Sir John Throckmorton was a lawyer and member of the English Parliament during the reign of Queen Mary I

Mary I of England

Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

. He was also a witness to Queen Mary's will.

Biography

He was the seventh son of Sir George Throckmorton

George Throckmorton

Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton Court was an English politician and a member of Parliament during the reign of Henry VIII...

 of Coughton Court

Coughton Court

Coughton Court is an English Tudor country house, situated on the main road between Studley and Alcester in Warwickshire. It is a Grade I listed building....

 in Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

 and trained in the law becoming an Inner Temple

Inner Temple

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

 barrister. His mother, Hon. Katherine Vaux was the half-sister

Sibling

Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...

 of Sir Thomas Parr

Sir Thomas Parr

Sir Thomas Parr was an English knight, courtier and Lord of the Manor of Kendal in Westmorland during the Tudor period. He is best known as the father of Catherine Parr, queen consort of England and the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII.-Life:Thomas was the son of Sir William Parr of Kendal...

, making her an aunt of Queen Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr ; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen consort of England and Ireland and the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England. She married Henry VIII on 12 July 1543. She was the fourth commoner Henry had taken as his consort, and outlived him...

.

He married Margaret, the sister of George Puttenham

George Puttenham

George Puttenham was a sixteenth-century English writer, literary critic, and notorious rake. He is generally considered to be the author of the enormously influential handbook on poetry and rhetoric, The Arte of English Poesie ....

, the reputed author of 'The Arte of English Poesie'. She had links with the influential Grey family of Leicestershire.

Sir John was MP for Leicester

Leicester (UK Parliament constituency)

Leicester was a parliamentary borough in Leicestershire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1918, when it was split into three single-member divisions.-History:...

 (1545), Camelford

Camelford (UK Parliament constituency)

Camelford was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1552 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...

 (1547), Warwick

Warwick (UK Parliament constituency)

Warwick was a parliamentary borough consisting of the town of Warwick, within the larger Warwickshire constituency of England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England from 1295 to 1707, to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and then to the...

 (Mar 1553), Old Sarum

Old Sarum (UK Parliament constituency)

Old Sarum was the most infamous of the so-called 'rotten boroughs', a parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which was effectively controlled by a single person, until it was abolished under the Reform Act 1832. The constituency was the site of what had been...

 (Oct 1553) and then four times for Coventry

Coventry (UK Parliament constituency)

Coventry was a borough constituency which was represented in the House of Commons of England and its successors, the House of Commons of Great Britain and the House of Commons of the United Kingdom....

 (1554, 1555, 1558 and 1559). He was, in 1547, the first High Steward of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield appointed after the 1528 Royal Charter; and with the help of his patron, the Duke of Northumberland

Duke of Northumberland

The Duke of Northumberland is a title in the peerage of Great Britain that has been created several times. Since the third creation in 1766, the title has belonged to the House of Percy , which held the title of Earl of Northumberland from 1377....

, he became attorney to the Council in the Marches of Wales in 1550. He later held various legal positions including Recorder of Coventry, Worcester, Ludlow and Shrewsbury. He was knighted in 1565 but later fell out of favour. His career ended in disgrace after he was found guilty of giving a judgement in favour of a relative.

He is remembered more for his connections than his own achievements:

• His brother Sir Nicholas was involved with the Wyatt Rebellion of 1554.
• A relative John Throckmorton of Tortworth, Glos. was executed for involvement in the Dudley Conspiracy of 1555.
• He was the father of Francis Throckmorton
  Francis Throckmorton
  Sir Francis Throckmorton was a conspirator against Queen Elizabeth I of England.He was the son of Sir John Throckmorton and a nephew of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, one of Elizabeth's diplomats. Sir John had held the post of Chief Justice of Chester but was removed in 1579, a year before his death...
  
  , executed for treason for his part in the Throckmorton Plot of 1584 (his own death in 1582 spared him the disgrace).