things as were observed to happen in the journey of the right honourable Charles earl of Nottingham’ (1605), reprinted in Harl. Misc. iii. 425; Winwood’s Memorials ed. E. Sawyer, ii. 151.

Wotton attended 76 of the 85 sittings of the 1605-6 session, 79 per cent of the total. He missed the first two sittings on 5 Nov. 1605, when the Gunpowder Plot was discovered, and one on the morning of 9 November. He was several times named to committees when he was not recorded as present, as on 24 Feb. 1606, when he was appointed to three, and on 31 Mar., when he was named to the committee for a revised private bill concerning property in Essex. The original version of this measure accounted for one of his appointments on 24 Feb. and the new bill was simply committed to the same lords, with two additions. Possibly Wotton was actually present on 24 Feb., but not on the 31st.78 LJ, ii. 380b, 393b, 404b. Wotton was entrusted with the proxy of his father-in-law, Philip, 3rd Lord Wharton, and gave his only known speech in the upper House on 21 Jan. 1606, when he informed the Lords that Wharton had been granted licence to be absent.79 Ibid. 361a.

Wotton was appointed to 40 of the 72 committees established in the 1605-6 session. Among the subjects he was asked to consider was how the laws for the defence of the Church could be improved in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot,80 Ibid. 360b, 367b. and what punishment to inflict on the surviving plotters. He was twice required to consider bills for the latter’s attainder, and also measures against seditious speeches and recusants.81 Ibid. 363a, 369a, 401a. As a privy councillor, Wotton was presumably interested in the bill to ensure the payment of fines and forfeitures to the crown, which he was instructed to consider on 28 Jan.; the measure needed to be redrafted and Wotton was appointed to consider the new bill on 13 May.82 Ibid. 364a, 431b; HMC 3rd Rep. 11. As a household official, Wotton must have been interested in the purveyance bill, which he was named to consider on 5 April.83 LJ, ii. 407b. The private measure he was most concerned with was probably the bill to confirm the attainder of Henry Brooke^†, 11th Lord Cobham, who in 1603 had been found guilty of treason - by Wotton among others- for his part in the Main Plot. Wotton had been one of the executors of Cobham’s father, the 10th Lord, William Brooke^†, and was a trustee for part of the Cobham estates.84 CSP Dom. 1595-7, p. 364; HMC Hatfield, xviii. 59. Wotton was named to consider both the original measure on 22 Feb., and the revised bills on 17 and 29 March.85 LJ, ii. 379a, 395b, 403a.

In August 1606 Wotton was listed by the Spanish ambassador as one of the opponents of Cecil, by now earl of Salisbury. Although Wotton’s letters to Salisbury invariably contain effusive expression of respect and offers of service, they tend to be short and lacking in the personal details which indicate a genuine friendship. Wotton may have blamed Salisbury for his failure to secure the secretaryship in the 1590s. Consequently, he may also have allied himself to Salisbury’s chief rival on the Privy Council, the crypto-Catholic Henry Howard^*, earl of Northampton.86 Spain and the Jacobean Catholics I: 1603-12, p. 86n3. There is certainly evidence to connect the two men, as will be seen.

Wotton attended 94 of the 106 sittings of the 1606-7 session, 89 per cent of the total. He was excused for ‘want of health’ on 20 Nov. 1606, the second sitting of the session, but was back in the chamber when the House next sat, two days later.87 LJ, ii. 451a. On 24 Nov. he was appointed to the first of the 26 committees (out of a total of 41) to which he was named that session, to confer with the Commons about the Union.88 Ibid. 453a. One appointment seems to have been made in his absence, on 18 Mar. 1607, possibly because the bill concerned, for draining Plumstead marshes, related to his home county.89 Ibid. 490b. Another committee appointment which related to Kent was for the bill to confirm rent charges bequeathed by a Catholic for repairing highways, which also concerned Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. The testator stipulated that the money for Kent was to be managed by both Wotton, as lord lieutenant, and Northampton, as lord warden of the Cinque Ports.90 Ibid. 519b; HMC 4th Rep. 118; PROB 11/111, f. 330r-v. His other committee appointments included measures to confirm defective titles, prevent the enforcement of canons that had not received parliamentary confirmation and abolish the hostile laws between England and Scotland.91 LJ, ii. 471b, 494a, 503a, 520a. He made no recorded speeches.

