Richard Rich 1st Baron Rich of Leez [2710]

   FamilySearch ID: LC5P-HB2.

  General Notes:

Acceded: 26 Feb 1548

Born 1496/97, son of John Rich of Penton Mewsey, Hants by Agnes (DNB has him as the son of Richard Rich and Joan Dingley). Educated Camb.; M. Templ e, adm. ?5 Feb 1516. Married by May 1536, Elizabeth, dau. of William Gynk es or Jenkins of London. Suc. family ?1509. Kntd. 12 Jun 1536; cr. Baron R ich 16 Feb 1547. Master of revels, M. Temple 1516, butler 1519-20, Autu mn reader 1529. J.p. Essex, Herts. 1528-d., member, council of 15th Ea rl of Oxford by 1529; commr. subsidy, London 1540, relief, Essex 1550, goo ds of churches and fraternities 1553; other commissions 1529-d.; cle rk of recognizances 22 Mar 1532-7 Dec 1548; attorney-gen. for Wales 13 M ay 1532-28 Jun 1558; dep. chief steward, duchy of Lancaster, south part s, 1532-6; recorder, Colchester 30 Sep 1532-44; solicitor-gen. 10 Oct 1533 -13 Apr 1536; chirographer, ct. common pleas 27 Jul 1535-3 Jul 1537; surve yor of the liveries 20 Apr 1536-14 Mar 1537; chancellor, ct. augmentatio ns 24 Apr. 1536-24 Apr 1544, jt. (with Sir Edward North) chancellor 24 Apr -1 Jul 1544; groom, privy chamber in 1539; PC by Aug 1540-Nov. 1558; treas urer, French war 1 May-Dec 1544; bailiff, manor of Northwold May 1546; l d. chancellor 23 Oct 1547-21 Dec 1551; trier of petitions in the Lords Par lts. of Oct 1553, Nov 1554, 1559, 1563; chief steward, honor of Raylei gh 4 Jul 1558.

Richard Rich was born at Basingstoke, Hampshire. A tradition deriving fr om Stow links him with a family prominent in the affairs of London a nd of the Mercers' Company during the 15th century, but the genealogies il lustrating this line of descent date from the 17th century and contain num erous variations and some errors. He was the son of one John Rich of Pent on Mewsey, who in 1509 left a house in Islington, Middlesex, to a son Rich ard, on condition that he was obedient to his mother. When during the tri al of John Philpot, the Edwardian archdeacon of Winchester, Philpot stat ed that he was a son of Sir Peter Philpot of Hampshire, Rich remarked th at Sir Peter was his near kinsman, wherefore he was the more sorry.

Like many of his contemporaries in the service of the crown, Rich owed h is initial advancement to his legal training. He is probably to be identif ied with one 'Master Shreche' who entered the Middle Temple in Feb 151 6; by 1529 he was sufficiently advanced to be chosen Autumn reader. He fir st tried to establish himself in public life by seeking office in the ci ty of London, but he lost the election to the common sergeantship in 15 26 to the crown's nominee, William Walsingham, although he was promised t he office at the next vacancy. Two years later he sought to bring himse lf to the attention of Wolsey by expressing interest in the chancellor's p roposed reform of the common law; again he failed to secure an office, alt hough his letter to Wolsey may have influenced his appointment to the Ess ex and Hertfordshire commissions of the peace in Dec 1528.

Rich's fellow-Member at Colchester, John Rainsford, another lawyer, owed h is nomination to the Earl of Oxford; also Rich owed his return for Colches ter to John De Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, of whose council he was a membe r. However, as another servant of the Earl's, Richard Anthony, had alrea dy been elected by the time that Oxford preferred Rich for the seat, whi ch Anthony then resigned, it is probable that the Earl had yielded to pers uasion to make the change, although from what quarter can only be guesse d: one of Rich's friends, Thomas Audley, had already been designated as Sp eaker and chosen knight of the shire, and he could well have been the inte rmediary in Rich's favour. Three years later Audley, now chancellor, may h ave helped Rich to obtain his first important office, that of solicitor-ge neral. In this capacity Rich followed Audley into the House of Lords a nd on 20 Dec 1534 a warrant was issued to pay him £20 for his attendance t here. He has been shown to have shared in the drafting of several bills pa ssed during this Parliament, among them those forbidding appeals to Rom e, dissolving the lesser monasteries and establishing the court of augment ations. Ten days after the dissolution of Parliament on 14 Apr 1536 he w as appointed first chancellor of augmentations, a post for which he was pr obably in mind when it was created: his occupancy of it was to move the Fr ench ambassador Marillac to call Rich 'the most wretched creature ... t he first inventor of the destruction of the abbeys and monasteries [and] t he general confiscation of church property', a stigma which has continu ed to tarnish his memory.

