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- Burgess (M.P.) for Beverley, Yorkshire. Queen's Surveyor. B.A., Peterhouse College, Cambridge, 1572-3.
He was described as a resident of London in 1582, but the 1587 pedigree attached to the grant of his father's crest called him "of Huton on Derwent", Yorkshire.
From Robert Charles Anderson, John C. Brandon, and Paul C. Reed, "The Ancestry of the Royally-Descended Mansfields of the Massachusetts Bay" (citation details below):
Cotton Mather, in his biography of the Rev. John Wilson, identifies the father of the immigrants as "Sir John Mansfield, master of the Minories, and the Queen's surveyor." This identification has always been troublesome, as it includes some inaccuracies. The immigrants' father was an "esquire," a step below the dignity of knighthood, but above gentleman. Evidence has been found, however, to confirm that John Mansfield was intimately involved with royal mining interests, and was Queen's surveyor -- at least in Yorkshire.
When Mather used the word "Minories," he must have intended the word "mineries," or mining operations. The 3rd Earl of Huntingdon held mines and lands in Dorsetshire, having purchased various mining interests from James, Lord Mountjoy. John Mansfield was the Earl's "servant, and at one stage his lessee of the Canford mines, near Poole, Dorset. Lord Mountjoy was heavily indebted to creditors, and various interrogatories were taken in May 1582 concerning his sale to Huntingdon. "John Mansfield, and W[illia]m Bird, all of London," were among men examined on behalf of the Earl on May 17, 21, 24, and 31, and June 1, 1582. "John Mansfield of London" was also examined on 14 or 15 June.
John Mansfeild, Clement Draper, and Richard Laycolte received lands, rents and liberties in Brownsea Island, Dorset, with the advowson, by permission of license dated 1 April 1581. John Mansfelde, Richard Laicolte, Clement Draper, and Edward Mead complained to the Privy Council on 4 January 1581 that Edward Lane [of Blackfriars, London, 1582], John Lane, and others had "wrongfullie dispossessed them of two their workehouses for allum and coppres, called Allam Chyne and Okemans in the countie of Dorset." The various examinations "touching matters in conroversie betwene John and Edward Lanes and John Mansfelde" were delivered to the servant of the Earl of Huntingdon on 27 May 1582. On 12 September 1592, Clement Draper wrote to the Queen, pleading that he had "been detained in prison 12 years against all right, by practice of the Earl of Huntingdon, John Mansfield, his deputy, and Richard Laycolt, who have taken away his goods, which, with other losses, amount to 10,000l; his good name, dearer to him than his life, is rooted out by their false reports." He further claimed that "Mansfield, for 4l., got a protection under the Great Seal to defraud him and others of their goods....The Earl, the better to defend his own quarrel against Lord Mountjoy, has got into his hands...the writer's [Draper's] deeds and writings concerning his estate in the mines, and detains them. The Earl, in May 1583, covenanted that the mines should be maintained and set to work." John Mansfeld/Mansfyeld, with Clement Draper, had brought suit against others in the Court of Star Chamber, but later John sued Clement Draper in Chancery.
John Mansfield's career in politics reached its pinacle in 1593, when he represented Beverley, Yorkshire, in Parliament. He is not known to have had personal connections at Beverley, so the seat was likely procured through the influence of his lord the Earl of Huntingdon or cousin Lord Eure. As one of the burgesses for Yorkshire boroughs, he was appointed to a committee on cloth 23 March and to another concerning weirs 28 March 1593. In 1597, by which time he was serving as a Justice of the Peace for the North Riding of Yorkshire, John Mansfield offered himself for election to Parliament at Scarborough, but though he was recommended to the bailiffs and burgesses by the Archbishop of York, and had the support of his prospective fellow burgess, Sir Thomas Posthumous Hoby, his nomination was not accepted by the borough authorities.
Queen Elizabeth I on 8 February 1597/8 granted John Mansfield "the office of collector of the rents and revenues of the dissolved monastery of St. Mary's, York," and more importantly, "the surveyorship of the Queen's lands in the North Riding of Yorkshire." The Crown had extensive honours and holdings in Yorkshire. John Mansfield set about to prove his proficiency by making an unusually thorough and careful survey of the manor of Settington, Yorkshire, compiled between 17 and 21 March 1599/1600. Mansfield obviously took great pains in producing this detailed document, probably an attempt to demonstrate abilities superior to those of a rival who had received many benefits for little effort. John alluded to this in his plea to the Lord Treasurer in his introductory remarks to one copy of the survey:It is my hard fortune whilest other men receyue great rewardes for small deserts I must hold my selfe happy not to be disgraced after good seruyce done. Good my Lord excuse me for thus writyng. I haue chosen to depend on your lordship onelye. When your lordship shall please to gyue me over I wilbegone as forsaken by all. I will equall my selfe to all in this[,] never any did nor shall performe more honest dutyes to your Lordship then I will. The manor of Settrington had been granted to Matthew, Earl of Lenox, and his wife Margaret, in 1544, but was later returned to the Crown. John Mansfield, "Crown Surveyor," was ordered to make a survey of the manors of the late Margaret, Countess of Lennox. These documents are dated February 1600/1 to July 1601, when Mansfield died. He made the surveys as part of a northern tour, likely drawing up the results after his return to London.
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
1553 - 1601 (~ 50 years)
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