Following the death of the lord treasurer, Thomas Sackville^*, 1st earl of Dorset, in April 1608 the French ambassador reported that Wotton would become secretary of state, replacing Salisbury, who would be promoted to lord treasurer. He described him as honest, courteous and sensible with a good command of French and Italian, but too favourable to the Spanish for the ambassador’s liking.92 Ambassades de M. de la Boderie en Angleterre (1750), iii. 753. It is possible that Wotton’s candidacy was promoted by Northampton. However, he was again thwarted, as Salisbury retained the secretaryship alongside the treasurership.

In January 1610 it was reported that Wotton would be made an earl, but he had no new title when Parliament met again the following month.93 HMC Downshire, ii. 219. He attended 77 of the 95 sittings of this session, 81 per cent of the total, and was appointed to 29 of its 58 committees. Although the Lords’ debates are much better recorded than those for the previous sessions, it is noticeable that he made no recorded speeches. On 14 Feb. Wotton was appointed to attend the conference at which Salisbury described the king’s financial needs, initiating the attempt to reform the crown finances which became known as the Great Contract. On 18 Apr. he was named to a delegation sent to the king about the proposals to include tenures in the Contract.94 LJ, ii. 550b, 579b.

Among the bills which Wotton was appointed to consider was one to require all those who were naturalized or restored in blood to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy; this was committed on 2 June. However, he was evidently not a supporter of the measure as he voted against it at third reading on the 30th of that month. He was, nevertheless, appointed to the committee for the bill for the general administering of the oath of allegiance on 16 July.95 Ibid. 606b, 645a; Procs. 1610 ed. E.R. Foster, i. 121. One private bill with which he had a particularly close connection concerned the sale of lands belonging to William Essex, a Berkshire gentleman, which he was named to consider on 22 March. Wotton, along with Northampton, had concluded a settlement between Essex and his creditors, as a result of which property belonging to Essex had been conveyed to Northampton, Wotton and other trustees for sale to pay off debts; the measure confirmed these conveyances.96 LJ, ii. 570b; PA, HL/PO/PB/1/1609/7J1n45; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 562. He was also named to consider the bill to revoke conveyances made by his daughter’s brother-in-law, Sir Robert Drury^‡.97 LJ, ii. 623a. Appointments which related to Kent included a bill to void conveyances made by Sir Henry Crispe, a Thanet resident related to Wotton’s friend, Sir Edmund Crispe (or Crippes), and a bill to enable Abergavenny to sell lands.98 Ibid. 586b, 595b, 631b; Kent Hist. and Lib. Cent. DCb/PRC31/93/W/1; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. xlii), 74. As a household official he may have been professionally interested in the bill to establish common breweries in counties where the king went on progress, which he was named to consider on 10 May.99 LJ, ii. 592a; Procs. 1610, i. 85.

By the end of the session Wotton had been appointed ambassador extraordinary to France, although he did not leave until after the prorogation. The purpose of the mission was to offer condolences to the queen regent, Marie de Medici, for the assassination of Henri IV and to congratulate Louis XIII on his succession. It was also to ratify the treaty which had recently been negotiated between England and France.100 Stowe 177, ff. 131-5; HMC Downshire, ii. 346. On 10 Aug. Wotton, who had stopped at his Kent home on his way to the Channel, wrote to the English resident ambassador in Paris, Sir Thomas Edmondes^‡, complaining about ‘the employment falling upon me so unseasonably in my old age’.101 Stowe 171, f. 316. It was presumably these intimations of mortality which had prompted him to seek to put his spiritual affairs in order. Before his departure from London he visited the Spanish ambassador, to whom he declared himself a Catholic. However, he was too afraid to confess his faith publicly and wanted the Spanish king, Philip III, to secure him a papal bull granting him absolution on his deathbed, enabling him to continue to conform to the Church of England during his lifetime. His request was supported by the Spanish authorities and, after some delays, the bull was issued in early 1612.102 Spain and the Jacobean Catholics I: 1603-12, p. 158. Wotton’s embassy was successful; the treaty was formally concluded on 11 Sept. and, having impressed Marie de Medici with his ‘gravity and mildness’, together with his Italian, he returned to England the following month, accompanied by the renowned Huguenot scholar, Isaac Casaubon.103 HMC Downshire, ii. 361; Winwood’s Memorials, iii. 217-18, 226.

