William Dawtrey of Petworth, Sussex (Born ~1552)

11^th Great Grandfather – FFFMFFMFMFFFF¹

Sir Henry Dawtrey’s father was William Dawtrey of Petworth.

William Dawtrey was born in the early 1550s to William and Margaret (nee Roper) Dawtrey. I have not been able to find a record of his baptism as baptism registers only started sometime in the 1550s, Petworth parish starts in 1559. His mother Margaret was the granddaughter of Sir Thomas More, her father William Roper had married Sir Thomas’s favourite daughter Margaret (my dearest Meg).

The first reference to William I have been able to find is his admission to Lincoln’s Inn on 19^th April 1564². This seems young, as William would have been at most 12.

On 20^th Aug 1574³ William aquired a license to marry Dorothy Stonely, daughter of Richard Stonely. In the marriage license, William is referred to as “of Lincoln’s Inn”, while Dorothy is a Spinster of St. Botolph in Aldgate.

Richard Stoneley owned estates at Doddinghurst in Essex, and it is through Dorothy that the Dawtrey’s aquired their Essex estates. Richard was a Member of Parliament for Newton in Lancashire in 1571⁴. He ran into financial difficulties and lost a lot of his property by the time that he died. However some, at least, of the property in Doddinghurst did pass to his daughter Dorothy Dawtrey and from her to her descendants.

William and Dorothy had at least two children. As mentioned above, Henry, my 10^th great grandfather was baptised on 14^th June 1579 (Trinity Sunday) at Doddinghurst⁵ and Richard was baptised on 18^th October 1582 at Petworth⁶

I have been able to find a reference to William as an adult. In 1574, he sold his share of River’s Hall a manor in Boxted, Essex to John Ive⁷.

William died on 16^th October 1589. He was probably buried at St Dunstan’s Stepney in London as a monument to William was built in the chancel⁸.

Genero suo. Gvlielmo Dawtrey Quondam Lincolniensis Hospitii socio: Wilhelmi Dawtrei sus sexiæ. Armigeri filio et Hæredi, Viro ingenii acumine Mentis acie, et non Vulgari Municipalium Angliæ legum Scientia, Præcellenti: Richardus Stonley Armiger Hoc amoris et Pietatis simbolum posvit

Obiit XVI Octobris 1589

His widow Dorothy lived until at least 1600 as she was still alive when her father Richard died⁹. William apparently died intestate, but as his father was still alive he had not yet inherited the Dawtrey estates, which passed to his son Henry when his father died a couple of years later.

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