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 400 COMPLETE PEERAGE banbury BALWHIDDER see BALQUHIDDER BAMBREICH see BALLINBREICH BANBURY EARLDOM. I. William Knollys, of Rotherfield Greys, tfcjOxon, J ^^. and of Cholcey, Caversham, i^c, Berks, 2nd s. but h. male of Sir Francis Knollys, (") K-G., by Mary, sister of Henry, Lord Hunsdon, da. of William Cary (by Mary, sister of Anne BoLEYN, Queen of Henry VIII), was i^. about 1547. Ed. at Magd. Coll., Oxford; M.A. 27 Sep. 1592. M.P. for Tregony 1572-83, for Oxon, 1584-86, 1592-93, 1597-98, and 1 601 ; knighted 7 Oct. 1586, in Holland, by Robert, Earl of Leicester. P.C. 30 Aug. 1 596 ; Lord Lieut, of Berks from that year till his death ; Comptroller of the Household 1 596-1 600 ; sue. his father in the family estates abovenamed, 19 July 1596. He was delegate to the States of Holland, 1599 ; Treasurer of the Household 1600-16 ; and was cr., by James I, 13 May 1603, BARON KNOLLYS OF GREYS, CO. Oxford ; Master of the Wards, 16 14-18 ; elected K.G. 24 Apr. and inst. 22 May 1615. On 7 Nov. 1616 he was cr. VISCOUNT WALLINGFORD, Berks ; High Steward of Oxford 1620 ; and finally, on 18 Aug. 1626, he was cr. EARL OF BANBURY, co. Oxford, with a clause " that he shall have precedency as if he had been created the first Earle after his Majestys accesse to the Crowne. " C") This precedency was disputed in Pari., but the King, sending " a gracious message " to the House of Lords, in which he " desires this may pass for once in this particular, considering how old a man this Lord is, and childless, (°) ^c, " the Lords resolved, on 9 Apr. 1628, that though "the Act of Pari., 31 Hen. VIII, is most strong and plain for the settling of the Precedency of the Peers, according to their ancienty and times of creation, " yet that they are contented that " the said Earl [of Banbury] may hold the same place, as he now stands entered, for his life only and that place of precedency not to go to his heirs ; " accordingly on the 15th, he took his seat and was " placed next to the Earl of Berks. " (^) The Earl seems to have been latterly in embarrassed circumstances, and to have alienated much of the (*) This Francis Knollys was 5th in descent from Thomas K., Mayor of London 1399 to 1400, and 1410 to 1411. V.G. (*>) For a discussion on the precedency of Peers in Pari, by Royal Warrant, see Appendix C in this volume. C^^) He was childless at the date of the patent of precedency (18 Aug. 1626), though the Countess had given birth to a son some 10 or 11 months before the date of this Royal message : a fact probably unknown to the Court. It is probable that the King, to support his Royal prerogative, made a point of Lord Banbury's preced- ence, which, at his age of 82, and as being only over six Earls, could not have been of much importance to his Lordship. C^) He thus took precedence of the Earls of Cleveland, Mulgrave, Danby, Totnes, Monmouth, and Marlborough. V.G.