Wotton was back in time for the opening of the next session of Parliament on 16 Oct., although he missed that day’s sitting.104 HMC Downshire, ii. 379. In total he attended 15 (71 per cent) of the 21 sittings of this, the final session of the first Jacobean Parliament. He was named to six of the session’s seven committees, including one for a new bill for common breweries, another for a conference about the Great Contract and a third for the administration of the recently reconstituted duchy of Cornwall. One of the commissioners appointed to dissolve the Parliament, he therefore attended the final meeting of the Parliament on 9 Feb. 1611.105 LJ, ii. 670a, 671a, 677a.

The Addled Parliament and the treasurership of the household, 1611-18

In May 1611 it was reported that Wotton would resign his office of comptroller to George Carew^*, 1st Lord Carew (subsequently earl of Totness) and retire to the country, ‘contenting himself with the quality of a councillor at large’.106 Stowe 172, f. 28r-v. It is likely that a document written by Salisbury, but signed by Carew, dates from around this time. In it Carew promised to exchange his office of master of the Ordnance for Wotton’s comptrollership, paying Wotton £1,000, presumably to compensate him for the greater value of the comptrollership. In addition, Carew promised to pay Wotton £1,500 if the latter subsequently decided to return the mastership of the Ordnance to Carew.107 HMC Hatfield, xx. 291. However, this deal was evidently unacceptable to Wotton, who remained in office, possibly because he was not offered enough money.

In April 1612 Wotton angrily attacked his neighbour, Sir William Twysden^‡, at the hearing before the king concerning the precedence of the newly created baronets, after Twysden clashed with Northampton.108 HMC 10th Rep. IV, 11; HP Commons, 1604-29, vi. 391. The following month Salisbury died, having not long before sold Canterbury Park to Wotton for £12,260, which property Wotton subsequently used as an alternative residence to Boughton. This was a former royal palace built on the site of the abbey of St Augustine’s, just outside Canterbury. Much of the monastic building had been allowed to fall into disrepair, and large quantities of the stone had been used by Salisbury to build Hatfield House. Consequently, Wotton sometimes addressed his letters from Boughton as written from ‘the ruins’. He employed John Tradescant the elder to lay out formal gardens in the grounds of his new house.109 Chamberlain Letters, i. 351; L. Stone, Fam. and Fortune, 44, 47-8, 70, 101; Eg. 860, f. 44v; CSP Dom. 1619-23, p. 192; Chaney and Wilks, 54.

Wotton was appointed one of the commissioners for the treasury in the aftermath of Salisbury’s death, and there was again speculation that he would be appointed secretary. However, it is unlikely that he was a serious candidate for the post as James seems to have been more interested in securing his retirement. On 17 June John Chamberlain reported that the king, wanting senior household officials who could sit in the Commons to improve his management of the lower House, had offered Wotton and Knollys £2,000 a year each to resign. However, Wotton had insisted on £5,000 in cash.110 HMC Downshire, iii. 306; Chamberlain Letters, i. 358-9. In February 1614 Wotton was again associated with Northampton, when Sir Stephen Proctor was prosecuted for libel in Star Chamber for alleging that the two peers had obstructed the investigation into the Gunpowder Plot.111 Chamberlain Letters, i. 509-9.

