GREY (GRAY), Sir William, 1st Bt. (1593-1674), of Chillingham, Northumb.; later of Epping Place, Essex

The son of one of Northumberland’s leading gentlemen, Grey boasted two very distinguished godparents, the 1st Lord Burghley (Sir William Cecil†) and Queen Elizabeth’s cousin, Lord Hunsdon (Henry Carey†). CBP, 1560-94, p. 485. However, Grey’s mother was a recusant, and he himself spent part of his early life as a household servant of the Catholic Lord William Howard of Naworth. A survey of religious affiliations in Northumberland in 1607 found that Grey was not attending Anglican services. HMC Hatfield, xix. 3. Such leanings help to explain why, despite a very thorough education, he played no discernible part in public life until he acquired a baronetcy in 1619. The customary payment for this honour was apparently waived in Grey’s case. SCL, EM1284 (b).

Two years later, Grey was elected to represent Northumberland in Parliament. Because of his baronetcy he was accorded the status of senior knight of the shire, a fact which offended his junior colleague, the older and much more experienced Sir Henry Widdrington. The latter even attacked Grey indirectly on 27 Apr. 1621, when he condemned the order of baronets, stating that ‘it grieved him to see skipjacks prank before men whose ancestors have gained place in the commonwealth and by blood’ simply on account of an honour that they had purchased. OR; CD 1621, v. 109. Grey had an almost immediate impact at Westminster, intervening on behalf of a fellow Member who was abused by a guard when the Commons presented its new Speaker to the king (3 February). His two recorded speeches both concerned northern matters. On 9 May he noted that the bill to ban imports of Irish cattle would need a clause to guard against livestock being brought into England via Scotland. He also supported a proviso to exempt Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland from the bill against wool exports, affirming that the surrounding districts would be impoverished by this legislation, as the local wool was too coarse to be used for cloth manufacture (30 November). CD 1621, ii. 16, 478; Nicholas, Procs. 1621, ii. 49, 255; CJ, i. 653a. Grey attracted only one personal committee nomination, to consider the bill against foreign bribes, but he was also entitled as a Northumberland Member to attend the legislative committee on Sir Richard Lumley’s estates (19 Mar. and 25 May). CJ, i. 562a, 626b.

Grey succeeded to his patrimony in September 1623. Two months later he was summoned before the Privy Council, after his servants were caught smuggling wool across the Scottish border, in breach of a royal Proclamation of 1622. APC, 1623-5, pp. 120, 184-5; CSP Dom. 1623-5, pp. 101, 133, 172-3. His lenient treatment was conceivably influenced by the fact that he was negotiating to purchase a peerage. A warrant for his patent was issued on 3 Feb. 1624, only two days after his appearance before the Council. At the last moment, the duke of Buckingham intervened to ensure that his client Sir Edward Conway I* received the £4,000 fee. While revised payment terms were agreed, Conway delayed the patent, much to the annoyance of Grey, who needed a rapid resolution because he was also standing again as a knight of the shire. In the event, the patent passed the Great Seal on 11 February. The Northumberland election was held on the following day, and Grey was returned before news arrived that he was no longer eligible to sit. CSP Dom. 1623-5, pp. 159, 161, 173; Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 546; APC, 1623-5, p. 172; OR. The inevitable by-election was ordered by the House on 27 February. CJ, i. 722a.

Grey was dismissed from most of his offices in 1627, apparently for opposing the Forced Loan, though he was quickly restored again once he made his peace with the Crown in the following year. R. Cust, Forced Loan, 102 n., 109; Lords Procs. 1628, v. 464-5. In 1629 he was licensed to empark his Chillingham estate, and he probably modernized the house around the same time. However, he found life in the south more congenial, and purchased Epping Place in 1636 from one of his wife’s relatives, subsequently making it his main seat. CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 498; S.J. and S.J. Watts, From Border to Middle Shire: Northumb. 1586-1625, p. 175; J.H. Holmes, ‘Epping Place’, Trans. Essex Arch. Soc. n.s. xxv, 329-30. During the Civil War Grey sided with Parliament, though his record as commander of the Eastern Association’s forces in 1642-3 was undistinguished. C. Holmes, Eastern Association in Eng. Civil War, 55, 66, 69-70; HMC 7th Rep. 550-1. He also acted as Speaker of the residual House of Lords for two-and-a-half years, despite being briefly imprisoned by his fellow peers in July 1643 for refusing to negotiate a military alliance with the Scots. LJ, vi. 122a, 124a, 134a-b, 148a. Grey was appointed to the new Council of State in February 1649, but questioned its legitimacy and refused to serve on it. Thereafter, he was appointed only to local commissions, though he successfully made his peace with Charles II at the Restoration, and apparently retained many of his offices until his death. CSP Dom. 1649-50, pp. 6, 9; 1660-1, p. 37. Grey was a Presbyterian in later life, and the godly Protestant sentiments of his will, drafted on 2 Mar. 1672, contrasted sharply with his Catholic upbringing. He died in July 1674, and was buried at Epping. His younger son Thomas sat for Ludgershall in the Cavalier Parliament. PROB 11/345, ff. 368v-9v; Hist. Northumb. xiv. 328.