Still greater obloquy attaches to Rich's part in the state trials of the se years. As solicitor-general he had to prosecute those who denied the va lidity of King Henry VIII's second marriage or the royal supremacy. He pre pared the indictment against the Nun of Kent and her associates in 1533, a nd in the following year he took part in the examination of the prio rs of Bevell in Nottinghamshire and of the Charterhouse in Axholme, Lincol nshire, who refused to accept the King as Supreme Head. He also help ed to examine Bishop Fisher, but was probably not responsible for the unsc rupulous tactics ascribed to him in Hall's 'Life' of the bishop. It was, h owever, Rich's testimony which was the gravamen of the indictment again st Sir Thomas More and his evidence at the trial which was decisive in sec uring a conviction: in Roper's account More retaliated by denouncing Ri ch as a perjurer, and for good measure as an idler and a gambler, epithe ts which the circumstances of their origin have helped to make synonymo us with Rich's name. By contrast, his scarcely less decisive part in the c ondemnation of Cromwell five years later is seldom held against him.

It was a different kind of demonstration of his subservience to the cro wn that Rich gave in the Parliament of 1536, to which he was probably retu rned as one of the knights for Essex. Asked to choose a Speaker by the sec ond day of the Parliament, the Commons had to beg for more time before dec iding on Rich on the third day: whether this means that his election encou ntered opposition we cannot tell. His opening oration compared the Ki ng to Solomon for prudence and justice, to Samson for strength and braver y, and to Absalom for beauty. Equally extravagant was his concluding addre ss likening the King's care for his subjects to the sun's influence upon t he world. Next to nothing is known about his part in the preparation and m anagement of the legislative programme, but Bishop Gardiner later recall ed that he and Rich had advised on the drafting of a bill enacted giving a uthority to such as should succeed to the crown of the realm (28 Hen. VII I, c.17). After the dissolution Rich was paid the customary fee of £1 00 as Speaker.

Rich was returned to the Parliaments of 1539 and 1545 as senior knight f or Essex, with Sir Thomas Darcy as his junior colleague. Darcy, who had ma rried a daughter of the Earl of Oxford, had probably first entered the Com mons at a by-election following the death of Thomas Bonham in 1532 and h ad thus almost certainly been Rich's fellow-knight at the Parliament of 15 36. During the Parliament of 1539 Rich obtained a private Act (31 Hen. VII I, c.23) to assure him certain lands and in the last session signed anoth er (32 Hen. VIII, c.77) concerning the King and Sir Thomas Wyatt. Althou gh no indenture survives to furnish the names of the Essex knights in 154 2, Rich and Darcy were doubtless returned again; Rich's signature appea rs at the foot of four Acts, all passed during its final session, for exch anges of lands between the King and several of his subjects, and he bo re a message from the Commons on 4 Feb 1544 to the Lords for a conferen ce on the King's style.

By 1540, when the last monastic houses had been dissolved, Rich was presid ing over the largest of the revenue courts and was, consequently, an impor tant member of the Privy Council. An able administrator, he acquiesc ed in the policy of alienating land to meet the financial needs of the cro wn which began with a commission to Cromwell and Rich in 1539 to sell lan ds to the annual value of £6,000. During his chancellorship of the augment ations Rich was able to build up a considerable estate in Essex, chiefly t hrough purchase; his principal gift, made by the King in 1536, was the sma ll priory at Leighs, which Rich shortly rebuilt, and four other small mano rs worth £26 a year. As chancellor Rich had to defend himself against seve ral charges of corruption before the King and Privy Council, and when und er Mary the court was merged with the Exchequer further accusations were b rought against him of faulty drafting of indentures in exchanges of land a nd in sales of wood and lead. None of these attacks issued in formal prose cution.

In his final months at the augmentations Rich joined Sir Thomas Wriothesl ey in mobilizing financial resources for the forthcoming French campaign a nd on 1 May 1544 he became treasurer for the French war. He crossed the Ch annel in Jul and for five months was in charge of pay, supplies and transp ort. His final account does not seem to survive, but a memorandum puts h is outgoings from 1 May to 18 Oct 1544 as £424,692, a figure greatly in ex cess of his own and Wriothesley's forecast of the previous spring. The Ki ng 'marvelled' at several of the discrepancies and it may not have been il lness alone which caused Rich's resignation and return in Nov. For the la st three years of the reign he held no major appointment but he continu ed his association with the war effort, serving on special commissions f or meeting its costs and for examining the royal revenues.

