Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Cecil, William, 1st Baron Burghley, 1520-1598
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Dates of existence
1520-1598
History
Cecil, William, 1st Baron Burghley; only son of Richard Cecil MP, Little Burghley, Northants, Yeoman of the Wardrobe to Henry VIII, and Jane, dau. of William Heckington, Bourne, Lincs. ; b. 18 Sep 1520 (or 1521) ; educ. at schools in Stamford and St.John’s Coll.Cambridge, adm. May 1535 ; MA 1564 (incorp. Oxford 1566) ; adm.Gray’s Inn 1541 ; MP unknown constituency 1542, Stamford 1547, Lincolnshire 1553, 1555, 1559, Northamptonshire 1563 ; Recorder of Boston from 14 May 1545, of Stamford by 1580 ; entered service of Protector Somerset 1547, becoming his secretary in 1548 ; Custos Brevium, Court of Common Pleas 6 May 1548 ; imprisoned in Tower of London Nov 1549 – Jan 1550 ; Secretary of State Sep 1550 – Jul 1553 ; Privy Councillor Sep 1550 ; knighted 11 Oct 1551 ; lived in retirement during reign of Mary I, except for a mission in 1554 to bring Cardinal Pole to England ; returned to favour on accession of Elizabeth I ; Secretary of State (reappointed) 17 Nov 1558 – Jul 1572 ; Chancellor, Cambridge Univ., from 1559 ; Master, Court of Wards, from Jan 1560/1 ; cr. Baron Burghley 25 Feb 1570/1 ; KG 1572 ; Lord High Treasurer from Jul 1572 ; High Steward of Westminster from 1561 ; m.1st, 8 Aug 1541 Mary, dau. of Peter Cheke, Esquire Bedell in Divinity, Cambridge Univ., , and sister of Sir John Cheke Kt, academic and courtier ; m.2nd, 21 Dec 1545 Mildred (see above), dau. of Sir Anthony Cooke KB MP, Gidea Hall, Essex ; d. 4 May 1598. ODNB.
By deed poll dated 10 Apr 1594 he granted two farm rents, of £10 and £3 6s 8d respectively, payable out of Finchstock and Fawler in the parish of Charlbury, Oxfordshire, to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, “in trust, to bestow the same in money, books, or otherwise, as necessity or occasion shall be, upon such or so many scholars that shall yearly be chosen or elected from or out of, the free grammar school of Westminster to either of the … Universities, in such sort, manner, or form, as the Dean of Westminster for the time being, and the two principal electors that shall come from Cambridge and Oxford, and the chief schoolmaster of the said free grammar school of Westminster for the time being, in their good discretions, shall think most meet and convenient, and to no other use intent or purpose”. The income was subsequently consolidated with the School Exhibition Fund, and the benefaction commemorated by an exhibition known as the Lord Burghley exhibition.
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GB 2014
Rules and/or conventions used
International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition
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Final
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Partial
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Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2022
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Users should note that the information recorded here that is not to be found in the first two volumes of the Record of Old Westminsters and its first Supplement has been assembled from various published and manuscript sources by Hugh Edmund Pagan MA FSA, and all new resulting text is his copyright, © 2014.
The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from the earliest times to 1927, Volumes 1 & 2, compiled by G. F. Russell Barker and Alan H. Stenning, London, 1928.