In the elections to the 1614 Parliament, Wotton may have supported the unsuccessful candidacy of his half-brother, Sir Henry^‡, at Canterbury. It was almost certainly Wotton who procured Sir Henry’s election at Appleby on the Clifford interest, as Wotton was closely connected with the Cliffords. Wotton had been executor to George Clifford^*, 3rd earl of Cumberland (d.1605), his second wife’s uncle, and was a friend of Henry Clifford^*, Lord Clifford (subsequently 5th earl of Cumberland), who had accompanied Wotton on his embassy to France in 1610.112 HP Commons, 1604-29, ii. 194, 429; Lives of Lady Anne Clifford, 90; HMC Hatfield, xvii. 459; Whitaker, 365-6; HMC Rutland, i. 423. Wotton was recorded as attending 26 of the 29 sittings of the Addled Parliament, 90 per cent of the total. He may also have attended on 7 Apr., but no attendances were marked by the clerk. Appointed a trier of petitions for Gascony by the crown, he was also named to four of the nine committees established by the Lords during the Parliament. These included bills to prevent the wasteful consumption of gold and silver, prevent lawsuits over bequests of land and preserve timber. His remaining appointment was to confer with the Commons about the bill to settle the succession following the recent marriage of Princess Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine.113 LJ, ii. 687b, 691a, 692b, 694a, 697b. He made no recorded speeches.

The Parliament ended on 7 June, when Wotton again acted as a commissioner for the dissolution. Northampton died eight days later, whereupon the office of lord warden of the Cinque Ports fell vacant. On the 24th Sir Henry Wotton reported that his half-brother had stated that he would turn down the wardenship if it were offered him, ‘for reasons which he reserveth in his own breast’, but in fact there is no evidence that Wotton was ever a serious candidate for the post.114 Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton, ii. 41. The following November it was rumoured that Wotton would succeed Knollys as treasurer of the household, but this proved two years premature.115 HMC Downshire, v. 58. When the Council debated the calling of a new Parliament in September 1615, Wotton proposed that one should be called in Scotland first ‘and something granted by them towards the payment of the king’s debts, which … would be a good inducement here’. This suggests that Wotton believed that the cost of the Jacobean regime fell disproportionately on England, and that the Scots had got off lightly. It also suggests that he was ignorant of the fact that the Scottish Parliament had voted James over £21,000 in taxes three years earlier.116 Letters and Life of Francis Bacon ed. J. Spedding, v. 201; JAMES HAMILTON, 1ST EARL OF CAMBRIDGE.

In October 1616 it was reported that Wotton ‘having brought to pass a suit … with the king’, would retire from the court and surrender the comptrollership to Edmondes. In the event, however, he became treasurer of the household after Knollys agreed to become master of the Court of Wards and a viscount.117 T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Jas. I, i. 431, 440-1. Wotton’s ‘suit’ presumably referred to a grant he received in March 1617 to collect fines for alienations and concealed wardships and liveries in Wales, Cheshire, Lancashire and Durham, of which he was to retain a third for himself.118 CSP Dom. 1611-18, pp. 418, 446; CD 1621, vii. 465. As early as January 1618 it was reported that Wotton would sell his new office, and by the end of the year he had concluded a deal with Sir Henry Carey^‡, whereby, in return for £5,000, he would surrender the treasurership to Edmondes, allowing Carey to become comptroller. However, early in 1619 it was reported that the household’s departmental head, Ludovic Stuart^*, 2nd duke of Lennox [S] (subsequently duke of Richmond in the English peerage), had intervened on behalf of Sir Edward Cecil^* (later Viscount Wimbledon). It was also said that Lady Hatton and the countess of Suffolk were supporting John Holles^*, Lord Houghton (later 1st earl of Clare) as an alternative candidate for the comptrollership. In fact the real reason for the delay was that, like Knollys before him, Wotton wanted to be made a viscount on his resignation, but had been refused by the king. Nevertheless, under pressure from the new favourite, George Villiers^*, marquess of Buckingham (subsequently 1st duke of Buckingham), Wotton capitulated and he resigned on 27 January.119 Chamberlain Letters, ii. 59, 125, 129, 133; CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 505; Fortescue Pprs. ed. S.R. Gardiner (Cam. Soc. n.s. i), 38-9, 41, 43-4. Possibly as a reward, his share of his alienations and wardship project was increased to two thirds in May.120 CD 1621, vii. 465.