As the reign drew to its close Rich became increasingly identified with t he conservative faction in the Privy Council. In 1546 he was involved in E dmund Bonner's attempt to put down heresy in the diocese of London, especi ally in Rich's adopted county of Essex, and according to Foxe it was Wriot hesley and Rich who racked Anne Askew in order to discover her sympathise rs at court. Anne Askew stated that the Chancellor Wriothesley and Rich sc rewed the rack at her torture with their own hands. Yet he remained on go od terms with Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, who at one stage recommend ed him for an appointment at Boulogne. He also connived at the destructi on of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and his son Henry, Earl of Surre y, being one of the Councillors deputed to examine the Duke. Henry VIII ap pointed him to be an assistant to the execution of his will and bequeath ed him £200 for his pains.

On the accession of Edward VI Rich was created a baron. He supported the a ssumption of the Protectorship by Hertford, now Duke of Somerset and Prote ctor of the Realm, and helped to engineer the removal of Wriothesley fr om the chancellorship. He himself was not the Protector's immediate choi ce to hold the great seal, for William Paulet, Baron St. John, succeeded W riothesley in Mar 1547, but in Oct, before the opening of the first Edward ian Parliament, he became chancellor. In this capacity he was instrument al in securing the passage of Somerset's legislation during the first sess ion. The bill repealing the Treason Acts of Henry VIII was committed to h im after its first reading in the House of Lords and again after the fif th reading when he annexed certain provisos to it; when this bill was reje cted by the Commons Rich was a member of the committee of both Houses whi ch discussed the new bill introduced there. During the same session an A ct was passed for the assurance of certain lands to Rich and Sir William S helley (I Edw. VI, no. 13). Both membranes of the Act for the King's gener al pardon were signed by Rich and six other Privy Councillors.

At first Rich put the power and dignity of the chancellorship behind the C ouncil's policy of gradual Reformation. He ordered the bishops to adopt t he new rite ordained by the Prayer Book of 1549 and commanded the justic es to ensure the conformity of lay people. He also take part in confirm ed the sentences of deprivation passed against Bonner and Gardiner, a nd in the harsh treatment accorded to the Princess Mary. Possibly this har shness was exaggerated, for Mary on her accession showed no ill-will to Ri ch. He retired from the chancellorship on the ground of ill-health in t he close of 1551, at the time of the final breach between Northumberland a nd Somerset. An enemy of religious extremism, he suppressed Protestant con venticles in Essex; in 1551 he was a reluctant witness at the trial of Gar diner. Although he spent considerable time presiding over Chancery in pers on, he could not avoid the factional strife within the Council. He took t he formal lead in prosecuting Admiral Seymour, and in the coup d'etat of O ct 1549 he joined the Councillors against the Protector and used his go od relations with the mayor and aldermen of London to win their suppor t: a contemporary witness also judged that Rich's use of letters under t he great seal to countermand the Protector's appeals for assistance to she riffs and justices was decisive in securing the Council's victory. His sig nature is to be found on four Acts, including one for the fine and rans om of Somerset, passed during the third session of Parliament in the autu mn of 1549.

Rich did not support John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, in his political manoeu vring during 1551. He sealed the warrants for the arrest and trial of Some rset and, when he fell ill, established a commission to hear causes in Cha ncery in his absence. The illness may have been genuine but it was also ti mely in that Rich retained office while avoiding the final conflict betwe en Somerset and Warwick. Yet it was not enough to save him. Following a ru mour that Somerset, taught by the experience of 1549, had attempted to obt ain the great seal, Rich was visited on 31 Dec at his house in Smithfie ld by Dudley, newly created Duke of Northumberland, and had the seal tak en from him. There is an improbable story to the effect that Rich warned S omerset of his danger in the Tower and that the letter was delivered by mi stake to the Duke of Norfolk, who handed it to Northumberland. It w as to be almost a year before he attended another meeting of the Counci l, and he was never to hold great office again. One of his last acts as ch ancellor had been to sign a bill for the city of London which was to be en acted in the fourth session of Parliament, which met early in 1552.

