Family of Sampson *+ LEONARD and Margaret +* FIENNES

Husband:	Sampson *+ LEONARD (1544-1615)
Wife:	Margaret +* FIENNES (1540-1611)
Children:	Henry LEONARD (1569- )
	Anne LEONARD (1572- )
	George LEONARD (1573- )
	Samuel LEONARD (1575- )
	Thomas * + LEONARD (1577-1638)
	Frances LEONARD (1583- )
	Mary LEONARD (1583- )
	John LEONARD (1584- )
Marriage	16 Nov 1564

Husband: Sampson *+ LEONARD

Wife: Margaret +* FIENNES

Name:	Margaret +* FIENNES
Sex:	Female
Father:	Thomas + * FIENNES (1516-1541)
Mother:	Mary +* NEVILLE (1520-1565)
Birth	1540	Pontypool, Monmouthshire, Wales, England
Death	10 Mar 1611 (age 70-71)	Chevening, Kent, England

Child 1: Henry LEONARD

Name:	Henry LEONARD
Sex:	Male
Birth	1569

Child 2: Anne LEONARD

Name:	Anne LEONARD
Sex:	Female
Birth	1 Aug 1572

Child 3: George LEONARD

Name:	George LEONARD
Sex:	Male
Birth	25 Oct 1573

Child 4: Samuel LEONARD

Name:	Samuel LEONARD
Sex:	Male
Birth	1575

Child 5: Thomas * + LEONARD

Name:	Thomas * + LEONARD
Sex:	Male
Spouse:	Lydia *+ WHITE (1587- )
Birth	23 May 1577	Chevening, Kent, England2
Death	6 Nov 1638 (age 61)	Taunton, Bristol, MA, US

Child 6: Frances LEONARD

Name:	Frances LEONARD
Sex:	Female
Birth	1583

Child 7: Mary LEONARD

Name:	Mary LEONARD
Sex:	Female
Birth	1583

Child 8: John LEONARD

Name:	John LEONARD
Sex:	Male
Birth	1584

Note on Husband: Sampson *+ LEONARD

Sampson married Margaret Fiennes, dau. of Thomas Fiennes, third Baron Dacre of the South, by his wife, Lady Mary Neville. Camden, in his 'Britannia', speaking of the death of her bother Gregory Fiennes, Lord Dacre, says: 'whose sister & heir Margaret, Sampson Lennard, a person of extraordinary worth & civility, took to wife, and by her hath fair issue'. They had a considerable family. Lord Dacre speaks of there being eight children, but his copy from the parish registers of Chevening and Sevenoaks shows there to have been ten baptized in those churches; according to the inscription on Sampson's tomb there were in all seven sons, of whom Henry, Gregory, and Thomas survived him; and six daughters, of whom five survived.

 

In the reign of Elizabeth Sampson was High Sheriff of Kent from Nov 1590 to Nov 1591; and he was elected a member of several Parliaments: in 1586 for St. Maws; in 1588 for the borough of Christchurch, Hants; in 1592 for St Germans; in 1597 for Rye; in 1601 for Liskeard ; and in 1614 for the county of Sussex.

 

In 1586 he appears to have wished to be elected for Southampton, as among the archives of that borough there is the following letter from a Mr. William Butler to the Mayor of that place:

 

'Oct 12, 1586. Mr Maior I have become an earnest sutor to you to have your favour & furtherance to make choyse of a Friende of mine to be one of your burgesses of your Towne in this parliament. The gentleman is a very sufficient man, and if you make your election of a burgess, that is noe Townesman, you can not make choyse of a better, his name is Mr. Sampson Leonarde, dwelling in Kent, but yf yt please you, & the rest of your aldermen to grante me my sute, ye shall heare of him at my house at all times when you shall have cause to use him, who is a very sufficient gentleman in any matter for your Towne, & myself shall thinke myself greatly beholding to you...'

 

In 1588, when the Spanish Armada of Felipe II of Spain was launched against England, Sampson take his part in repelling the invader. Among the list of the 'chief captains' in the different counties of the kingdom, the name of Sampson appears in the list for Kent with fifty light horse; and eight years later, when Spain again appeared to be likely to attack England, on 10 Nov 1596, very careful preparations were made to guard the Medway from foreign aggression. A carefully thought-out system for sending the first alarm of the enemy's approach was adopted; a chain of stations was establishcd whence signals were to be sent one to the other by beacon fires and gun firing, and places which were so situated as to be beyond reach of these signals were to be warned by means of hoblers' sent from Rochester by the Deputy Lieutenants. The Mayor of that town was to send notice to Sir J. Leveson, Thomas Walsingham, Mr. Style, Mr. Mayor of Maidstone, Mr. Lennard, and Mr. Rivers, and each of these captains was to give notice to the rest. On 12 Nov these captains were to repair to Upnor Castle with 1,080 men, and there be distributed in the five ships next the chain.

 

The following letter from a Mr. Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney shows that Sampson was active in doing magisterial work in his neighbourhood, and is also somewhat interesting, illustrating as it does the necessity that existed then, as now, for members of Parliament to conciliate their supporters:

 

'...Euen now Mr. Lovelace of Kent came vnto me & desired me to procure hym some answer from your Lordship to a letter he sent you; yt is about a Colt he says is vnduly detained from hym in Oteford park. His sute unto you is that you will direct your Lettre to Sir Thos Walsingham, Sir John Lcvison, Mr Leonard, Mr Sidley or any two of them to examine thc cause. I promised to write vnto you about yt for he is one of them that gaue you his voice in the Election, and I haue thanked hym for yt...'

 

There are in the British Museum two letters from Sampson to a Mr. Hicks; I have not been able to identify the 'most vnhappye kynsman,' on whose behalf the following of these letters was written, which are addressed:

 

'To the Worshipful my very lovyng frend Mr Michael HicksGood mr Hicks I vnderstand by my brother how much we are all bound vnto yov for your frendship in procuryng the reprie of my most vnhappye kynsman for the wch I most heartylye thank yov. By a lamentable letter sent vnto me this nyght from some sisters of myne that remayne ther I am informed that the Quene hath lately sent Mr Wade to the Kyng of Portyngall to require hym to leave his sute for Raulins (?) and that she is purposed the law shall haue his course for his execution, wch if it be true We have small hope our kynsman shalbe spared, I beseech yov affourd your best helpe at this pinche and I shall never forgett your kyndnes but ever be redye to requite to the vttermost of my power. And so wt my most harty commendations in hast I leave yov

 

Knoll this xvij of May 1592.Your very lovyng frendSampson LENNARD'

 

In the second letter, also dated from Knole, but some two years later, Sampson expresses a hope that Mr. Hicks 'wyll one day gett leasure to cum wt your bedfellow to Knoll where you... shall fynd the best welcome I can giue you'.

 

Within a few years of his father's death in 1590, Sampson received a very considerable addition to his fortune by the death of his brother-in-law, Gregory Fiennes, Lord Dacre. The estates which came to Sampson through his wife by Lord Dacre's death were those of Herstmonceux, and many others which were settled upon her.

 

Sampson survived his wife about three years, dying in Sep 1615. At some period after his wife's death he appears to have transferred most of his property to his eldest son, as, in an undated draft of a letter concerning the Norfolk property, he says: 'I have departed with the greatest part of my estate to my sonne Dacre'.

 

Sampson and his wife lie buried under a remarkably fine tomb in Chevening Church, upon which are their life-size effigies,

Sources

1	"Find a Grave".

2	Institute of Family Research, "Millennium File".