Ralph Hopton (died 1571)

Sir Ralph Hopton (1509/1510 – 14 December 1571), of Witham, Somerset, was an English courtier and politician. He was the son of a member of the Hopton family (possibly, but not certainly, of Sir Arthur Hopton (1488-1555) of Cockfield Hall) and Agnes Haines.[1]

In younger life a servant of Thomas Cromwell, in 1540 he was granted lease of the demesne lands of Ayshbury in Berkshire, a grange of Glastonbury Abbey which had been in dispute with the Bishop of Sarum.[2] He became (knight) marshal of the Household from 1542.[3] Witham Charterhouse, for grant in fee of the reversion of which (with its rents, site, lands and sundry associated tithes) he paid £573 in 1544,[4] was the site of the earliest Carthusian priory in England.[5] He was knighted in 1545.[6] In 1549 he delivered the letters from Sir John Russell and William Herbert showing their support for Warwick against Lord Protector Somerset.[7]

He was surveyor for the Court of Augmentations for Somerset in 1550-1554, and built up a sizeable estate of former monastic property in that county. He continued his offices for the Exchequer from 1554 until his death. He was a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Somerset in March 1553, October 1553 and 1555. He continued as Knight Marshal of the Household to 1556, when he temporarily resigned the position, but resumed it alone from 1558 to 1560. He sat again in parliament, for Heytesbury, in 1559.[8] From that time he continued as Knight Marshal jointly with his kinsman Robert Hopton until his death in 1571.

He was kinsman of the half-blood to Owen Hopton, Robert Hopton (died 1590) and Arthur Hopton (died 1607). He married Dorothy Willoughby, sister of William Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby of Parham. Her niece Rachel Hall, daughter of Edmund Hall of Greatford in Lincolnshire, was brought up under the supervision of Sir Ralph, who arranged her marriage to Arthur Hopton and bestowed upon them the remainder of most of his lands in tail male in 1557. His will left the residue to his wife.[9] At Ralph's death and inquisition post mortem,[10] his heir-at-law was however found to be his uncle William Haines, by then an octogenarian.

References
  1. R. Virgoe, 'Hopton, Sir Ralph (1509/10-71), of Witham, Som.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 (from Boydell and Brewer 1982), History of Parliament Online.
  2. '733. Grants in May 1540, no. 46', in J. Gairdner and R.H. Brodie (eds), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 15: 1540 (HMSO, London 1896), p. 346; E. Ashmole, ed. Dr. Rawlinson, The Antiquities of Berkshire, 3 vols (W, Mears and J. Hooke, London 1723), I, pp. c-ciii (Internet Archive).
  3. '714.Grants in August 1542, no. 20', in 'Henry VIII: August 1542, 26-31', in J. Gairdner and R.H. Brodie (eds), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 17: 1542 (HMSO, London 1900), p. 400 (British History Online).
  4. 'Grants in July 1544, no. 74', in 'Henry VIII: July 1544, 26-31', in J. Gairdner and R.H. Brodie (eds), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 19 Part 1: January-July 1544 (HMSO, London 1903), p. 625 (British History Online).
  5. 'Houses of Carthusian monks: The priory of Witham', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Somerset, Vol. 2 (V.C.H., London 1911), pp. 123-28 (British History Online).
  6. W.A. Shaw, The Knights of England: A Complete Record from the Earliest Time 2 vols, for the Central Chancery for the Orders of Knighthood, St James's Palace (Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906), II, p. 57 (Hathi Trust).
  7. N. Pocock (ed.), Troubles Connected with the Prayer Book of 1549, Camden Society, New Series XXXVII (1884), pp. 112-13 (Internet Archive).
  8. R. Virgoe, 'Hopton, Sir Ralph (c.1510-71), of Witham Friary, Som.', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (from Boydell and Brewer 1981), History of Parliament Online.
  9. Will of Sir Raphe Hopton of Witham, Somerset (P.C.C. 1572, Daper quire).
  10. The National Archives (UK), Inquisition post mortem: Hopton, Ralph, knight: Somerset, ref. C 142/162/140 (Discovery Catalogue).


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