Later life, 1618-28

Now that he had retired from court, Wotton may have felt safe to join the Catholic Church. In April the Spanish ambassador reported that his chaplain had received an unnamed privy councillor into the Church, giving him ‘confession, mass and holy communion’.121 Spain and the Jacobean Catholics II: 1613-24 ed. A.J. Loomie (Catholic Rec. Soc. lxviii), 105, where Loomie identifies the unnamed convert as Sir Lewis Lewkenor^‡ (who was not a councillor). He has subsequently suggested that it was, in fact, Wotton. Oxford DNB, lx. 376. It is not clear whether that person was Wotton, but the latter ceased attending Anglican services in the last years of his life.122 H. Foley, Recs. of the English Province of the Soc. of Jesus, vii. 1119-20.

In October 1619 Wotton’s patent was called in, partly because the alienation fines had now been farmed out as a whole and partly as an attempt to reduce Wotton’s share of the profits. The law officers reported on the patent in May 1620, recommending alterations, but no new grant was issued by the time Parliament was summoned at the end of the year and it was probably never renewed.123 CD 1621, vii. 465-6; CSP Dom. 1619-23, p. 148. In February 1621 Coke informed the committee for grievances of the lower House that the patent had been called in. CD 1621, iv. 81. In May 1620 Wotton surrendered the lord lieutenancy of Kent to Buckingham, who promptly resigned it to Lennox. Wotton had refused to hand over this position to Lennox himself, possibly out of hostility to Scottish courtiers in general, and possibly because Lennox was pro-French, for which perceived offence he had aroused the hatred of Wotton’s friend Northampton. Moreover, Wotton had personal grounds for disliking Lennox, who had attempted to interfere in Wotton’s surrender of the treasurership of the household.124 Add. 72253, f. 132.

In the elections to the third Jacobean Parliament, Wotton recommended Sir Roger Nevinson, who lived near Sandwich in Kent, to his friend the lord warden of the Cinque Ports, Edward La Zouche^*, 11th Lord Zouche. However, Zouche put Nevinson at the bottom of his list of candidates to be nominated if his first choices were elected elsewhere, and consequently Nevinson was not returned.125 CSP Dom. 1619-23, p. 192; HP Commons, 1604-29, ii. 516. Before the Easter recess Wotton attended only the first two sittings of the Parliament; when the House was called on 10 Feb. he was excused for ‘sickness’.126 LJ, iii. 14b. He appointed Northampton’s nephew, the disgraced former lord treasurer, Thomas Howard^*, 1st earl of Suffolk, as his proxy, despite having complained in January 1618 that Suffolk had ‘been adverse to him before’ (possibly because Suffolk’s wife had tried to interfere with Wotton’s attempt to sell his office to Carey).127 LJ, iii. 4b; Fortescue Pprs. 39. Wotton returned to the Lords on 17 Apr., the first sitting after Easter, and attended a further ten times before the summer adjournment. He received two committee appointments (out of a total of 74 or 75 established by the upper House before the summer recess), one to consider the informers bill and a second to consider the petition against Christopher Roper^*, 2nd Lord Teynham, another Kentish Catholic. On 24 May he was granted leave of absence, although he was in fact then in attendance for the first time since 30 April; he subsequently only attended the morning and afternoon sittings on 2 June. He did not attend after the session resumed in November, his absence being excused on the 22nd.128 LJ, iii. 75b, 102a, 130a, 165b.

Wotton still remained a member of the Privy Council, in which capacity he signed a pass in January 1622, but there is little evidence that he participated in its proceedings subsequently.129 APC, 1621-3, p. 119. Licensed to be absent from Parliament in 1624, he again gave his proxy to Suffolk.130 SO3/7, unfol. (31 Jan. 1624); LJ, iii. 214b. By then his Catholicism was widely known, as he was included in the Commons’ petition against recusant officeholders, in which it was said that neither he nor his wife attended church ‘and are justly suspected to affect the Roman religion’.131 LJ, iii. 394b. He was removed from the Council on the accession of Charles I in 1625, when he was again granted a dispensation from attending Parliament. On this occasion he entrusted his proxy to the lord chamberlain, William Herbert^*, 3rd earl of Pembroke. His choice of a firmly Protestant senior privy councillor suggests that he regarded his position as more vulnerable, now that he was no longer himself a member of the Council.132 SO3/8, unfol. (9 May 1625); Procs. 1625, p. 591.

