Individual Details

The History of Parliament, The House of Commons,1509-1558, Vol I (1982), p. 129:

[Lists his 3 wives then says:] "at least 3 other s. and 2da. [fn. 4]"

George Ferrers (1510-1579) son of Thomas Ferrers of St. Albans, mother Alice da. Of John Cockworthy of Cockworthy, Devon....

FERRERS, GEORGE (1500?-1579), poet and politician, was son of Thomas Ferrers of St. Albans, Hertfordshire, where he was born at the beginning of the sixteenth century. He took the degree of bachelor of canon law at Cambridge in 1531, and is said without authority to have studied at Oxford.
...He most probably attended Henry VIII in some civil capacity in his military expeditions. Henry marked his attachment for him by leaving him one hundred marks by will.

...At Christmas 1551 Ferrers was directed to prepare a series of pageants and pastimes on a very gorgeous scale to distract the young king, who was reported to be sorrowing over the execution of his uncle Somerset (grafTon). Instead of the ordinary title of lord of misrule borne by the director of the court festivities, Ferrers was given the superior designation of master of the king's pastimes.' The performances took place at Greenwich.

...That Ferrers was highly esteemed in his own time is undoubted. But his reputation has somewhat suffered through a mistake of Puttenham and Meres, who, writing of him at the close of the sixteenth century, wrongly designated him Edward Ferrers or Ferris. … Warton, however, after much hesitation, came to the conclusion that the only author of Edward VI's time bearing the surname of Ferrers was George Ferrers, and that the existence of Edward Ferrers as a dramatic author was due to Puttenham's and Meres's errors.
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Dictionary of National Biography, v.18 (1889)

Ferrers died in January 1578-9, and was buried at Flamstead 11 Jan. Administration of his effects was granted by the prerogative court of Canterbury 18 May 1579. He had a wife Jane, by whom he had a son, Julius
Ferrers of Markgate, who was buried at Flamstead 30 Sept. 1596.

Flamstead Manor, several miles north of Saint Albans, granted by the Crown in 1535. Member of Parliament from Plymouth in 1542.
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From The Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Mary. ed. John Gough Nichols. (London: Camden Society, 1850), 129-30.
Appendix VIII, “The Watch at the Court and in the City, on the Eve of Wyat‟s Attack,” Edward Underhill

[Re Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554 against Queen Mary]

Edward Underhyll, " the hot Gospeller," — we have his own authority that this designation was given him by some who were inclined to ridicule his Protestant zeal, — has passed into a character of some historical repute in the pages of Strype, Strickland, and Ainsworth, though he owes the preservation of his name from entire oblivion to a single document, a sort of auto-biographical narrative of his persecutions and difficulties...

The following passage, which graphically describes the state of alarm, both at the court and in the city, during Wyat's rebellion, will be found interesting...

After supper I putt one my armoure as the rest dide, for we weare apoynted to wache alle the nyght. So beyng alle armed, wee came uppe into the chamber of presens with ower pollaxes in ower handes, wherewith the ladies weare very fearefulle ; sume lamentynge, cryinge, and wryngynge ther handes, seyde,. " Alas, there is sume greate mischeffe towarde ; we shalle alle be distroyde this nyght ! Whatt a syght is this, to se the quenes chamber full of armed men ; the lyke was never sene nor harde off." Then Mr. Norres, who was a jentyllman ussher of the utter chamber in kynge Henry the viij tes tyme, and all kyng Edwardes tyme, alwayes a ranke papist, and therfore was now the cheffe ussher off quene Maryes privy chamber, he was apoynted to calle the wache, to se yff any weare lackynge...

The clarke of the cheke sought me owte, and sayde unto me, " Mr. Underhyll, yow nede nott to wache, yow maye departe to your logynge." " Maye I ? (sayde I) I wolde be glade off thatt," thynkynge I hadde byn favored, because I was nott reco- vered off my sykenes : butt I dyde not welle truste hym because he was also a papist...