Rich was one of those who subscribed on 21 Jun 1553 to the device settling the crown on Lady Jane Grey. Three days later he received the honor of Rayleigh, clearly a reward for his acquiescence and an attempt to en sure his support. It failed of its purpose, for on Edward VI's death he qu ickly declared for Mary. He was confirmed as a Privy Councillor and o ne of his first tasks was as a commissioner of claims for the Queen's coro nation. He appears to have attended Council meetings infrequently during M ary's reign, but even if in Parliament he opposed one ecclesiastical measu re probably for fear it would cost him his monastic properties, as a justi ce in Essex he enforced the Catholic restoration so ruthlessly that Stry pe denounced him as a 'severe persecutor'. With the 16th Earl of Oxford a nd other Essex notables he supervised the burning of heretics, and in 15 56 he served on the commission inquiring into the property of those who fl ed the realm on religious grounds. Rich's primary concern in breaking up c onventicles and suppressing heresy among the artisans of Essex seems to ha ve been for the preservation of order and the maintenance of authorit y: he was more interested in conformity than in theology. One of his daugh ters is said to have entered the revived Bridgettine house at Syon as a nu n. During the first session of the Parliament of 1558 the bill where by he granted the manor of Rayleigh to the Queen was debated and enact ed (4 and 5 Phil. and Mary, no. I I). He was obliged to surrender furth er properties but to compensate him for their loss he was soon afterwar ds made steward of the manor.Lord Rich took an active part in the restorat ion of the old religion in Essex under the new reign, and was one of the m ost active of persecutors. His reappearances in the privy council were ra re during Mary's reign. In Mary's reign he had founded a chaplaincy with p rovision for the singing of masses and dirges, and the ringing of bel ls in Felsted church. To this was added a Lenten allowance of herrin gs to the inhabitants of three parishes. These donations were transferr ed in 1564 to the foundation of a grammar-school at Felsted for instructio n, primarily for children born on the founder's manors, in Latin, Greek a nd divinity. The patronage of the school remained in the family of the fou nder until 1851.

Elizabeth Rich

By Hans Holbein

(possibly his first wife, nee Jenkins)



At the accession of Elizabeth, Rich accompanied her on her leisurely progr ess to London. The new Queen did not confirm his appointment as a Privy Co uncillor but she retained his services and he continued to be styled Counc illor until his death. It is possible that at one time he was nominat ed to the order of the Garter, for on a licence of Jan 1563 he is styled K G. In the new conditions he was able to repurchase several of the properti es surrendered earlier, notably St. Bartholomew's priory for which he h ad originally paid £1,605 in 1544 and which he had surrendered in Dec 15 55 without compensation. Excluded from authority at the centre Rich play ed a prominent role in Essex, where he had become a principal landowne r. He was an active justice of the peace and intervened in parliamentary e lections, as when in 1563 he sought unsuccessfully to have his heir Robe rt chosen a knight of the shire. In the Parliament of 1559 Rich voted agai nst the Act of Uniformity, and in 1566 he was a member of a delegation fr om both Houses which addressed the Queen on the subject of her marriage a nd the succession.

Rich died at Rochford on 12 Jun 1567 and was buried at Felstead on 8 Ju l. By the terms of his will, dated 12 May 1567 but with two codicils add ed nearly a month later, he devised most of his estates upon his survivi ng son Robert. His nine surviving daughters, all married, were to share t he movable goods. An illegitimate son Richard was also provided for, wi th a stipulation that he was to be brought up in the study of the common l aw. The will arranged for the establishment of an almshouse in Rochford, b ut Rich had already made his principal benefactions. On the death of his e ldest son Hugh he had founded a chantry at Felstead, licensed in Apr 155 5, and a perpetual Lenten herring dole for the poor of Felstead and neighb ouring parishes: in conformity with the Elizabethan settlement the chant ry was converted into a grammar school and an almshouse established.

Photo of house in photos

Sources:

M. E. Coyle, 'Sir Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich (1496-1576): a political bi og.' (Harvard Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1967)

E. McIntyre, 'Some aspects of the life and political career of Sir Richa rd Rich' (Aberdeen Univ. M. Litt. thesis, 1968).

http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/RichardRich(1BLeez).htm

http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/RICH.htm#Richard%20RICH%20(1°%20B.%20Rich%20of%20Leez)

See his Biography <http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/RichardRich(1BLeez).htm>

  Noted events in his life were:

• Acceded, 26 Feb 1548.

Richard married Elizabeth Jenkins [2709] [9NCD-HQT] [MRIN: 735], daughter of William Jenkins [42429] and Unknown, before May 1536.