FERRERS, Edward (c.1573-1639), of Lombard Street, London; later of Barnes, Surr.

Although Ferrers’ eldest brother married into the ancient family of the same name, seated for centuries at Baddesley Clinton, consanguinity cannot be proved. H. Norris, Baddesley Clinton, 120. His ancestors came from Wiltshire, The Gen. n.s. xii. 89. one of them serving as MP for Cricklade in two Yorkist Parliaments; but his father, a younger son, migrated to Gloucestershire on his marriage to the first cousin of Sir Thomas Bagehott* and raised a large family at Ashchurch, two miles from Tewkesbury. VCH Glos. viii. 179. Ferrers was apprenticed to his brother William, who eventually became master of the London Mercers’ Company. Mercers’ Hall, London, Acts of Court 1595-1629, f. 208v. However, his own interests were diversified. In 1606 he acted as surety for Lady Chandos, his bond being produced in the Commons in connection with the Brydges estate bill, CJ, i. 306a. and later in the year he took over, presumably as security for a loan, a pension of £200 granted to a Scottish courtier. C66/1693, mm. 43-4. In the following year he obtained a reversionary lease of land in several counties and the first of eight grants of property as part of a syndicate for the sale of Crown lands organised by Arthur Ingram* and Sir Thomas Vavasour*. C66/1697; 66/1721; 66/1799/8; 66/1802/13; 66/1804/2; 66/1821/7; 66/1871/6; 66/1906/1. In 1608, besides receiving a warrant for the payment of £4,000 ‘to divers artificers’ for goods delivered to Anne of Denmark, CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 425. he was appointed a commissioner for the earl of Northampton’s farm of the duties on starch and awarded the benefit of the recusancy of 11 Herefordshire Catholics. Add. 34765, f. 23v. In addition to his business connections with Arthur Ingram, who later married his niece, he was also involved with the financiers Sir Lionel Cranfield* and Peter Vanlore, whose daughter married his nephew. CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 546; A.F. Upton, Sir Arthur Ingram, 27; HMC Sackville, i. 152.

Early in 1610 William Ferrers advanced to the inhabitants of Tewkesbury most of the money to buy the manor and a new charter enfranchising the borough. The corporation showed its gratitude by electing its benefactor’s brother high steward and one of its first two Members. J. Bennett, Tewkesbury, 208, 230. The date of the return is unknown, but the writ was issued on 30 Mar., OR. and the Members were sworn on 16 Apr.; they took their seats two days later. CJ, i. 418a; ‘Paulet 1610’, f. 6v. Ferrers was far less active than his colleague, Sir Dudley Digges, though both were added to the committee for the highways bill (11 May). CJ, i. 427a. Ferrers was also among those appointed to consider bills for women tenants in tail (16 Apr.) and to supply London with water from Hackney marshes (22 June). Ibid. 418a, 442b.

Ferrers became concerned, perhaps through Vanlore or the Brydges family, with another Scottish courtier, the disreputable Sir John Kennedy. He sold Kennedy’s house in the Strand to Sir George More* in 1611, whose son-in-law, Sir Thomas Crymes*, was his wife’s first cousin; but he was compelled to refund £300 of the purchase price. Kennedy’s manor of Barnes, which he held on lease from the dean and chapter of St. Paul’s, passed, after prolonged litigation and appeals to the House of Lords, to Ferrers himself by 1628. SP14/48/75; C78/198/5, 7; 78/533/7; LJ, iii. 416, 511; Procs. 1628, vi. 24; VCH Surr. iv. 5. He drew up his will on 17 Apr. 1639, and asked to be buried at Barnes, ‘in the vault there by me made and purchased to the use of me and my heirs’. He left the remainder of the lease to his wife, and provided for his children out of freehold there ‘and certain mills being dispersed in divers parts of England and Wales’. He bequeathed £40 a year to his grandson for him to be ‘brought up as a scholar or as a student at one of the four inns of court’, £3 to the poor of Ashchurch, ‘where I was born’ and £10 ‘to be laid out in a stock of coals’ for the poor of Barnes. His widow proved the will on 24 June. No later member of the family sat in Parliament. PROB 11/180, ff. 342-4.