So departed I into the halle where ower men weare apoynted to wache. I toke my men with me, and a lynke, and wentt my wayes. When I came to the courte gate, ther I mett with Mr. Clement Througemartone, and George Feris, tindynge ther lynges to go to London. Mr. Througemarton was cume post frome Coventry, and hadde byne with the quene to declare unto her the takynge of the duke of Suffoke. Mr. Feris was sentt from the councell unto the lorde William Hawwarde, who hadde the charge of the whache att London bryge. As we wentt, for thatt they weare bothe my frendes, and protestanes, I tolde them my goode happe, and maner of my discharge off the whache att the cowrtt.

Mr. Througemartone knoked harde, and called unto them, saynge, " Here is iij or iiij jentyllmen cum from the courte thatt must come in, and therfore opon the gate." " Who ?" cothe one, " Whatt?" cothe another, and moche laughynge they made. " Cane ye tell what ye doo, syrs ? " sayd Mr. Througmartone, declarynge his name, and that he hadd byne with the quene to showe her grace off the takynge ofl the duke off Suffoke, " and my logynge is within, as I am sure sume off you do know." " And," sayde Ferris, " I am Ferris, that was lorde off misrule with kynge Edwarde, and am sentt from the councell unto my lorde William, who hathe the charge of the brige, as yow knowe, uppon weyghtie affayres, and therfore lett us in, or eles ye be nott the quenes fryndes."

I beleve the keper wyll healpe us in att the gate, or eles lett us in thorow his wardes, for he hatthe a doore on the insyde also ; yff all this fayle I have a frend att the gate, Newmane the ierinmounger, in whose howse I have byne logede, where I dare waraunt yow we shall have logynge, or att the lest howse-rome and fyer." " Marye, this is wel sayde," (sayethe Ferris ;) so to Newgate we wentt, where was a greate wache withowte the gate, wiche my frende Newmane hadde the charge off, for that he was the cunnestable. They marveled to se those torches cumynge thatt tyme off the nyght.

Godamercy, gentyll frende (sayde Mr. Througemartone) ; I praye you lett us goo in yff it maye be." He called to the cune- a Underhyll had been recently discharged from imprisonment in Newgate, to which he was committed by the privy council, for the contents of a ballad he had " put forth in print " on the queen's accession.

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From The Unabridged Acts and Monuments Online or TAMO (HRI Online Publications, Sheffield, 2011). Available from: http//www.johnfoxe.org [Accessed: 09 June 2016]. 1576 Edition | Book 10 | Page 1419 (1553)
John Foxe's Acts and Monuments Online

These disputations being thus discoursed and ended, which were at Oxford in the moneth of April, as is aforesaid: now let vs returne againe to þe prosecuting of our story, touchyng other thinges likewise that happened in other parties of the Realme, in this tumultuous tyme of queene Mary. And because thynges that happened in that tyme, were so many & diuers, that it is hard to keepe a perfect order in recityng thē al: to the entent therfore to insert things leaft out before, or els to prosecute the same more at full, we haue thought here a litle to interrupt the order of tyme (albeit not much) returnyng againe to the moneth of Iuly the yeare before, videlicet. 1553.

In the which moneth of Iuly I shewed before how the Duke of Northumberland was apprehended by the Garde, and brought to London by the Earle of Arundel and other Lords & Gentlemen appoynted for that purpose on S. Iames day, being the. xxv. day of Iuly, and so to the Tower, where they remained. These be the names of them which were committed to the Tower with the Duke.

First, the Earle of Warwike, the Earle of Hūtington, Lord Ambrose, & Lord Henry Dudley, Lord Hastinges, who was deliuered againe the same night, sir Ioh. Gates, sir Henry Gates, sir Andrew Dudley, sir Tho. Palmer, and D. Sandes Chauncelour of Cambridge.

The. xxvi. day the Lord Marques of Northamptō, the bish. of Lōdon, Lord Robert Dudley, & sir Richard Corbet were brought and committed to the Tower.

The. xxvij. day the Lord chiefe Iustice of England, & the Lord Mountacute chiefe Iustice of the common place, were committed to the Tower.

Vpon the Fryday being the. xxviij. of Iuly, the Duke of Suffolke, and sir Iohn Cheeke were committed to the Tower.

The. xxx. of Iuly, the Lord Russel was committed to the Sheriffe of Londons custody.

