William West (abt. 1529 - 1595)

Born about 1529 in England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Strange) West — married before 1555 in England [uncertain]

Husband of Anne (Swift) Kemis — married after 1579 in England

Descendants

Died 30 Dec 1595 at about age 66 in Wherwell, Hampshire, England

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Biography

William West, Knt., 1st Lord La Warr (or De La Warr), was the son and heir of George West, Knt., and Elizabeth Morton.^[1][2][3] William was born before 1520 and succeeded his father in 1538^[3] (see Research Note, below).

Life

At some point, William was adopted as heir by his father's childless half-brother, the 9th and last Lord, Thomas West, "to the exclusion, apparently of the issue of that Lord's next brother, Sir Owen West".^[3][4] William, "being not content to stay until his uncle's natural death, prepared poison to dispatch [Sir Thomas] quickly".^[1][3] William was in the Tower by 1548 for his unsuccessful attempt to poison his uncle and, in 1549, Sir Thomas placed a private bill before Parliament to disinherit his nephew.^[5] As punishment, on 1 February 1549/50, William was disabled from all honours by Act of Parliament.^[1][3] Although he had been reinstated as heir by the time of his uncle's death in September 1554, William was unable to inherit the barony due to the 1550 act of Parliament.^[5]

In 1556, Sir Henry Dudley formulated a conspiracy against Queen Mary I, and tried to prove that she was ineligible to be Queen. In February 1556, Henry Peckham informed William and his cousin Edward Lewknor of the plot, and asked them to obtain a copy of King Henry VIII's will which could prove that Mary was ineligible for the crown. Lewknor sent the document to William, who gave it to Peckham.^[1] For his part in the conspiracy, William was found guilty of treason^[1] on 30 June 1556^[3] and was sentenced to death.^[5] William received a pardon in 1557 and soon after served at the Battle of St. Quintin in Picardy^[5] as Captain of the Army.^[1]

William was restored in blood on 10 April 1563^[3] by Elizabeth I^[5] and soon after presented himself to the church at Shepton Mallet, Somerset, as "William West, Esq., "called Lord La Ware"".^[1] He was joint Lieutenant of Sussex^[1] in November 1569, styled as "William West, Esquire".^[3] He was knighted by the Earl of Leicester on 5 February 1569/70 at Hampton Court and, on that same day, was created by patent "Baron Delaware",^[1][3] in a new creation of that title.^[5] William was summoned to Parliament from 15 September 1586 to 19 February 1591/2 by writs directed Willielmo West de la Warr Chl'r.^[1][3] He took his seat in the House of Lords as a junior baron,^[5] "in which place he sat until his death".^[3] Like his uncle, William served as the government's agent in Sussex and was, at times, in the position of lord lieutenant.^[5]

William was a protestant and was active in the prosecution of recusants for treason.^[5] In 1572, William sat as one of the peers at the trial of the Duke of Norfolk.^[3][5] After Norfolk was executed, William was "sent to the Queen of Scots to expostulate with her".^[3] In 1589, William sat on the Earl of Arundel's trial.^[3][5]

Marriages and Children

William married his first wife, Elizabeth Strange,^[5] before 1555. Elizabeth was daughter of Thomas Strange of Chesterton, Gloucestershire.^[1][3] They were the parents of two sons and three daughters:

• Thomas, Knt., 2nd Lord La Warr, born about 1556, died 24 March 1601/2, married Anne Knolles (or Knollys, Knowles) and had issue^[1][3]
• Capt William, Gent., of Dedisham, Sussex, immigrated to Virginia in 1610, where he was killed by Indians, dying unmarried^[1]
• Mary, wife of Richard Blunt (or Blount) with whom she had five daughters; Mary was the sole legatee and executrix of the 1610 will of her brother, William^[1]
• Jane, wife of Thomas Wenman,^[6] James Cressy, Thomas Tasburgh, and Ralph Sheldon, having issue by her first two husbands^[1]
• Elizabeth, died unmarried, her estate administered by her sister, Mary, in 1612^[1]

