In 1540 he married Christian, daughter of Sir Richard Gresham, (twice Lord Mayor of London,) who was half-sister and co-heir of Sir Thomas Gresham, builder of the Royal Exchange. In the same year Sir John purchased the old Priory of the Black Canons of St. Augustine, near to Horningsham, county Wilts, with the adjoining lands, and he spent several years in improving and enlarging the estate.
In 1547, being then Secretary to the Duke of Somerset, he was knighted by that nobleman in the camp before Roxburgh, after the battle of Musselburgh and the siege of Leith.
When the Protector Somerset, to whom Sir John was much attached, was sent to the Tower, on being attainted, his Secretary was also imprisoned, and subjected to a heavy fine, but was soon released. In 1555 he obtained a grant of Kempsford, county Gloucester, and was appointed by the Lady Elizabeth (afterwards Queen) Comptroller of her Household, a post he ere long vacated, and went to live on his estate.
He sat in Parliament for county Wilts, for Bedwyn, and for Heytesbury. Now Sir John’s good fortune roused the jealousy of his neighbours, one of whom, an Earl and a Privy Councillor, caused him to be arraigned before the Council, upon the somewhat novel accusation of having amassed a large fortune. Perhaps the worshipful gentlemen were in hopes of discovering Sir John’s secret. The knight spake out boldly, and honestly, saying his wife’s fortune had laid a good foundation, which he had improved by industry and economy, and he wound up his defence by observing that his Lordship and the other gentlemen had now as good a mistress in the Queen as he had formerly had a master in the Duke of Somerset; and thus terminated the legal (?) inquiry into well-gotten wealth.
It was in 1567 that he began to build that noble structure, the glory, not only of the west, but of all England, respecting the architecture of which, so many pages of controversy have been written.
Both to John of Padua and John Thorpe (unless they be one and the same person) the designs for the house were attributed; but from documents lately discovered, the most probable solution of the mystery is, that Sir John made use of designs prepared many years before by his patron, the Duke of Somerset, for a house on his own estate; this would account for the name of the architect not being mentioned in the records of the building. Be this as it may, the fame of Longleat and its beauty reached the ears of Queen Elizabeth, and she resolved to judge for herself, even before its completion; and so Sir Henry Seymour (the Protector’s brother) told poor Sir John roundly, ‘that her Grace did not relish his seeming unwillingness to receive her, and making excuses of sicknesses and other letts to divert her from the country.’
Moreover, the said Sir Henry Seymour, and Lord Sussex, a personal friend of Sir John’s, were so good as to pacify the Queen, by assuring her, that the master of Longleat hurried on the building, mainly with the view of receiving his royal mistress. Thither therefore she repaired in 1574, in her progress from Bristol. After feasting the royal party in the most sumptuous manner, the good knight was rewarded for his unbounded hospitality by a message, through the Earl of Hertford (son of Protector Somerset), to the effect his illustrious guest had expressed ‘great liking for her entertainment in the west, especially at your house.’ Moreover, the Queen condescended, in conversation, to praise the charms of Longleat, an example that has not been lost on succeeding generations. Sir John finished the south and east fronts, and the interior from the hall to what was then called the Chapel Court. He had to his second wife, Dorothy, daughter to Sir William Wroughton of Broadhinton, county Wilts; he died in 1580, and by his own desire was buried by his first wife at Longbridge Deverill. Amidst all the persecutions of Mary’s reign, he was a staunch supporter of the Reformed Church.
No. 25.
SIR EGREMONT THYNNE.