William Stourton, 7th Baron Stourton (c. 1505 – 1548) was the eldest son of Edward Stourton, 6th Baron Stourton, and his wife Agnes Fauntleroy, daughter of John Fauntleroy of Dorset.
He succeeded his father as Baron Stourton in 1535. His wife was Elizabeth Dudley, daughter of Edmund Dudley, a key advisor to King Henry VII, and his first wife Anne Windsor, sister of Andrew Windsor, 1st Baron Windsor. They had seven sons, including Charles, William and Arthur, and two daughters, including Ursula who married Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln.
His affair with Agnes Rice, daughter of Rhys ap Gruffyd and grand-daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, caused much scandal. He brought Agnes to live in his house, and separated from his wife. At his death he left most of the Stourton estates to Agnes, resulting in years of litigation between her and his eldest son and heir Charles, who had quarrelled bitterly with his father, calling him a "false hypocrite" who belonged in prison. William and Agnes had one daughter, also called Agnes.[1]
He was a Member of the Parliament of England for Somerset in 1529, although he admitted to finding the office a burden, as he was then managing the family estates on behalf of his aged father; he asked that both of them be excused from further attendance at Parliament. In religion, he seems to have been a conservative.
He seems to have been more skilled as a military commander than as a politician. He played a part in suppressing the Pilgrimage of Grace, and saw action in Scotland, and later in France, where he spent much of his last years, serving with distinction as the English Deputy at Newhaven.[2]
- ^ C. S. Knighton, Calendar State Papers Domestic, Edward VI (London: HMSO, 1992), p. 199 no. 531: J. E. Jackson, "Charles, Lord Stourton and the murder of the Hartgills", The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 8 (1864), pp. 287–288.
- ^ "STOURTON, Sir William (By 1505-48), of Stourton, Wilts. | History of Parliament Online".