Nicholas Hare

He was born the eldest son of John Hare of Homersfield, Suffolk, educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and admitted to the Inner Temple in 1515. He had three sisters, who were married to MPs, and a brother, John Hare of Stow Bardolph, Norfolk.

He was MP for Downton, Wiltshire in 1529 and possibly Wiltshire in 1539 (when he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons), Lancaster in 1545 and Taunton in 1547. In 1539 the nunnery of Bruisyard was dissolved and assigned by Henry VIII to Sir Nicholas. He was knighted in May 1539 and eventually became Master of the Rolls (1553–1557).

In 1554 he presided at the trial of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, who had been accused of involvement in Wyatt's rebellion against the marriage of Queen Mary to Felipe of Spain.

Sir Nicholas died in Chancery Lane in 1557 and was buried in nearby Temple Church, commemorated in the south bay window of the new Inner Temple Hall.

Hare married Katherine, daughter and coheiress of Sir John Bassingbourne of Woodhall near Hatfield, Hertfordshire,[1] by his wife Audrey Cotton. Katherine Bassingbourne's paternal grandparents were Thomas Bassingbourne and his wife Katherine Say,[2] the daughter of Sir John Say and his wife Elizabeth Cheney, and the sister of Anne Say and Elizabeth Tilney.

He was an influential friend to Thomas Gawdy (d.1556), his brother-in-law, who married Anne Bassingbourne, the sister and fellow co-heiress of Katherine.[3][2]

History of Parliament writes that after Wolsey’s fall he seems to have come under the patronage of the 3rd Duke of Norfolk,[4] his wife's first cousin once removed.

Sir Nicholas Hare and Katherine Bassingbourne had three sons and three daughters. The second son was Robert Hare the antiquary.[1]

• History of Parliament Hare, Nicholas (by 1495–1557) of Bruisyard, Suffolk