Henry Fortescue (MP, died 1576) explained

Henry Fortescue (by 1515 – 1576), of Faulkbourne, Essex, was an English politician.

He was a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Maldon in March 1553 and for Sudbury in 1559, and High Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire in 1563.^[1]

His son, Dudley Fortescue, was MP for Sudbury in 1593. In September 1604, Dudley Fortescue hanged himself at Blunt's Hall in Little Wratting.^[2] As a suicide, his property and goods were forfeit to the crown. King James awarded his goods to Margaret Hartsyde, a chamberer servant of Anne of Denmark, and the Privy Council wrote to Sir Nicholas Bacon to make sure she got full benefit.^[3]

Notes and References

1. Web site: FORTESCUE, Henry (by 1515-76), of Faulkbourne, Essex. - History of Parliament Online. www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
2. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/fortescue-dudley-1604 FORTESCUE, Dudley (d.1604), of Faulkbourne, Essex, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
3. Diarmaid MacCulloch, Letters from Redgrave Hall (Suffolk Record Society, Boydell, 2007), pp. 82-3 nos. 132, 133.