page_title: Edward Lewknor (died 1605)
section_title: Parliament
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Lewknor (died 1605) / Parliament
caption_attribution_description: English: Sculpture of Sir Edward Lewkenor, from his tomb.
context_page_description: Sir Edward Lewknor or Lewkenor was a prominent member of the puritan gentry in East Anglia in the later Elizabethan period, and an important voice on religious matters in the English Parliament.
context_section_description: Lewkenor was sponsored in a successful Parliamentary career by Puritan sympathisers such as the Earl of Leicester, with whose help in 1571 he was elected MP for Tamworth. In 1572 he was elected MP for New Shoreham, near his ancestral domains. He was then elected for Maldon in 1584 and 1586. Lewknor, Sir John Heigham (knighted 1579, MP for Ipswich in 1584 and for Suffolk in 1586) and Sir Robert Jermyn (MP for Suffolk in the same parliaments) led a strongly Puritan faction in Parliament, often working together in committee, advocating the importance of a learned clergy and the reform of episcopal powers and activities, with which Jermyn in particular came into direct confrontation.
  In 1584 Lewkenor was involved with a bill for the more reverent observation of the Sabbath – which, as an intervention in Church affairs, met with royal resistance. Later in that year he served on a committee to consider petitions for the liberties of godly preachers. In 1585 he offered a petition concerning abuses in the ministry on behalf of the people of Sussex, simultaneously overseeing the formulation of an official prayer of thanksgiving to God for the great benefits bestowed upon the realm by Queen Elizabeth, to be used in Parliamentary proceedings. In late 1586, in test or proof of this loyalty, he, Heigham and Jermyn were appointed with others to consider a means by which Mary, Queen of Scots might be brought to the execution of justice.
  This, however, did not protect him when, in 1587, a revised Book of Common Prayer and accompanying bill were put before the House by Anthony Cope, M.P. for Banbury, Oxfordshire. It was hoped thereby to reform certain problems in ecclesiastical affairs, and the proposer asked for it to be read and to be approved to replace the existing books in all churches. Lewkenor was among those who spoke, solemnly but unsuccessfully, in favour of its reading. These proceedings caused immediate royal disapproval, and when an issue of freedom of speech was raised the Member doing so (Peter Wentworth) was sent to the Tower of London. On the following day Cope and three others including Edward Lewkenor were also imprisoned there. Sir John Heigham and Sir Robert Jermyn were among those appointed 11 days later to consider their release: their durance lasted about a month.
caption: Sir Edward Lewkenor (d. 1605).
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