Sir John Chamberlain (1559 - 1617), usually Chamberlayne, of Prestbury, Gloucestershire, was an English manorial lord who inherited the barony of Churchdown, Gloucestershire from his father, Sir Thomas Chamberlain (c.1504-1580), to whom it had been granted in 1552 for diplomatic services to the Crown.J. Lock, 'Chamberlain, Sir Thomas (1504-1580)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP 2004). The diplomat was not included in the old D.N.B.J.W. Greenwood, "Diplomacy and Politics c 1530 to c 1570 with Particular Reference to Sir Thomas Chamberlayne", Unpublished M Phil Dissertation (University of Leeds 1980). He served as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1596-97, and is provisionally identified as the John Chamberlain who sat in the parliaments of 1593 and 1597.N.M.S., 'Chamberlain, John (c.1560-1617), of Prestbury, Glos', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1981), History of Parliament Online. His family claimed direct descent from the High Chamberlains of Normandy, the Tankervilles,H. G., 'IX. Account of the several branches of the family of Chamberlayne', in Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, III (John Bowyer Nichols and Son, London 1836), pp. 95-98 (Google Books). but (despite gentrified lineage) his manorial lordships, which shaped his preoccupations and consumed his estate, were not deeply rooted in ancestral holdings.
Young life He was the elder son, and the armigerous heir, of the thrice-married diplomat Sir Thomas Chamberlain of Prestbury, Gloucestershire (died 1580)Will of Sir Thomas Chamberlaine of Prestbury (P.C.C. 1580, Arundell quire). by his second wife Joan, née Luddington, who had licence to marry in London on 10 October 1558. Joan, a step-daughter of Sir William Laxton, was the widow of alderman John Machell, citizen and Master Clothworker of London (died 12 August 1558),Will of John Machell, Alderman of St Peter Westcheap (P.C.C. 1558, Noodes quire), proved 10 October, see probate clauses showing Chamberlayne marriage, and Joan's renunciation of supervisorship.Sentence of John Machell, Alderman (P.C.C. 1568, Babington quire), a challenge brought by Chamberlayne to the supervisors of the 1558 will of John Machell. by whom she had five young children surviving.I. Cassidy, 'Chamberlain, Sir Thomas (c.1504-80), of Churchdown and Prestbury, Glos. and Cripplegate, London', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1981), History of Parliament Online. Owing to his father's diplomatic status, John Chamberlain had a distinguished baptism at St Benet's, Paul's Wharf (which was hung with cloth of Arras) on 27 October 1559, his godfathers being the Swedish prince John, Duke of Finland and Lord Robert Dudley, and his godmother the Marchioness of Northampton: a banquet followed of wafers, spice-bread and confits, with hippocras and muskadine wines.J.G. Nichols (ed.), The Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London, Camden Society (London 1848), Original Series Vol. XLII, p. 216 (Internet Archive).
Despite his father's long absences abroad, John had a younger brother Edmund Chamberlain (c. 1560), afterwards of Maugersbury, by Stow-on-the-Wold (died 1634), and a sister Theophila (c. 1563). There were also an elder and a younger half-brother, both named Thomas Chamberlain.'157. Chamberlayne, of Wickham, Oxfordshire', in T. Wotton, The Baronetage of England, 4 vols (London 1741), II, pp. 374-78 (Internet Archive); '120.', revised by E. Kimber and R. Johnson, 3 vols (G. Woodfall, etc., London 1771), I, pp. 492-95 (Internet Archive).C. Evans, 'Sir Thomas Chamberlayne and his wives and children', The Genealogist, vol. 3 (1982), pp. 154-60. John's birth-mother Joan died before May 1566, when his father obtained administration, during minority, of the affairs of their three children.'29 May 1566. Dame Joanna Chamberleyne, als. Machell', in R.M. Glencross (ed.), Administrations in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, I: 1559-1571 (William Pollard & Co., Ltd., Exeter 1912), p. 69 (Internet Archive). Sir Thomas remarried in 1567 to Anne, widow and executrix of William Pyerson (citizen and Scrivener of the Court Letter, died 1566),Will of William Pyerson, Scrivenor of the Courte Letter of the City of London (P.C.C. 1566, Crymes and Morrison quire) (Discovery Catalogue). the daughter of William Karkeke,Will of William Carkeke [mis-written "Oarkeke"], Scrivener of the City of London (P.C.C. 1549, Populwell quire) (Discovery Catalogue). sister of Elizabeth the first wife of diplomat Sir Thomas Smith,J. Strype, Life of the Learned Sir Thomas Smith, Kt. (A. Roper, London 1698), p. 42 (Internet Archive). and half-sister of Sir Anthony Monck of Potheridge, Devon.See 'Carkeke family of Ermington and Monk family of Powderich', Notes & Queries, CXLVII, July–December 1924, pp. 423-24; Devon and Cornwall Notes & Queries, XV (1929). This lady, who brought four sons and three daughters from her former marriage, was John's stepmother from his age of eight years.
He matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1579, and was contemporary in the University with his brother Edmund, both going up at the same time. John married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Thynne (died 1580), a union planned by their fathers in the year in which they died.'Item 26. Letter of Sir Thomas Chamberlayne to Sir John Thynne, May 1580', in Longleat House Archives, "General correspondence of Sir John Thynne, 1573-1580", ref TH/VOL/IV, fol. 223 (Discovery Catalogue) The couple had no children.J. Burke and B. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England (Scott, Webster, and Geary, London 1838), pp. 105-06 (Internet Archive). The association with the Thynne family was clearly active in the 1580s, as the three Chamberlain brothers are found with them in an affray in Wiltshire in c.1589.The National Archives (UK), Star Chamber proceedings (1589-1590), Mervyn v Thynne, ref STAC 5/M3/19 (Discovery Catalogue).
