HONING, Edward (1550-1609), of Eye, Suff.; formerly of Darsham, Suff.

Honing was the grandson of a member of the London Fishmonger’s Company. His father, William, became clerk of both the Privy Council and the Signet and sat for Winchester in 1547. On the fall of Protector Somerset in 1550 he lost his Council clerkship, but retained that of the Signet until his death in 1569. Having acquired an estate in Suffolk, William was returned for Orford in 1553 and was appointed to the county bench. HP Commons, 1508-58, ii. 382-3.

Honing first sat for Dunwich in 1589, when he entered Crown service as receiver for Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. He inherited property in and around Eye from his mother, whose brother, Charles Cutler, had twice represented the borough under Elizabeth. Honing himself was elected for Eye in 1593 and 1597. He strengthened his interest in the borough by acquiring a lease of the Crown manor in 1598, and was re-elected twice more, in 1601 and 1604. HP Commons, 1558-1603, i. 248; W.A. Copinger, Manors of Suff. iii. 259, 262. His colleague in 1604 was his kinsman Sir Henry Bokenham, whose father was described as Honing’s ‘especial friend’ in a subsequent Chancery suit. C2/Jas.I/B34/22.

Honing only appears once in the surviving records of the 1604 session, when he was named the committee to consider the bill for defraying the expenses of the royal Household on 30 May. CJ, i. 983a. The following November his receivership of Suffolk and Cambridge was granted to him and his eldest son Wingfield jointly. In the second session Honing was appointed to committees for two bills relating to the dairy trade (28 Jan. and 4 Apr. 1606), a subject of considerable importance in the predominantly pastoral region of ‘High Suffolk’ in which Eye was situated. CJ, i. 260b, 293b. He was also named, on 16 May, to consider a Norfolk estate bill. Ibid. 309b. In his only recorded speech, on 11 Mar. 1606, he supported composition for purveyance, and recalled a speech made 20 years earlier by Sir Francis Knollys†, the Elizabethan treasurer of the Household, who had said that without composition there would be ‘no ease in purveyors’. Ibid. 282b; HP Commons, 1558-1603, ii. 413.

Honing left no trace on the records of the third session, and was buried at Eye on 7 May 1609. No will or grant of administration has been found. He was the last of his family to sit in Parliament.