George Villiers (died 1606)

Sir George Villiers (c. 1544 – 4 January 1606) was an English knight and country gentleman. He was a High Sheriff of Leicestershire for the year 1591, and later was briefly a Knight of the Shire, a Member of Parliament representing the county of Leicestershire.

Portrait of George Villiers by William P. Sherlock

He was the father of James I's favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and of several other sons who became prominent at court, establishing the Villiers family at the heart of royal circles for several generations.

Family

George Villiers, born about 1544,[1] was the eldest son of William Villiers of Brooksby, Leicestershire, and Colett, widow of Richard Beaumont of Coleorton, Leicestershire, and daughter and heir of Richard Clarke of Willoughby, Warwickshire.[2] The Villiers family had been settled at Brooksby since at least 1235.[1]

Career

Villiers is said to have been a "prosperous sheep farmer".[2] He was High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1591, and was elected a Knight of the Shire for the county from 1604 until his death. He was knighted in 1593.[1]

Marriages and issue

Villiers married firstly Audrey Saunders (d.1587), the daughter and heir of William Saunders (d. 14 July 1582) of Harrington, Northamptonshire[1] and Frances Zouche, the daughter of William Zouche of Bulwick, Northamptonshire, son of John la Zouche, 7th Baron Zouche (c.1440-1527) of Harringworth,[3] who fought for Richard III at Bosworth,[4] by whom he had two sons and four daughters:[1]

Villiers married secondly, about 1590, his "beautiful but penniless first cousin by the half-blood", Mary Beaumont (c. 1570 – 1632), daughter of Anthony Beaumont of Glenfield, Leicestershire, with whom he had three sons and a daughter:[2]

Common ancestor of sixteen British Prime Ministers

According to Thomson,[11] Sir George is the ancestor of sixteen British prime ministers:

see also Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

Notes

  1. Thrush 2004.
  2. Handley 2004.
  3. Howard 1868, p. 159.
  4. Metcalfe 1887, p. 45.
  5. Waters 1878, pp. 588, 595.
  6. Bloomfield 1947, p. 64.
  7. Cokayne 1912, p. 229.
  8. Burke 1852, p. 42.
  9. Lundy 2017, pp. 10563–10564 cites Mosley & Mosley 1994, p. 50
  10. Bloomfield 1947, pp. 63–67.
  11. Thomson, Gerald Malcolm. The Prime Ministers - From Robert Walpole to Margaret Thatcher. New York: William Morrow (1981), p. xxii; ISBN 0-436-52045-1; accessed 8 April 2014.

References

Further reading

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