The. xxxi. day the Earle of Rutland was committed to the Fleete.

Vpon the monday the last of Iuly, the Duke of Suffolke was deliuered out of the Tower againe.

Vpon thursday the third of August, the queene entred into the citie of London at Algate, & so to the Tower, wher she remayned seuen dayes, and then remoued to Richmond.

Vpon friday the fourth day, doct. Day was deliuered out of the Fleete.

Vpon saterday the v. day, the Lord feries was committed to the Tower, and the same day D. Boner was deliuered out of the Marshalsey.

The same day at night D. Cockes was cōmitted to the Marshalsey, and one master Edward Vnderhyl to Newgate. Also the same day doctor Tonstall & Ste. Gardiner were deliuered out of the Tower, and Gardiner receiued into the queenes priuie Counsaile, and made Lord Chancelor.

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From George Ferrers: A Fleetingly Famous Gentleman, Prof. Charles Beem (Univ. of North Carolina) http://www.tudorhistorian.com/pastimesofgeorgeferrers.html
Accessed 2016-06-09

(this is the first chapter of a book i have been working on for some time . . .)

Often characterized as a prim Protestant prig, in reality [King] Edward liked to be entertained, proving himself a worthy son to his father Henry VIII...

Ferrers’ failure to achieve a more lasting and durable fame is due to the fact that his career defies a conventional categorization; his resume was so variegated that his achievements have never been collectively celebrated. Indeed, he seems to have eluded the interest of scholars for precisely this reason... Indeed, the sheer diversity of his career renders his life a puzzle difficult to piece together; at various stages times he was a poet, soldier, historian, lawyer, courtier, entertainer extraordinaire, and an acquisitive landlord with an exacting management style. From his vantage point at the royal courts of the Tudor monarchs Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I, Ferrers possessed the uncanny ability to survive the falls of a series of powerful patrons and repeatedly land on his feet as he negotiated the often turbulent political, economic, and religious changes that characterized the Tudor century...

...Like the protagonist of Natalie Zemon Davis’ classic The Return of Martin Guerre (1985), Ferrers spent the vast majority of his life in obscurity, like most of his countrymen, only to occasionally become the focus of contemporary notice. He was, in fact, a textbook example of what Stephen Greenblatt has termed a Renaissance “self-fashioner,” moving from the rural periphery of the middling ranks of the gentry to a coveted place at the epicenter of the Tudor royal court … Thus, while most of George Ferrers’ life is lost to us today, it is those momentary flashes that survived in the historical record, those occasional blips on the Tudor radar, that compel us to ask startlingly original questions about our supposed certitudes about Tudor political, social, and economic life, from the perspective of a man whose life story is neither “history from the top down” nor ‘history from the bottom up” but rather somewhere on the upper levels of in-between...
...
...Born in 1510 (or perhaps 1500) in the town of St. Albans, just thirty five miles north of London in the pleasant provincial backwater of Hertfordshire, Ferrers was the son of a municipal property owner and a Devonshire heiress...

... But Ferrers remained a scholar; in 1533 bearing the primary responsibility for editing and translating The Great Boke of Statutes, and the next year, the first published English translation of Magna Carta. In November 1534 Ferrers was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn to practice law. Ferrers turned out to be a more than competent lawyer; the noted antiquarian John Leland considered him a particularly skillful orator and litigator... Thomas Cromwell, secretary to the King’s Privy Council, who found him a place in his ministerial household, most likely because of his scholarly and legal achievements. By 1538, Ferrers had risen high enough in Cromwell’s esteem to rate inclusion as a gentleman...

… catching the eye of Henry VIII himself, who apparently liked what he saw and heard from the man referred to as ‘Young Ferres,’ entering the King’s privy chamber in 1538. The next year, 1539, ‘Young Ferres’ was styled a ‘squire’ in the categories of personages slated to welcome Henry’s fourth wife Anne of Cleves’s upon her arrival to England, and later serving as man of the spears, signifying his social status as a gentleman seemingly on the fast track to knighthood, a status Ferrers never obtained over the course of his long life.... Bourchier’s wife Elizabeth came from a long line of gentry in the Caddington region of Hertfordshire, specifically in the region close to what used to be Markyate priory, a nunnery situated on a prime parcel of real estate which had been dissolved in the late 1530s along with all the rest of the former monasteries and religious lands in England. Bourchier had a lease on the lordship of Markyate, but was having a hard time coming up with the cash for outright purchase when he died in 1540. In December of 1541, at the age of 31, George’s bachelorhood ended when he married Bourchier’s widow Elizabeth, the first of his three wives...

