Sir Andrew Corbet (1580–1637) of Moreton Corbet, Shropshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1629. A Puritan sympathiser, he at first supported the government but became an increasingly vocal opponent of King Charles I's policies and ministers.
Background and education He was the son of Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris (editors): History of Parliament Online: Members 1604–1629 – CORBET, Sir Andrew (1580–1637), of Moreton Corbet and Acton Reynell, Salop – Author: Simon Healy. Retrieved 18 September 2013. Sir Vincent Corbet (d.1623), of Moreton Corbet, by his wife Francesalso known as Francesca Humfreston, a daughter of William Humfreston of Humfreston in the parish of Albrighton, near Bridgnorth, in Shropshire.
Sir Vincent was the son of Sir Andrew Corbet (1522-1578) of Moreton Corbet. The Corbets traced their lineage and connection with Shropshire back to the Norman Conquest,John Burke "A General and heraldic dictionary of the peerage and baronetage Volume 1" and were important marcher lords in the Middle Ages. They emerged in the 16th century as Shropshire's leading gentry family in a county without resident aristocracy,Coulton, Barbara (2010): Regime and Religion: Shrewsbury 1400–1700, Logaston Press , p. 40 but were never ennobled.
The Corbets had reached the height of their power and influence under the first Sir Andrew, who died in 1578. He and his wife had six sons,P.W. Hasler (editor): History of Parliament Online: Members 1558–1603 – CORBET, Sir Andrew (1522–78) – Author: N. M. Fuidge. apparently assuring the succession and the continuing power of the dynasty. However, their eldest son, Robert Corbet, died of bubonic plague after less than five years as head of the family, leaving two daughters but no sons to succeed him.P. W. Hasler (editor): History of Parliament Online: Members 1558–1603 – CORBET, Robert (1542–83), of Moreton Corbet, Salop – Author: A. M. Mimardière. Retrieved September 2013. His heir, his brother, Richard Corbet was a spendthrift who left debts of about £6000 but no children.P. W. Hasler (editor): History of Parliament Online: Members 1558–1603 – CORBET, Richard (c1545-1606), of Moreton Corbet, Salop – Author: N. M. Fuidge. Vincent Corbet, the youngest and last surviving son inherited a difficult situation, which he strove to stabilise.
The second Andrew Corbet was baptised at Moreton Corbet on 28 August 1580, and was presumably born earlier the same month.
Andrew Corbet's prospects, as the heir of a sixth son, would not have seemed especially bright and he was given as full an education as possible to secure his future. He was educated first at Shrewsbury School, then famous for its blend of Calvinist and humanist education,Coulton (2010), p. 55. which involved extensive use of drama. His was the second generation of Corbets to attend the school, and his great-uncle Reginald Corbet, as recorder of Shrewsbury had played an important part in the agitation which led to its establishment, funded by property from the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Corbet then attended Oxford University. However, his college was not St John's, which had a particularly close link with his school, but Queen's, from which he matriculated on 20 June 1602. He was then given a legal education for two years at Lincoln's Inn.
Landowner Andrew's father, Vincent Corbet, had inherited vast estates when his brother Richard died in 1606: 12,600 acres in Shropshire, concentrated mainly between the county town and Market Drayton, on the north-western edge, as well as 7,000 acres in Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. However, there were major problems. Richard's debts were huge, and he left the new Elizabethan building at Moreton Corbet Castle, begun by Robert, still unfinished after a quarter century or more in construction. Although most of the estates were in fee tail male, preventing their dispersal, substantial lands were not. This meant that Robert Corbet's surviving daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Sir Henry Wallop could mount claims to them, and in some cases had already taken possession. Most pressing of all, Richard's widow, Judith Austin, a forceful woman, three-times-married and very wealthy, held large estates as her jointure. Worse still, Judith had potential claims on more, as the improvident Richard had made up her jointure in questionable ways, acknowledging as much in his rambling will.Augusta Elizabeth Brickdale Corbet (1914): The family of Corbet; its life and times, Volume 2, p.305 at Open Library, Internet Archive. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
Vincent came to an agreement with Wallop on Elizabeth's marriage settlement. The problem of Judith's future claims was neutralised by arranging the marriage of Andrew to Judith's eldest daughter, Elizabeth Boothby. The marriage settlement is dated 6 January 1607. Andrew and his wife settled at Acton Reynald Hall, to the west of Moreton Corbet. Vincent was knighted in July 1607 at GreenwichAugusta Elizabeth Brickdale Corbet (1914): The family of Corbet; its life and times, Volume 2, p.308 at Open Library, Internet Archive. Retrieved 12 September 2013. and went on to complete the new house at Moreton Corbet, although he had little public presence and was never a knight of the shire. Andrew was knighted on 25 August 1617.
