Sir John Horsey (died 23 December 1546) was a knight of Henry VIII and Lord of the Manor of Clifton Maubank. He was also a friend of the poet Thomas Wyatt. He was born the son of Sir John Horsey (died 8 July 1531) and Elizabeth Turges. He married Joan Mawdley by whom he had two sons, Sir John Horsey (1510-64/65) and Roger Horsey, and two daughters, Mary and Joan, or according to Rogers, Elizabeth and Eleanor. He served as a justice of the peace in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

and

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

, and served as Sheriff for those counties for 1537 and 1544. He was elected

knight of the shire Knight of the shire ( la, milites comitatus) was the formal title for a member of parliament (MP) representing a county constituency in the British House of Commons, from its origins in the medieval Parliament of England until the Redistributio ...

(MP) for

in 1539. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in the 16th century, Sir John, intending to collect a large share of the monastic property from the Crown, bribed

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charg ...

to appoint the compliant John Barnstable Abbot of

Sherborne Abbey Sherborne Abbey, otherwise the Abbey Church of St. Mary the Virgin, is a Church of England church in Sherborne in the English county of Dorset. It has been a Saxon cathedral (705–1075), a Benedictine abbey church (998–1539), and since 1539, ...

. John Barnstable was accordingly elected on 31 May 1535, and subsequently surrendered the monastery on 18 March 1539. The deed was acknowledged by his signature and those of 16 monks, who all got pensions. On 4 January 1539, "the demesne lands of the monastery" including the Great Court, the Abbot's Garden, West Garden, Pyggy's Barton and the Prior's Garden, all in

Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. ...

, were assigned by Henry VIII to Horsey, for which Horsey paid £1,242 3s. 9d. to the King, plus £16 10s. 6d. for "the site of the church, steeple, campanile and churchyard of the monastery," and other property. Horsey subsequently sold Sherborne Abbey to the townspeople and vicar. Both Horsey and his son are buried in Sherborne Abbey: an "impressive" tomb with life-size effigies of the two in medieval armour is to be found there in the Wykeham Chapel.

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History of Parliament HORSEY, John (by 1409-1546) of Clifton Maybank, Dorset
Year of birth missing 1546 deaths People from Sherborne English knights High Sheriffs of Somerset High Sheriffs of Dorset Burials in Dorset English MPs 1529–1536 English MPs 1539–1540 {{1529-England-MP-stub