...In 1542, Ferrers was elected MP for the borough of Plymouth,...

Like many other figures resident at the Tudor court, Ferrers proved adept in locating and attaching himself to the ever-changing locus of power at court... Ferrers was no stranger to the battlefield, and was in Somerset’s train during the 1547 Scottish campaign, as was William Cecil, who served as Somerset’s secretary...

Following the 1547 Scottish campaign, Ferrers reaped a patronage windfall, obtaining a grant of the reversion of the premises of what had been a large chunk of Marykate priory, in the areas of Flamstead and Caddington in northwest Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, with a yearly value of 28l 3s 71/2d …

As he consolidated his landholdings, Ferrers also returned as an MP to the House of Commons, perhaps aided by Sudeley, who apparently helped him obtain his seat for the borough of Cirencester in Edward’s first parliament. By this time, George had married again, this time to Jane, daughter of John Southecote of St. Albans, following the untimely (or perhaps convenient) death of his first wife Elizabeth, who had provided Ferrers with his original interest in Markyate priory...

...This is not necessarily proof of any smoldering animosity on Northumberland’s part, indeed Ferrers may not have even wanted a court post at all, which he had not obtained from Somerset either. Indeed, as we shall see, Ferrers would later enjoy indirect patronage during Elizabeth’s reign from Northumberland’s son, Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, and royal favorite extraordinaire, who provided Ferrers with the venue for his final moment on the Tudor historical stage...

… In Edward Underhill’s account, Ferrers remained prestigious enough to be sent by Mary’s Privy Council to Lord William Howard, who was in charge of the watch at London Bridge. After Ferrers joined Underhill’s party, they approached Ludgate, which was locked. Of the three men in their party, Ferrers was the most well known, as he attempted to use his fame to get inside the city walls, a tactic that failed miserably. ..

For a man of Ferrers’ apparent adaptability to changing political circumstances, his failure to enjoy favor under Mary I stands in stark contrast not only to his own previous experience under Henry VIII and Edward VI, but to the experience of individuals whose circumstances were not all that dissimilar to his. ..

Nevertheless, five months later, in May 1555, Ferrers again came to the attention of the Privy Council, in what may have been a last ditch effort to mend his fences with the Marian regime, when he accused John Dee and several other men of trying to predict the deaths of Mary and Philip, at Princess Elizabeth’s alleged instigation, following which Ferrers later claimed that one of his children died and the other was struck by blindness. .. Ferrers does not appear to have enjoyed any discernible favor directly from Elizabeth, but he suffered no ostensible retaliation either, and in fact he enjoyed the office of escheator in Bedford, Hertford, and Essex over the course of the 1560s...

During the 1560s Ferrers shied away from Elizabeth I’s royal court but continued to maintain his standing in local Hertfordshire society, culminating in his third marriage, to Elizabeth Preston in 1569, who bore him five children in the final decade of his life.... Despite his obvious devotion of letters, George once again donned the hat of national politician, elected to parliament in 1571 as MP for St. Albans... In a deposition dated 26 October 1571, Lesley stated that a certain Talbott, a servant of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and a “Corrector to the Prynters” had consulted Ferrers for his legal opinion on a number of writings, including Lesley’s, concerning Elizabeth’s title to the throne, and those of her would be successors, including the by then deceased Catherine Grey and Mary Queen of Scots. According to Lesley, Ferrers showed Talbott a book he had written in Latin concerning the right title to Elizabeth’s throne...

...Ferrers’ affinity with poet George Gascoigne, who also enjoyed Leicester’s patronage, may also have been a crucial link that made possible the opportunity for Ferrers’ lofty poetry to reach the ears of Queen Elizabeth as she entered Kenilworth castle on the evening of 9 July 1575, when she was regaled by an oration penned by Ferrers and voiced by King Arthur’s lady of the lake.

