| DACKOMBE Notes by Geoffrey Mann Section III |
This continues from Section I as I still have a lot of information to add from letters and notes given to me by Geoffrey Mann. This Section is to do with Sir John Dackombe 1570-1618 Part 2 and is compiled by Geoffrey MANN and Doreen WILLIAMS
Introduction
In Part I of this
paper, the pedigree and life of Sir John Dackombe, son of Richard
Dackombe of Motcombe, Dorset, was described up to his marriage.
Part 2 deals with Sir John's subsequent career and the misfortune
which befell his family after his early death in 1618.
Marriage
John Dackombe was
married c1592 at about 22 years of age. his bride was a young
widow with three children, Melior Mohun(1) According to the Mohun pedigree in the Visitation of
Dorset 1623, she was from the Pitt family of Blandford(2). As
shown in the following paragraphs, there were connections between
the Pitt, Mohun and Dackombe families, so there is no reason to
doubt this origin of Sir John's wife, though at present it has
not been possible to place her on the Pitt family tree.
Melior Pitt married her first husband, Robert Mohun, about 1588. He was the eldest son of Robert Muhun of Melcombe Regis, Weymouth, a wealthy merchant. The will of Robert Mohun snior(3), dated 1578 and proved in 1581, was witnessed by William Pytt and Henry Pitt, and also mentions a house in Bridport "where John Pitt dwelleth". Thus there was a close connection between the Mohun and the Pitt family. A branch of the Mohun family were at Boconnoc, Cornwall, which provides another link with the Pitt family since the grandson of Thomas Pitt of Blandford was Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc (1653-1726)(4).
In Part 1 of this paper, it was shown that the manor of Iwerne Steepleton, Dorset, remained in the possession of the Dackombe family for over 230 years and was bequeathed to Sir John Dackombe in 1607 by his uncle Robert Dackombe. Hutchins notes that after the Dackombes, Steepleton came into the possession of Sir William Pitt early in the 17C, and in the 1677 Visitation of Dorset, it is stated that the Pitt family of Blandford was descended from a brother of William Pitt of Steepleton. It is clear therefore that Sir John sold Steepleton after he inherited it in 1607 to his wife's kinsman Sir WIlliam Pitt. Sir William (later of Stratfieldsaye) lived 1559-1636 and was the brother of Thomas Pitt, physician of Blandford, from whom the Pitts of Blandford descended(4). Sir William Pitt was about 11 years older than Melior Pitt, and very probably either her brother or cousin.
Melior bore three daughters, Melior, Margaret, and Amy to Robert Muhun junior before he died about 1592. His widow married John Dackombe shortly after. Her daughter by her first husband, Melior Moone, married John Dackombe's younger brother, Nicholas, about 1610, thus creating a complicated family relationship. After marrying John Dackombe, Melior bore three more known children, Alice, Dorothy and John. A family tree is shown in Fig 3(1-11)
Early Career
In 1596, four years
after his marriage, John Dackombe was admitted to the Middle
Temple in London (12). This was a popular move for young Dorset
gentleman of the time. James Dackombe of Steepleton for example
had been admitted in 1572, and James' son William in 1594.
Numerous other Dorset names appear in the admission registers. By
1597 John Dackombe was an inner barrister and being fined
regularly for absence from the formal Temple dinners at Lent and
Christmas.
In 1597, after long endeavour, he persuaded one Arthur Gorges to wrtie to Robert Cecil, asking Cecil if he would retain John Dackombe whom he knew to be "honest and discrete in the use of his pen". The letter mentioned that this was also the wish of his uncle John Budden by whom he had been brought up(13).
The letter clearly had the desired effect. By 1602 and probably earlier, Sir John was in Cecil's service. By 1609 he was probably Cecil's steward(14). His particular skills lay in land deals. These were the investments of the age, land being purchased both for income and capital appreciation. And Cecil had need of money. In 1602, he had moved into his expensive Salisbury House on the Strand having sold Beaumont House in Chelsea to the above mentioned Arthur Gorges for £6,000 - though payment dragged on for years. By 1603 Cecil had spent over £35,000 on land. According to one biographer of Cecil, his associates Roger Houghton and John Dackombe assisted in raising this sum in part by the "financial dismemberment" of Cecil's brother-in'law Lord Cobham(15).
Cecil's need for money continued with his building of Hatfield House. In 1611, Dackombe put Cecil's debts at £24,000 and listed his endeavours to free his estate(14). Cecil died the following year, and Dackombe penned his will and was appointed an executor(16).
Dackombe was not without enemies, and just two days after Cecil's death, Dackombe wrote to Cecil's son the second Earl of Salisbury protesting at the slanderous statements made about him by Roger Houghton, his co'steward. In this letter, Dackombe claimed to have gained Cecil's estate over £35,000 and £1,000 per annum in land, and adds "I was not ignorant how to augment myne owne estate that knew how to advantage their Lordships so much"(17).
The 2nd Earl retained Dackombe as his solicitor and auditor, and he was a guest at Latfield late in 1612(18). Dackombe however was already allying himself with the rising star of George Villiers, later Lord Buckingham. Bacon called him Buckingham's agent (19) and in 1614 Dackombe was made Master of the Court of Requests and Commissioner in the sale of the King's lands (20). He was also elected member of Parliament for Corfe Castle in the Addled Parliament which sat for lest than two months(21). In the same year he matched his daughter Alice with Henry Smith alias Neville of Crssing Temple, a son of the influential Neville family(22).
