Anthony Hussey

Anthony Hussey (c. 1496 – 1560), was an English politician and Judge of the High Court of Admiralty for England and Wales]] between 1542 and 1549.[1]

Anthony Hussey
Judge of the Admiralty Court of England and Wales
In office
1542–1549
Nominated byLord High Admiral of England
Appointed byHenry VIII of England
Preceded byJohn Tregonwell
Succeeded byRichard Lyell
Personal details
Bornc. 1496
West Sussex
Died1560
London
Resting placeSt Martin's Church, Ludgate
Spouse(s)Catherine Webbe
FatherJohn Hussey
Residence
EducationOxford University

Early life

Hussey was born in London in either 1496 or 1497, the son of a John Hussey of Slinfold in West Sussex.[2] He may have attended Oxford University[2] but, if so, he departed without obtaining an academic degree.[3] Nonetheless, in 1525 he secured employment in the junior legal role of notary public to the Diocese of London. A year later he married Catherine Webbe of Dedham, Essex, with whom he was to have two children.[2][lower-alpha 1]

Ecclesiastical positions

Hussey's career subsequently pursued dual paths of ecclesiastical advancement and promotions through the law. He was prominent in religious affairs during the upheavals created by the English Reformation and in 1530 was one of 14 men indicted for breaching laws against advocating Papal supremacy over the English church. Pardoned for this offence in 1531, he was restored to good graces as an Anglican and in 1533 was named as the next rector of the parish of Bradninch in Devon.[2] In 1536 his aptitude for the law was recognised via appointment as chief registrar to the ecclesiastical court overseen by England's most senior cleric, the Archbishop of Canterbury. As notary he read the King's letters for the annulling of his marriage to Anne of Cleves before the Convocation at Westminster in July 1540.[4] Additional ecclesiastical positions followed, including appointment as proctor of the Arches Court in 1542 and registrar to the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral from 1546.[2]

The Admiralty Court

In 1536 Hussey also began sitting as a deputy judge of the Admiralty Court during absences of his superior, Judge John Tregonwell. Hussey was formally appointed to the Admiralty Court in around 1542, after Tregonwell's resignation to become Dean of Wells Cathedral. On his appointment, Hussey became the only Admiralty Court judge not to have held any formal legal qualifications.[3]

His term as Admiralty Court judge continued until 1549, when he was replaced by Richard Lyell. At around this time he moved to Antwerp where he held an informal position as shipping agent handling trade in the name of Queen Mary.[3] He returned to England before 1553 and was elected in October of that year as Member (MP) of the English constituency of Horsham. In February 1556 he was constituted one of the four founding Consuls (together with Sir William Garrard, Sir George Barne and John Southcot) of the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands (the Muscovy Company), under its Governor Sebastian Cabot.[5] In 1558 he was elected as Member for New Shoreham, a constituency that had previously been represented by his cousin Sir Henry Hussey.[2]

Hussey died in June 1560, and was buried at St Martin, Ludgate in a heraldic funeral overseen by Clarenceux King of Arms and Somerset Herald. Chief mourners were his son Dr Laurence Hussey, Sir William Garrard, Sir William Chester, Thomas Lodge (then Sheriff), Thomas Argall and Dr. Bull.[6] Hussey's will shows his closeness to Chester, before whom his final codicil was declared in 1560. His executors were Thomas Lodge and Benjamin Gonson.[7]

Hussey's will confusingly styles him as 'governor of the English nation', no doubt referring to his governance of English mercantile affairs abroad. In the 1626 monumental inscription to his granddaughter Katherine (daughter of Laurence Hussey and wife of William Jordan), at Charlwood church, Surrey, Anthony Hussey is described as "Agent. propter Reginam Angliae infra Germania, et in Negotiis Mercatorie Angliae apud Belgas et Muscovitas Prefectus." (Agent for the Queen of England within Germany, and Consul in the Mercantile Relations of England with the Belgians and Muscovites.)[8]

Notes
  1. Hussey's children were a son, Laurence Hussey, who took the degree of Doctor of Civil Laws in Bologna; and a daughter, Ursula, who became the wife of the Surveyor of the Navy Benjamin Gonson.[2]

References
  1. Not in D.N.B. Various references for Hussey are listed in 'Hussey, Anthony' in T.F. Mayer and C.B. Walters, The Correspondence of Reginald Pole. 4: A biographical companion: the British Isles, St Andrews Studies in Reformation History (Ashgate Publishing, 2008), p. 291-93.
  2. R.J.W. Swales (1982). "'Hussey, Anthony (1496/97-1560), of London', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1509–1558". United Kingdom: Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  3. Senior, William (1927). "The Judges of the High Court of Admiralty". The Mariner's Mirror. United Kingdom: Society for Nautical Research. 13 (4): 335. doi:10.1080/00253359.1927.10655437.
  4. 'Processus nullitatis matrimonii', D. Wilkins (ed.), Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, 4 Vols (R. Gosling, London 1737), III, p. 851 (Hathi Trust).
  5. E. Goldsmid (ed.), The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, collected by Richard Hakluyt, Preacher, Vol. III, North-Eastern Europe and Adjacent Countries, Part II: The Muscovy Company and the North-Eastern Passage (E. & G. Goldsmid, Edinburgh 1886), pp. 101–112.
  6. J.G. Nichols (ed.), The Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London, Camden Society, Original Series Vol. XLII (London 1848), pp. 236–37.
  7. Will of Anthony Hussey (P.C.C. 1560 (Mellershe)).
  8. E. Lodge (Norroy), Illustrations of British History, Biography and Manners 2nd Edn., 3 vols (John Chidley, London 1838), I, p. 283, note.
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