Sources
Underhill, Edward. “The Watch at the Court and in the City, on the Eve of Wyat‟s Attack”. The Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Mary. ed. John Gough Nichols. (London: Camden Society, 1850), 129-30.

… But by the middle of the seventeenth century his fame had dissipated to the point that he failed to receive a single mention in the chapter on Hertfordshire notables in Thomas Fuller’s History of the Worthies of England (London, 1660). In the early twentieth century edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 1917, 1247-48), Sidney Lee has speculated that one explanation for Ferrers’ obscurity is that late sixteenth century commentators such as George Puttenham and Francis Meres mistakenly identified Ferrers as Edward, instead of George...

Cecil S.F. Ferrers, The Ferrers Family History (Torquay, U.K.: privately printed, 1900) 1-16.

According to the Online John Foxe Project [Foxe was a Protestant historian who wrote a book about Protestant martyrs], Ferrers is identified in several Elizabethan editions of Actes and Monuments as a “Feries” that was imprisoned in the Tower in Aug. 1553, perhaps in support of the Jane Grey plot to displace Edward VI’s elder half-sister Mary in the royal succession, and a “Lord Feris” who was present at Mary I’s coronation in October. While this identification may be correct, the DNB’s assertion that Ferrers served as Lord of Misrule for Mary I’s first Christmas is unfounded.

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The Mirror for Magistrates, CUP Archive, p. 26:

Footnote 4. J.L. Chester and G.J. Armytage, Allegations for Marriage Licences Issued from the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury at London, 1543 to 1869 (London, 1886), p. 7. This is the marriage noted in Metcalf's Visitations of Hertfordshire (Harleian Society Publications, XXII [1886], 142), where the bride's name is given as “Jane, da. Of John Southcote.” Of this marriage (according to Metcalfe) was born Julius, heir to his father's estates; and probably Richard, for the Middle Temple Records (I [London, 1907], 186) lists among the admissions for April 29, 1572: “Richard Ferrers, late of Davids Inne, gent., second son of George Ferrers of Markate, Hers. Esq., generally; fine .30s. Bound with his father.”

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Middle Temple Records. Vol. 1, 1501-1603, C.H. Hopwood ed. (1904), p. 186

Listings for 1571 (see p. 184)
April 29... Richard Ferrers, late of Davids Inne, gent., second son of George Ferrers of Markate, Herts., esq., generally; fine, 30s. Bound with his father.
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Re Children

The note in the Dictionary of National Biography above does not specify by which wife or wives he had the "at least 3 other s. and 2da." But he was married to his first wife, Elizabeth Bacon (previously married to Humphrey Bourchier) from only 1541 to before 1546. I believe I saw a note they had no issue. The Wikipedia article re George states that Julius' mother was Jane Southcote, George's second wife. (They were married in 1546.) But I could find no source for Julius' mother.

Around May, 1555 during the John Dee affair, Ferrers claimed that one of his children died and the other was struck by blindness, according to Prof. Beem.

By the time George married Margaret Preston(e) in 1569 he was 59 years old and Margaret Preston had already been married at least once. But Prof. Beem of UNC states that Margaret Preston bore him 5 children, while acknowledging his age.

Of the various possibilities for the mother(s) of his children, If he had 3 or 4 sons and 2 daughters, Elizabeth Bacon (Bourchier) did not live long enough after their marriage to have had 5 or 6 children.

The Dictionary of National Biography says that Julius was the son of Jane Southcote. The Middle Temple records (see above) indicate that Richard was admitted April 29, 1572. If George and Margaret Preston were not married until 1569, obviously Richard was the product of a prior marriage which must have been Jane Southcote since Julius was the older son and heir.

If nothing else, it makes sense that the daughter Jane was likely named after her probable mother, Jane Southcote.

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The Mirror for Magistrates, CUP Archive (Google Books), p. 26 footnote 4:

Her will was probated in 1547 [fn3], but she must have died sometime before, since a licence for the marriage of George Ferrers “of the King's household” and Jane Sowthtrote” of St Albans recorded as of March 5, 1545/6. [fn4] ...