Chamberlain noted that in May 1615, Dackombe accompanied the two new Knights of the Garter in their procession from London to Windsor wearing the feathers of Lord Knollis. Two months later, he wrote that Dackombe was the reversion of the Chancellorchip of the Duchy of Lancaster "which is a great step from that he was few years agon"(23)
Chancellor
Dackombe was knighted and
succeeded to the Duchy Chancellorship in June 1616, despite
opposition from the Council. Chamberlain writes that this was
because of the "meanness of the man and that he had been
detected in divers frauds and fowle dealings specially in the
pardon propounded the last year for the earl of Somerset".
He adds that Dackombe sure cards were that Sir George Villiers
and the Prince betted on his side(24)
The Duchy Chancellorship was a lucrative post and there was intense compeition for it. Money could be made in ways which would now be considered corrupt, but were considered normal at this time. Thereis little doubt that Sir John set about building his own fortune. Besides his rooms in the Savoy, he had a country mansion at Wanstead, and hired a "very fair house" not far from Whitehall. His main residence however was Pymms in Edmonton, where there is still a Park of that name. Pymms belonged to the Cecils, but was leased to Sir John on the lives of himself his wife and his son John at a very low rent.
In 1616, Chamberlain again gives tribute to Dackombe's skills in land dealing and his connection with Lord Villiers when he writes that Somerset's land were all given away, and "Lord Villiers had Sherbourne, but resigning it, he hath a booke granted that they say by Sir John Dackombe means will rise to the value of near £80,000.(25)
At about this time, Dackombe appointed Edward Nicholas as his secretary. This was Edward's first important engagement in his career leading to his eventual position as Secretary of State. Edward was the son of John Nicholas, solcitor and steward to the Earl of Pembroke. Sir John referred to them but a transcript of the parish register for Winterbourne Earls in Wiltshire, the home of the Nicholas family, has Edward's grandfather marrying Mrs Ann Dicar in 1559. Possibly this is an error for Dicam - another spelling variation of Dackombe. Sir John valued Edward, since he wrote to him when Edward was ill, reassuring him that his post would not be filled by anyone else during his illness(26).
Sri John was apparently about to enjoy the fruits of his ambition when he was taken ill and died of a "lethargy or drowsy disease" in January 1617/18(27)
Post-Script
Sir John's will made just before he died left substantial
legaicies and incomes to his wife and children, his brothers and
sisters, and his servant Edward Nicholas. Income was to be
derived from his annuity of £1,000 pa from the Earl of
Salisbury, his Duchy fines and his manors. Lands mentioned
include Moones Park of Henstridge Somerset, Pymms at Edmonton,
Wormeswell and Vowells in Motcombe, Combe Farm in Abbotscombe,
lands in Okeden, Maidstone College in Kent, the Rectory of Colbey
in Lincoln, lands in Thirsk and elsewhere in York, copyhold land
in West Ham, lands in Pawlesbury, tenements in the Savoy, lands
in Derby, and the manors of Tembplecombe, Abbascombe, Endeston,
Hengstridge, Whitchurch, Horton Ferrers in Somerset and Wilts(6).
He dad also however borrowed money to pay for these land deals, and Chamberlain wrote that he left 13 or 14 hundred pounds of land but 7 or 8 thousand pounds of debt(27). His two brothers Nicholas and William, two of the executors of his will, were soon in financial difficulties. They are named in at least fifty Chancery Bills either as defendants against Sir John's creditors or as complainants trying to recover money owed to him.
William Dackombe was confined to the Fleet prison in 1627 for debt and pleaded to his kinsman Edward Nicholas (Sir John's former secretary) for help(28). Nicholas Dackombe who had married Melior, daughter of Sir John's wife by her first marriage (see Fig 3) moved to Richmond in Surrey probably also to get help from Edward Nicholas who lived there and whose career was flourishing. Nicholas and Melior Dackombe had 10 children (described as destitute in 1625(1) and were buried at Richmond in 1638 and 1639).
It is difficult to judge from this distance in time, but is seems that Nicholas and William Dackombe's difficulties were of their own making rather than because of Sir John's debts. William Dackombe had always needed small sums of money from Sir John's secretary(29), and he was in trouble for debt as early as 1614(30). They mortgaged the farm at Abbotscombe and had not kept up the repayments despite being given the money for this purpose by Sir John's wife. The farm was repossessed by the crown and subsequently sold to a sequence of purchasers. Nicholas Dackombe and his son William conducted a prolonged battle in Chancery over the ownership of the farm, but the suit was finally dismissed in 1658(31).
Sir John's wife, Lady Melior Dackombe continued to live at Pymms, Edmonton, until her death in 1646 and she was buried in Edmonton, until her death in 1646 and she was buried in Edmonton church. For 5 years, she had given Nicholas £300 a year in cash to repay the Abbotscombe mortgage, on condition that he made over the farm to his wife, who was her daughter by her first husband(1). But Nicholas had borrowed much more than she knew, and her money and efforts to secure her daughter's future were in vain.
Lady Melior's will is virtually an inventory of her household goods at Pymms which shows that it was a substantial mansion, even though she comments that she had not so much to leave as formerly, as her house had lately been broken into several times. She left all her goods to her little grandchild Robert Dackombe(7). Pymms was re-let by the Cecil family afterLady Melior's death at a much higher rent.
Sir John's son, John Dackombe, seems to have led a relatively quite life, avoiding the financial problems of his uncles and the upheaval of the civil war. He was etered to the Middle Temple by his father when he was born, but gave up his chambers in 1632 at the age of 25(12). he was with his mother at Edmonton in February 1641 when he was third in the list of those taking the protestation oath. His wife was named at Mary in his mother's will, but his addumed marriage to Mary Hudson in August 1641 (Fig. 3) is based solely on the register of St Peter, Paul's wharf. He was still at Edmonton in 1649 when he was assessed for payment of £200 with his brother-in-law Henry Nevill(32), but he died at nearby Tottenham High Cross in 1665, administration being granted to his son Robert(10).
References
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