Sir Francis Eure (ca. 1564–1621) was an English

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

and Chief Justice of North Wales. Serving from 1604 until 1614, he spent much of his time in Parliament on religious issues.

Early life

Eure was a younger son of

William Eure, 2nd Baron Eure William Eure, 2nd Baron Eure (10 May 1529 – 12 September 1594) was a Tudor-era English nobleman, soldier, and official in the Scottish Marches. Early life William Eure was the son of Ralph Eure, eldest son of William Eure who had been c ...

by his wife Margaret Dymoke. The Eures were an old gentry family of

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

with a long history of service in the

Scottish Marches Scottish Marches was the term used for the Anglo-Scottish border during the late medieval and early modern eras, characterised by violence and cross-border raids. The Scottish Marches era came to an end during the first decade of the 17th century ...

. Burke, Bernard
"Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire
pp. 190-1 Eure's elder brother,

Ralph Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms ...

, succeeded their father to the barony after his death in 1594, while his nephew,

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, was an MP in the same constituency that Francis would later represent. It appears likely that Eure served in the Middle March during his brother's time as

Lord Warden of the Marches The Lord Warden of the Marches was an office in the governments of Scotland and England. The holders were responsible for the security of the border between the two nations, and often took part in military action. They were also responsible, alo ...

.History of Parliament: Eure (Evers), Francis
/ref>

Career

Francis Eure spent five years as a student at

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 ...

before being advanced to the bar. His nephew, William, MP for Scarborough since 1601, had fallen into disgrace after an acrimonious dispute with

Thomas Posthumous Hoby Sir Thomas Posthumus Hoby (1566 – 30 December 1640), also spelt Hobie, Hobbie and Hobby, Posthumous and Postumus, was an English gentleman and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1589 and 1629. A Puritan, he has ...

led to a fine from

Star Chamber The Star Chamber (Latin: ''Camera stellata'') was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late to the mid-17th century (c. 1641), and was composed of Privy Counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judic ...

.History of Parliament: Eure, William
/ref> Francis Eure stood for election in 1604 and took the seat. While his nephew was a notorious

recusant Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...

, Francis Eure was a committed

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

, which was reflected in the causes he championed during his decade of Parliamentary service. Among the bills he favored were acts to bar recusants from serving in Parliament, to punish simony and scandalous ministers, to discourage vexatious suits against clergymen, and enforce observation of the Sabbath. His brother attempted to have him appointed to the parliamentary seat of Richard Benson, the recently deceased MP for Ludlow, despite Francis already holding a seat, but the scheme failed. Eure did not stand for Parliament in 1614, and later became Chief Justice of North Wales. Because of his local ties, he was expected to transfer to South Wales, but did not; this brought a complaint and call for his removal from a Catholic barrister. Eure refused to step down, and the complainant, Edward Floyd, was later imprisoned on other grounds.

Marriages and issue

Eure married twice, first to Elizabeth Lennard (sister of

Sampson Lennard Sampson Lennard (died 20 September 1615), of Chevening in Kent, was an English Member of Parliament who represented an unusually large number of different constituencies during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.N.M.S., 'Lennard, Sampson (c. ...

, MPHistory of Parliament: Lennard, Sampson
/ref>), and second to Ellen Maurice, daughter of William Wynn Maurice of Clenennau, Caern., and widow of John Owen. By his first wife, he had three sons (including

Sampson Eure Sir Sampson Eure (died 1659) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1643. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. Eure was the son of Sir Francis Eure of Upper He ...

) and one daughter. A son from this marriage, Horace, was the father of the

7th 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

and

8th 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

Barons Eure. By his second wife, he had one son, Compton Eure. Eure died 1 May 1621, survived by his second wife, who completed his establishment of six almshouses in

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eure, Francis 1621 deaths English MPs 1604–1611 Eure family Younger sons of barons Year of birth uncertain