Footnote 4. J.L. Chester and G.J. Armytage, Allegations for Marriage Licences Issued from the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury at London, 1543 to 1869 (London, 1886), p. 7. This is the marriage noted in Metcalf's Visitations of Hertfordshire (Harleian Society Publications, XXII [1886], 142), where the bride's name is given as “Jane, da. Of John Southcote.” Of this marriage (according to Metcalfe) was born Julius, heir to his father's estates; and probably Richard, for the Middle Temple Records (I [London, 1907], 186) lists among the admissions for April 29, 1572: “Richard Ferrers, late of Davids Inne, gent., second son of George Ferrers of Markate, Hers. Esq., generally; fine .30s. Bound with his father.”

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From Wikipedia
George Ferrers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Magna Carta
Magna Carta (British Library Cotton MS Augustus II.106).jpg
Magna Carta, Cotton MS. Augustus II. 106, property of the British Library

George Ferrers (c. 1500 – 1579) was a courtier and writer. In an incident which arose in 1542 while he was a Member of Parliament for Plymouth in the Parliament of England, he played a key role in the development of parliamentary privilege.

As a writer, he is best remembered for his contributions to The Mirror for Magistrates. He apparently wrote plays for court performance, and was particularly praised as a writer of tragedies, but these were never published and are now lost.

Contents

1 Life
1.1 Parliamentary career and the "Ferrers Case" of 1543
1.2 Later career and work in entertainment
1.3 Involvement in Wyatt's Rebellion and with John Dee
1.4 Literary career and last years
2 Marriages and issue
3 Footnotes
4 References
5 External links

Life
George Ferrers was the eldest son of Thomas Ferrers of St Albans and his wife, Alice, the daughter of John Cockworthy of Cockworthy, Devon. He is said to have graduated as a bachelor of canon law at the University of Cambridge before being admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 22 November 1534. There is no evidence that he followed a legal career, although he was a frequent litigant, and was praised by John Leland for his oratory at the bar.[1]

According to Bindoff and Woudjuysen, Ferrers's literary interests were initially legal and antiquarian. It was apparently Ferrers who in 1533 edited and translated The Great Boke of Statutes which spanned the period from the first year of Edward III to the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Henry VIII. His translation of Magna Carta and other statutes was published in 1534. He may also have been the George Ferras who supplied Leland with information about the poet John Gower.[2]

By 1538 Ferrers had entered the service of Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. After Cromwell's fall, Ferrers entered the King's service, and was present at the reception of the King's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. From at least 1542 to 1547 he was a page of the chamber, and in 1544 attended the King in France. When Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547, he left Ferrers a small bequest in his will.[2]
Parliamentary career and the "Ferrers Case" of 1543

Ferrers sat as a member of parliament for Plymouth in 1542, 1545 and 1553, for Cirencester in 1547, for Barnstaple in April 1554, Brackley in November 1554 and 1555 and for St Albans in 1571.[3]

The most notable episode in Ferrers's political career has become known as 'Ferrers Case'. In March 1542 Ferrers was arrested for a debt of '200 marks or thereabouts' for which he had stood surety for one White of Salisbury on a loan from one Weldon, and put in the Counter, a debtors' prison in Bread Street. The arrest had been effected while Ferrers was on his way to the House of Commons, and Ferrers' fellow members ordered the Serjeant-at-Arms to obtain Ferrers' release. According to Holinshed:

there ensued a fray within the Counter gates between Ferrers and the officers, not without hurt of either part, so that the serjeant was driven to defend himself with his mace of arms, and had the crown thereof broken off by bearing off a stroke, and his man struck down.[4]

The two sheriffs of London arrived, but when the Serjeant demanded Ferrers' release, the sheriffs, according to Holinshed, treated the request "contemptuously, with many proud words".[4]

Weldon, the creditor who had instigated the arrest, and the two sheriffs and others were then summoned before the Commons on 28 March 1542 to answer charges of breach of parliamentary privilege, and were committed to the Tower for two days. The matter was referred to the Privy Council, and the King claimed privilege for his servants' attendance upon the business of parliament, stating that:

