HAWARDE (HAYWARD), John (c.1571-1631), of Tandridge Hall, Surr. and the Inner Temple, London

Hawarde’s ancestors came originally from Wales. His father was a London merchant who built up an estate in Surrey, including the manor of Garston in the parish of Bletchingley, and settled at Tandridge, four miles from the borough: he received an exemplification of arms in 1592. U. Lambert, Bletchingley, 214; Hawarde, p. xiv. Hawarde himself was married at an early age to the daughter of his father’s third wife, the heiress to a London merchant, and embarked on a career in the law. He compiled a manuscript volume of legal reports mostly, although not entirely, of cases in Star Chamber heard between January 1594 and February 1609, which was published in the nineteenth century. In view of this it is perhaps surprising that Hawarde had only a limited practice in Star Chamber. He did, however, build up substantial clientele among the Surrey gentry, including Sir Nicholas Carew* and Sir Thomas Gresham. Berks. RO, D/ELL/C1/21; E. Stokes, ‘Surr. Wills’, Surr. Arch. Colls. xxxv. 39; Oxford DNB.

Hawarde must be distinguished from Sir John Hayward*, knighted in 1609, and a civil lawyer of the same name knighted in 1619. Like the latter, Hawarde was implicated in Essex’s rising, though by his own account he emerged ‘with good credit and commendation’. B.P. Levack, Civil Lawyers in England, 237-8; APC, 1599-1600, p. 328; Hawarde, 111-12. In 1610 he was among the Surrey gentry who protested against a project to supply London with water from the River Wandle. M.S. Giuseppi, ‘River Wandle in 1610’, Surr. Arch. Colls. xxi. 179. The following year he inherited his father’s estate and increasingly thereafter he was based in Surrey, where he was a magistrate. By 1619 he had achieved sufficient prominence to host a meeting of the county justices to fix wage rates at his chambers in the Temple. Berks. RO, D/ELL/C1/73.

Hawarde presumably owed his election at Bletchingley in 1620 to his position as a substantial local property owner and prominent member of the bench. During the Parliament he made no recorded speeches and was named to only two bill committees, both of which related to his professional interests - the removal of suits from inferior courts (20 Apr.) and the powers of the Crown in cases of intrusion (18 May). CJ, i. 583a, 624a. He kept a diary of the second sitting, written partly in law French in a small notebook, possibly in the chamber. He noted his absence on 8 and 10 December. Wilts. RO, 9/34/2. In May 1622 a meeting of Surrey gentlemen about the Palatinate Benevolence was held at his chambers, after which Hawarde himself contributed £5. Berks. RO, D/ELL/C1/124; SP14/156/14.

Hawarde was re-elected at a meeting of the burgage holders of Bletchingley on 22 Jan. 1624. However, Henry Lovell, who had been elected alongside Hawarde in 1621, challenged his return, having been chosen himself at a general meeting of the inhabitants of the borough on 9 February. On 22 Mar., following a favourable report from the committee for privileges, Hawarde’s return was upheld. J. Glanville, Reps. of Certain Cases Determined and Adjudged by the Commons in Parliament (1775), pp. 32-3; CJ, i. 745b; ‘Hawarde 1624’, p. 224.

During the Parliament Hawarde was named to five committees, one of which concerned a Surrey knight, Sir Francis Clarke (23 Mar.), while another dealt with the Surrey advowson of Sutton (7 May). The remaining committees concerned a naturalization bill (15 Apr.), a bill to relieve London clothworkers (15 Apr.), and a bill to facilitate the recovery of debts (17 Apr.). CJ, i. 747a, 767a, 767b, 769b, 785b. Hawarde again kept a diary but seems to have made no effort to keep a comprehensive account of the proceedings of the House. He seems to have been particularly interested in disturbances, such as the calls from the gallery for Sir Edward Coke to be elected Speaker on 19 Feb. and Edward Kirton’s heckling of Sir Robert Heath on 14 May. ‘Hawarde 1624’, pp. 143, 291. He recorded his absence on 24 and 25 May, and noted that the weather on the last day of the Parliament was so hot that ‘many went outside; I was never hotter in my life, yet went to Tandridge that night’. He is not known to have sought election to any Caroline Parliament. Ibid. 297, 306.

Hawarde drew up his will in July 1630. He excluded his ‘undutiful and unthrifty’ son Humphrey ‘from all colour of ever challenging any part of my real or personal estate’, the greater part of which was to pass to his ‘religious and honest’ second son. His eldest daughter was to have £40 a year, and the six surviving daughters of his second marriage were each to have £500. His will was proved on 11 Feb. 1631, which means that the date of death given in the inquisition (not held until November 1632), 1 Mar., must be a mistake. His son Sir William attended the king at Oxford during the Civil War, and was returned for Bletchingley in 1661. PROB 11/159, f. 94; C142/530/170; Hawarde, p. xxvii.