Sir John Gostwick (c.1480 – 15 April 1545) was an English courtier, administrator and MP.

Life

He was born as the son of John Gostwick in

Willington, Bedfordshire Willington is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish located in the England, English county of Bedfordshire. It is west of Moggerhanger on the road from Sandy, Bedfordshire, Sandy to Bedford. The village is recorded in the Domesda ...

, and educated in

Potton Potton is a town and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England, about east of the county town Bedford. The parish had a population in 2021 of 5,727. In 1783 the Great Fire of Potton destroyed a large part of ...

. Around 1510, he entered the service of

Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( ; – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic cardinal. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling f ...

and became a

Gentleman Usher Gentleman Usher and Lady Usher are titles for some officers of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. For a list of office-holders from the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 up to the present day see List of Lady and Gentleman Ushers. Gen ...

to Henry VII. He was also a merchant importing caps and hats from the continent of Europe. By 1517, he was a wax chandler. In 1523, he took on an auditorship at court, and pursued a career as a financial officer. In 1529, Gostwick bought Willington Manor from

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, (10 March 1473 – 25 August 1554) was an English politician and nobleman of the Tudor era. He was an uncle of two of the wives of King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both of whom were beh ...

. He became a member of

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

and a JP (Justice of the Peace) for Bedfordshire. After Wolsey's death, he worked for his successor

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; – 28 July 1540) was an English statesman and lawyer who served as List of English chief ministers, chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false cha ...

in a number of important and lucrative roles, acting as a personal paymaster. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, he acquired a considerable number of other properties and in 1538 was one of the judges who sentenced the Abbot of Woburn to be hanged for refusing to sign the

Oath of Supremacy The Oath of Supremacy required any person taking public or church office in the Kingdom of England, or in its subordinate Kingdom of Ireland, to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church. Failure to do so was to be trea ...

. He was knighted in 1540. In 1539, Gostwick was elected a

knight of the shire Knight of the shire () was the formal title for a member of parliament (MP) representing a county constituency in the British House of Commons, from its origins in the medieval Parliament of England until the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 ...

(MP) for

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

and in 1540 was appointed

High Sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire This is a list of Sheriffs of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. One sheriff was appointed for both counties from 1125 until the end of 1575 (except for 1165–1166), after which separate sheriffs were appointed. See High Sheriff of Bedfordshire a ...

. He was re-elected to represent Bedfordshire again in December 1544, but died before he could take his seat. At some point in his career as MP, he made a direct attack on

Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a theologian, leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He is honoured as a Oxford Martyrs, martyr ...

, as a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

in his views on the sacrament. The incident was dated as in 1544 by

John Foxe John Foxe (1516/1517 – 18 April 1587) was an English clergyman, theologian, and historian, notable for his martyrology '' Foxe's Book of Martyrs'', telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the sufferings of En ...

, but scholars now suspect it was earlier, at the time of the debates on the '' Six Articles''.

Diarmaid MacCulloch Diarmaid Ninian John MacCulloch (; born 31 October 1951) is an English academic and historian, specialising in ecclesiastical history and the history of Christianity. Since 1995, he has been a fellow of St Cross College, Oxford; he was former ...

, ''Thomas Cranmer: A Life'' (1996), p. 252. St Lawrence Willington - geograph

Gostwick died in 1545 and was buried in Willington church. He had married Joan and had a son William, who died shortly after his own death. The estates passed to his brother William.

Sources

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gostwick, John 1545 deaths People from the Borough of Bedford High sheriffs of Bedfordshire High sheriffs of Buckinghamshire English MPs 1539–1540 Year of birth uncertain