We be informed by our judges that we at no time stand so highly in our estate royal as in the time of Parliament, wherein we as head and you as members are conjoined and knit together into one body politic, so that whatsoever offence or injury during that time is offered to the meanest members of the House is to be judged as done against our person and the whole court of Parliament.[5]

The incident thus established the immunity of members of the Commons from civil arrest while the House was in session.[6]

Later career and work in entertainment
During the Scottish campaign of 1547 Ferrers was a commissioner of transport, and is described by William Patten in The Late Expedition in Scotland as being at the time ‘a gentleman of my lord Protectors’. Ferrers survived Somerset's downfall in October 1549 and execution in January 1552, and was appointed by the Duke of Northumberland to devise entertainments to amuse the young King Edward VI during the Christmas season of 1551–2.[6] The then Master of the Revels, Sir Thomas Cawarden (a former fellow page of the chamber with Ferrers), was told by Northumberland to assist Ferrers. Material relating to the preparation of the entertainments is in the Revels accounts in the Loseley manuscripts (now in the Folger Shakespeare Library). The Acts of the Privy Council record that Northumberland paid Ferrers £50, and that the entire entertainment cost about £500. Ferrers is reported by the chronicler Richard Grafton to have outdone his predecessors:

in shew of sundry sightes and devises of rare invention, and in act of divers enterludes and matters of pastime, played by persons, as not onely satisfied the common sorte, but also were very well liked and allowed by the counsayle and other of skill in the like pastimes.[7]

Ferrers was reappointed as Lord of Misrule to devise entertainments during the 1552-1553 Christmas season, and as in the previous year there were jousting, a mock midsummer show, a visit to the city of London, and various masques, and on Twelfth Night a triumph of Cupid, Venus, and Mars, devised by Sir George Howard, Master of the Henchmen, and produced by Ferrers.[7] Ferrers was rewarded by a grant of an estate at Flamstead. He was again reappointed during the Christmas season of 1553–4 by the new Queen, Mary I.

Involvement in Wyatt's Rebellion and with John Dee
In 1554 Ferrers was awarded £100 for services during Wyatt's rebellion.[8]

In spring and early summer 1555 Ferrers, with John Prideaux, accused John Dee and his associates, including Sir Thomas Benger, of conjuring, casting nativities, plotting on behalf of Princess Elizabeth against King Philip and Queen Mary, and bewitching Ferrers's children. On or about 26 May 1555 Dee was arrested, and he and his associates were later imprisoned. On 4 June the Privy Council sought information concerning Ferrers's own whereabouts. After this incident there is little trace of Ferrers, and no record that he was at court during Queen Elizabeth's reign, although he was appointed escheator for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 1562–3 and for Essex and Hertfordshire in 1566–7.[9]

Literary career and last years
According to Woudhuysen, 'William Baldwin was instrumental in the creation of Ferrers's largest surviving literary work, his contributions to The Mirror for Magistrates, in which he was also associated with Sir Thomas Chaloner and Thomas Phaer'. Woudhuysen conjectures that Ferrers wrote several pieces for a suppressed edition of The Mirror for Magistrates published about 1554 which survives only in fragments. The 1559 edition includes his tragedies of Tresilian and Thomas of Woodstock, but his other contributions were suppressed in that edition, and not printed until several years later.[6]

According to John Stow, Ferrers wrote the part of Richard Grafton's Chronicle (1568–9) dealing with the reign of Queen Mary, an allegation which Grafton denied, but Stow insisted upon. Stow and Grafton were in dispute, as Grafton had plagiarised part of Stow's own chronicle history of England. Bindoff states that Ferrers "almost certainly wrote a number of masques and plays for performance at court and elsewhere" which are lost. Ferrers also contributed verses to Leicester's lavish entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle in July 1575.[6]