Baronial and manorial lordships Churchdown and Prestbury The Barony of Churchdown, Gloucestershire, was granted to Sir John's father in 1552 in respect of his diplomatic services to Kings Henry VIII and Edward VI: it consisted of the several manors of Churchdown, Hucclecote, Norton (Bishop's Norton), Shurdington, Witcombe, Compton Abdale, Oddington, Condicote and North Cerney.Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Edward VI, IV: AD 1550-1553 (HMSO 1926), p. 357 (HathiTrust). See "Grant of Barony of Churchdown, 1552", in Gloucestershire Archives, ref. D1335/1 (Discovery Catalogue). The manor of Prestbury, a seat belonging to the Bishops of Hereford since before the Norman conquest, was taken by Queen Elizabeth I in 1560, and was leased to Sir Thomas Chamberlain in 1564.'Prestbury: Manors and other estates', in C.R. Elrington (ed.), A History of the County of Gloucester, Vol. 8 (VCH, London 1968), p. 72 (British History Online). See also Prestbury Park at notes 15 and 16. In 1574, the lease being granted to Robert, Earl of Leicester (John's godfather), the site of the actual manor-house, with its appurtenances and reversion, became detached from its lands and remained with Sir Thomas: Chamberlain then (October 1575) obtained the lifetime Keepership of Prestbury Park for himself and his son John,'2942. 24 Oct. 1575', Calendar of Patent Rolls, Elizabeth I, VI: 1572-1575 (HMSO 1973), p. 481, no. 2942 (HathiTrust). See Gloucestershire Archives, ref. D621/T1 (Discovery catalogue). implying the intention of settled residence there.B. Elliott, 'The Manor mystery: the rise and decline of the house of the Bishops of Hereford at Prestbury', Cheltenham Local History Society Journal, vol 9 (1992-1993), pp 18-23. The large former deer park of the bishops of Hereford at Prestbury was by then somewhat decayed: the office was a jurisdiction, or franchise.'5. That a Forrest doth comprehend in it a Chase, a Parke, and a Warren', in J. Manwood, A Treatise and Discourse of the Lawes of the Forrest (Thomas Wight and Bonham Norton, Cum Privelegio, London 1598), p. 7 r & v (Internet Archive).
In 1549 Sir Thomas had purchased numerous properties around Gloucester jointly with Richard Pate'27 February 1549', Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward VI, II: 1548-1549 (HMSO 1924), pp. 260-66 (HathiTrust). (a commissioner to Kings Henry and Edward for surveying and valuing suppressed religious establishments in Gloucester and Bristol)'Gloucester. Recorders', in S. Rudder, A New History of Gloucestershire (Samuel Rudder, Cirencester 1779), p. 118 (Internet Archive). seizin of which they shortly conveyed to the Mayor and Burgesses of Gloucester.F.D. Price, 'The Commission for Ecclesiastical Causes for the Dioceses of Bristol and Gloucester, 1574', Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society LIX (1937), pp. 61-184 (Society's pdf), at pp. 67-68 and fn. 33.W.H. Stevenson (comp.), Calendar of the Records of the Corporation of Gloucester (John Bellows, Gloucester 1893), pp. 438-40, nos. 1243 and 1245 (Internet Archive). Chamberlain received the grant of the Churchdown barony to himself in 1552. Under Queen Mary, Pate appears as Recorder of Gloucester by 1556 and was confirmed in that important office by Elizabeth in 1561. Chamberlain having the lease of Prestbury in 1564 (where he soon ran into disputes over the tithes of Sevenhampton),The National Archives (UK), Chancery Proceedings, Chamberlayne v Wayneman, ref. C 3/41/86 and (Final decree, 1566) C 78/30/19 (Discovery Catalogue). View original Final decree at AALT, Images 0048 - 0051 (University of Houston, aalt.law.uh.edu). Pate became his Steward for the Churchdown barony and, as collector of the heriots and fines within those manors, he became embroiled in the tenants' disputes over the manorial customs. In particular it was complained that long-held heritable tenures were refused renewal, or that the fines payable on admittances were being inflated, and in 1569 Chamberlain confronted Pate in Star Chamber over the violent disruption of a Court Baron at Churchdown.The National Archives (UK), Star Chamber Proceedings, Chamberlain v Pate (1568-69), ref. STAC 5/C7/20 (Discovery Catalogue).
By 1580, when Sir Thomas died, Condicote and North Cerney were not mentioned in his will, and Compton Abdale had been mortgaged to his stepson William Pierson.Will of Sir Thomas Chamberlayne of Prestbury (P.C.C. 1580, Arundell quire). What was left of the barony, with the exception of Oddington, was bequeathed to John and his heirs male, together with lands at Parton (in Churchdown) and Upton St Leonards, and the manor-house at Prestbury, all with the reversions. John was to redeem Compton Abdale and convey it to his younger brother Edmund, who was given powers of entry upon Witcombe and Hucclecote for distraint in default of annuities owing and due to him. The third brother, Thomas, received Oddington. John and Edmund were about 21 and 20 when their father died, and had newly matriculated at Oxford;'Chamberlayn, (Sir) John, 1578/79', and 'Chamberlayn, Edward, of Gloucestershire, "mil. fil", 1578/79' [recte Edmund], in J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714, Early Series: Part I (Oxford 1891), p. 257 (Internet Archive). Thomas was about 13.
The coming generation