William's wife Elizabeth was living on 15 May 1579 (date of indenture), but her date of death is unknown.^[1] William married second Anne Swift, widow of Thomas Oliver (or Olver), Esq., and daughter of Henry Swift, Esq., of Andover, Hampshire^[5] and his wife Elizabeth.^[1][3]

Death

William West died at Wherwell, Hampshire on 30 December 1595,^[1][5] aged over 75.^[3] William's Inquisition Post Mortem was held 6 April 1596.^[3] Administration of his estate was granted 12 February 1600/1 to Richard Nestfield, Gent., of Wherwell.^[1][3] William was succeeded by his son, Thomas, who received the precedency within the peerage that had belonged to the ancient Barony of la Warre before his father forfeited it.^[5][7]

His widow, Anne, remarried to Richard Kemis (or Kemish)^[3] and had no issue. Anne died before 2 July 1633 and was buried in the church of Andover, Hampshire, near her mother and third husband.^[1]

Research Notes

Date of Birth

Cokayne states that William was born before 1520.^[3] Richardson does not give a date of birth, but states that William's parents married "about 1 July 1529 (date of grant)".^[1] ODNB, in it's biography of his uncle, Sir Thomas West, gives William's birth as "c. 1519".^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City: the author, 2013), vol. V, pages 352-353 WEST 14.
2. ↑ Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), vol. IV, pages 323-325 WEST 14.
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21} George Edward Cokayne and Vicary Gibbs, eds. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Vol. IV: Dacre - Dysart, 2nd edition. (London, 1916). Online at Archive.org, pages 159-160.
4. ↑ Owen West died without male heirs in 1551.
5. ↑ ^{5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15} Michael Riordan. "West, Thomas, eighth Baron West and ninth Baron de la Warr (1472–1554), soldier and courtier" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 3 Jan 2008. Online with subscription at ODNB, accessed 14 June 2020.
6. ↑ Monumental inscription for Jane's son Richard Wenman, Twyford, Buckinghamshire: image viewable here and transcript at Find A Grave: Memorial #185952926
7. ↑ George Edward Cokayne and Geoffrey White ed. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Vol. XII part 2: Tracton to Zouche, 2nd edition. (1916). Online at FamilySearch, page 522: Thomas West.

• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. 2nd edition. Salt Lake City: the author, 2011. See also WikiTree's source page for Magna Carta Ancestry.
• Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Salt Lake City: the author, 2013. See also WikiTree's source page for Royal Ancestry.

See also:

• Wikipedia: William West, 1st Baron De La Warr.
• Pedigrees from the Visitation of Hampshire, vol. 64, (London, 1913). Online at Archive.org, page 59: West, Lord Delaware.
• Stone, Letta Brock. The West Family Register. (Washington, DC: W F Roberts Co., 1928). Online at HathiTrust, page 32.
• Browning, Charles Henry. Some Colonial Dames of Royal Descent. (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1969). Online at Ancestry.com, page 195 Pedigree XLVII
• Ramsburgh, Edith Roberts. "A Page in Heraldry" in Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, Vol. 57, No. 9, Whole No. 373, (The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Sep 1923). Online at Archive.org, page 549.

Acknowledgements

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Magna Carta Project

This profile was re-reviewed and approved for the Magna Carta Project 14 June 2020 by Thiessen-117.

William West is in trails badged by the Magna Carta Project in May 2015 (and re-reviewed in June 2020) from the West Gateways Gateway Ancestors (Thomas West, Francis West Esq., John West, Nathaniel West, Elizabeth (West) Saltonstall, Anne Humphrey and Herbert Pelham) to Magna Carta Surety Barons William de Mowbray, Gilbert de Clare, Richard de Clare, John de Lacy, Saher de Quincy, Hugh le Bigod and Roger Bigod. The trails are outlined in the Magna Carta Trails section on John West's profile (see also Humphrey and Pelham trails).

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".