Both Sir Vincent and Sir Andrew were broadly sympathetic to Puritanism, essentially a continuation of the Protestant creed the Corbets had long upheld during a period of increasing High Church dominance. A legend tells how Sir Vincent was unjustly cursed by Paul Holmyard, a Puritan preacher and one of his tenants, whom he had protected but who was finally arrested by the authorities. Sir Andrew gave a Latin oration at the reburial of Edward Burton of Longner Hall, near Emstrey, to the east of Shrewsbury. Burton had been denied burial in consecrated ground at St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury because of his Protestant beliefs – according to John Foxe, on the very day of Elizabeth I's coronation.John Foxe: Acts and Monuments (1583 edition), p. 1539 at The Acts and Monuments Online. Retrieved 2 October 2013. He was buried by his friends in his garden and his tomb required restoration by the early 17th century. (It is unclear when the reburial occurred. Augusta Corbet says it was when Andrew was a young man.Augusta Elizabeth Brickdale Corbet (1914): The family of Corbet; its life and times, Volume 2, p. 311 at Open Library, Internet Archive. Retrieved 12 September 2013. Barbara CoultonCoulton, Barbara (2010): Regime and Religion: Shrewsbury 1400–1700, Logaston Press , p. 47 and footnote 15 dates it to about 1614, when Corbet was lord lieutenant of the county, although he became deputy lieutenant only in 1624.)
Sir Vincent died in 1623 and was buried at Moreton Corbet on 9 March. Sir Andrew was his recognised heir and was able to take over a fairly consolidated group of estates, with little fear of legal challenge. An inquisition post mortem, held in 1624, listed the Shropshire properties passed on by Sir Vincent to Sir Andrew. Sir Vincent had been
The inquisition also revealed that Sir Vincent had taken the precaution of getting Judith Austin to recognise in writing that the reversion of her jointure properties in Buckinghamshire would be to his descendants. In practice, Sir Andrew was never to enjoy the rents of these lands, as Judith outlived him by three years. Sir Vincent still had considerable debts but he had taken steps to control them. His will explained that he had placed a tract of Shropshire lands centred on Acton Reynald in trust for 41 years so that the rents could be devoted to debt repayments. Sir Andrew was appointed his executor.
Sir Andrew had already been appointed to posts considered appropriate to reliable members of the gentry. He was a justice of the Peace for Shropshire from 1618 until his death. He was commissioner for the subsidy, administering central government taxation, in 1621–22, and again after he succeeded his father in 1624–25 and 1628. With his succession came a series of important posts. In 1624 he was appointed to the council in Wales and the Marches, which still held decisive power in much of Wales and the border counties of England: the council had been the main theatre of action of his famous grandfather, the first Sir Andrew Corbet. In the same year, Corbet was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Shropshire, which at that time meant deputising locally for the president of the council in the Marches. A major landowner still in Oxfordshire, as well as a trained lawyer, Corbet was made Commissioner of Oyer and Terminer for the county in 1625, a position of great importance in managing the judicial system which he held for the rest of his life.
Parliamentary career
Corbet was returned as member of parliament for Shropshire three times: in 1624, 1625 and, after an interlude during the 1626 Parliament, again in 1628. On each occasion he was elected as second in order of precedence to Richard Newport. Shropshire's gentry always returned their own kind to parliament, and always by agreement arrived at before the formal election. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris (editors): History of Parliament Online: Constituencies 1604–1629 – Shropshire – Author: Simon Healy. Retrieved 18 September 2013. There was apparently an informal agreement not to return the same members twice consecutively.
The parliament of 1624–1625 The parliament called in 1624, the fourth of James I's reign, was known as the Happy Parliament because it appeared initially that king and his parliament had at last found a degree of common ground in hostility to Spain. However, it soon fell to the mutual suspicion and hostility that had characterised relations between king and parliament throughout the reign. There were two sessions: the first from 19 February 1624 to 24 May 1624, the other from 2 November 1624 to 16 February 1625. The king died on 27 March 1625 and the parliament was immediately dissolved.
Corbet's contribution to the parliament was not great. He was appointed to two committees, one of them on a bill to regulate heralds' fees. This was a live issue in Shropshire, as the county had received its last heraldic visitation only the year before. The heralds recorded pedigree charts and armorial bearings of gentry and noble families. The fees for registering the pedigrees of gentry families were fairly modest: a Gentleman 25 shillings, an Esquire 35s. a Knight or Baronet 55s. were typical.George Grazebrook and John Paul Rylands (editors), 1889: The visitation of Shropshire, taken in the year 1623 A-J only by Robert Tresswell, Somerset Herald, and Augustine Vincent, Rouge Croix Pursuivant of arms; marshals and deputies to William Camden, Clarenceux king of arms. With additions from the pedigrees of Shropshire gentry taken by the heralds in the years 1569 and 1584, and other sources. Introduction, Page 21. However, the registration of newly recognised armorial bearings was much more costly – about £20. Shropshire was a gentry dominated county and the number of families wishing to present themselves as gentlefolk was increasing rapidly. Those registered as "of Shrewsbury" had risen from 4 in 1569 to 10 in 1584 and 44 in 1623. The government was invariably insolvent and there was a widespread fear that it was manipulating the honours system to generate funds. Corbet was also sent to a conference with the Lords on a bill to limit legal actions.