Confusion concerning Ferrers' literary career was engendered in 1589 by the author of The Arte of English Poesie (thought to be George Puttenham), who in comparing Ferrers to other poets of the reign of Edward VI stated that he was "the principal man in this profession", and in relation to the others "a man of no less mirth & felicity … but of much more skill, & magnificence in his meter, and therefore wrate for the most part to the stage, in Tragedy and sometimes in Comedy or Interlude, wherein he gave the king so much good recreation, as he had thereby many good rewards". Puttenham later praised Lord Buckhurst and Ferrers "for tragedy", saying that "for such doings as I have seen of theirs [they] do deserve the highest praise".[10] Unfortunately in both statements Puttenham erroneously gave Ferrers the first name Edward, spelling his name "Edward Ferrys". This misidentification was copied by Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia in 1598, and repeated by later historians and literary critics until corrected by Sir Sidney Lee in the Dictionary of National Biography.[7]

Little is known of Ferrers' last years. Ferrers had been a member of Parliament for several constituencies during the years 1542-1555, and in 1571 he was returned for St Albans.[11] He is said to have supported the claim to the succession of Mary, Queen of Scots, and to have corresponded with her agent in England, John Lesley, Bishop of Ross.[7] Ferrers died at Flamstead in Hertfordshire, and was buried there on 11 January 1579.[12]

Marriages and issue
Ferrers' first wife was Elizabeth, the widow of his friend Humphrey Bourchier (d.1540), whom he married by 10 December 1541. On 29 July 1548 he obtained the reversion of her right to the lease of Markyate Priory.[2] His second wife was Jane, the daughter of John Southcote of St Albans, whom he married by licence dated 5 March 1546, and with whom he had a son, Julius. Ferrers married, as his third wife, by licence dated 29 November 1569, Margaret Preston, by whom he had at least three other sons and two daughters.[11]

Footnotes
Woudhuysen 2004; Bindoff 1982, pp. 129–130
Woudhuysen 2004; Bindoff 1982, p. 130
"FERRERS, George (1510-79), of Markyate and Flamstead, Herts.". History of Parliament online. Retrieved 2011-12-28.
Holinshed 1808, p. 824
Holinshed 1808, pp. 825–6
Woudhuysen 2004; Bindoff 1982, pp. 130–131
Woudhuysen 2004
Bindoff 1982, p. 130; Woudhuysen 2004
Bindoff 1982, pp. 130–131; Woudhuysen 2004
Willcock 1936, pp. 60, 63
Bindoff 1982, pp. 129–130; Woudhuysen 2004
Bindoff 1982, p. 131; Woudhuysen 2004

References
Bindoff, S.T. (1982). The House of Commons 1509-1558 II. London: Secker & Warburg.
Holinshed, Raphael (1808). Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland III. London. p. 824.
Journal of the House of Lords. I, 1509-1577. 1802. p. 196.
Powell, J. Enoch (1966). Great Parliamentary Occasions. Queen Anne Press.
Willcock, Gladys Doidge; Alice Walker, eds. (1936). The Arte of English Poesie by George Puttenham. London: Cambridge University Press. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthor= (help)
Woudhuysen, H.R. (2004). Ferrers, George (c.1510–1579), courtier and poet. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Birth	1510	St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England
Education	1531	Degree of Bachelor of Canon Law
Miscellaneous	22 Nov 1534	Barrister; Admitted to Lincoln's Inn, London
Marriage	Bef 10 Dec 1541	Elizabeth Bacon
Occupation	1542	Member of Parliament from Plymouth
Residence	1542	Flamstead Manor granted by the Crown - Flamstead, England
Marriage	5 Mar 1546	Jane Southcote
Miscellaneous	Abt 1551	Attended King Henry VIII
Marriage	26 Nov 1569	Margaret Preston
Death	1579
Alt name		George Ferris
Alt name		George Feris
Alt name		Lord George Feries
Religion		Protestant
Residence		Markyate, Saint Albans, Hertfordshire, England
Burial	11 January 1578/9	St Leonard's Church, Flamstead, Hertfordshire, England

Spouse	Margaret Preston ( - )
Child	GF-1579-Sons1-3 Ferrers ( - )

Spouse	Jane Southcote ( - )
Child	Julius Ferrers ( - 1596)
Child	Richard Ferrers ( - 1598)
Child	Jane Ferrers ( - )
Child	Mary Ferrers ( - )

Spouse

Elizabeth Bacon (1523 - )

Father	Thomas Ferrers (1472 - )
Mother	Alice Cockworthy ( - )
Sibling	Giles Ferrers ( - )