A summons was prepared for Wotton to attend the new king’s coronation on 2 Feb. 1626, but apparently not sent, and he did not attend. He was again granted licence to be absent from the Parliament which started four days later, when he again gave his proxy to Pembroke.133 CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 560; Manner of the Coronation of King Charles the First ed. C. Wordsworth (Henry Bradshaw Soc. ii), p. l; Procs. 1626, i. 12. Presented by the Kent grand jury as a recusant at the assizes in March, he was subsequently indicted. According to a Catholic source, Wotton was by now effectively housebound by ill health. He nevertheless attended the assizes as required, carried in a sedan chair, where he ‘placed himself among the criminals’, although he was offered a seat beside the judge. He then ‘boldly and openly professed himself a Catholic, would willingly die for the cause, and regarded that day as the most precious of his life, in which he was allowed to profess Christ before men without a blush’. (The official record merely states that he pleaded not guilty.) Having apparently stated that ‘they know me not’ and, after listing his distinguished career, he said ‘I say no more’; he was not convicted.134 Cal. Assize Recs. Kent Indictments, Chas. I, 21-2; Foley, vii. 1119-20; A.J. Loomie, ‘Jacobean Crypto-Catholic: Lord Wotton’, Catholic Historical Review, liii. 342-3 (where the incident is misdated to 1624). Nevertheless, when the Commons drew up another petition against recusant officeholders in June he was described as ‘justly suspected for popery’.135 Procs. 1626, i. 211.

When the Forced loan was initiated in the autumn of 1626, Wotton complained to Secretary of State Lord Conway (Edward Conway^*, later 1st Viscount Conway). He promised to pay the unparliamentary levy, ‘though I must go in debt for procuring thereof’, but claimed that in the second subsidy voted by the 1625 Parliament, on which the Loan was based, his assessment had been increased from £200 to £300, even though his income had decreased by £1,000 a year, presumably through loss of office.136 SP16/39/36. However, his complaint was unavailing and in January 1627 he paid £300.137 E401/1386, rot. 50. When the third Caroline Parliament met in 1628, Wotton was again granted dispensation from attending, procured by the crypto-Catholic chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Richard Weston^* (subsequently 1st earl of Portland). However, he was described as absent without excuse when the House was called on 22 Mar., although his licence had been issued on the 13th. On 24 Mar. his proxy, which he granted to Henry Clifford, Lord Clifford, was delivered to the clerk.138 CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 15; SO3/9, unfol. Mar. 1628 ; Lords Procs. 1628, pp. 26-7, 87; LJ, iii. 685b (which makes clear that the proxy given to Clifford was from Wotton, not his son, who succeeded during the session).

Wotton made his will on 22 Aug. 1626, ‘hoping … to have remission of all my sins, by the only merits … of Christ Jesus’, and describing himself as a member of the ‘holy Catholic Church militant’. He gave an annuity to his brother Sir James, but made no mention of Sir Henry. He also bequeathed £50 to his ‘good friend’, Sir Thomas Culpepper^‡. He made his wife his executrix in respect of his ‘household stuff’, and his sole surviving son, Thomas^*, executor for the rest of his estate. Wotton died on 4 May 1628 at Boughton, where he was buried, as requested, with ‘no vain pomp or idle ostentation’, in the parish church ‘as near to the font (the place where I received my baptism) as conveniently may be’. In 1633 his widow was fined by High Commission for having had written in the inscription on his tomb that he had died ‘a true Catholic of the Roman Church’, and for removing the font to make space for his tomb.139 Kent Hist. and Lib. Cent. DCb/PRC31/93/W/1; C142/451/99; T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 227.