Sir Richard Dyer of Staughton (died 1605), was an English courtier, soldier, and landowner.
Richard Dyer was the son of Laurence Dyer and Jane Southe, he was a gentleman of the privy chamber to King James I.
He was the heir of his great-uncle, Sir James Dyer. [1]
He lived at Place House, Great Staughton in Huntingdonshire.
Dyer married Mary or Marie Fitzwilliam (c. 1556-1601), a daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam and Anne or Agnes Sidney (1523-1602), a daughter of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst Place and Anne Pakenham.
In June 1586 Sir Philip Sidney recommended "his cousin" Sir Richard Dyer as "very valiant" to Francis Walsingham; "I beseech you both countenance and favour him". [2]
Dyer was said to be at Tilbury in 1588, and Queen Elizabeth is supposed to have visited Place House. [3]
William Cornwallis published his Essayes in 1600, with a dedicatory letter by Henry Olney addressed to Mary, Lady Dyer, and her friends and cousins, the three daughters of Lucy Sidney; Lady Sara Hastings, Lady Theodosia Dudley, and Lady Mary Wingfield. The Wingfields lived at Kimbolton, close to Staughton. Mary, Lady Dyer, gave a silver bottle for travelling to her cousin, Elizabeth Harington, Lady Montagu (d. 1616), and she bequeathed it to her manservant for remembrance. [4]
Richard Dyer died in 1605. There is a double monument to Sir James Dyer and his wife Margaret Barrowe and Sir Richard Dyer and Mary Fitzwilliam in the church at Great Staughton. [5]
Richard Dyer and Mary Dyer had children including;
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, KG, KB, FRS was an important commander of Parliamentary forces in the First English Civil War, and for a time Oliver Cromwell's superior.
Catherine Carey, after her marriage Catherine Knollys and later known as both Lady Knollys and Dame Catherine Knollys,, was chief Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I, who was her first cousin.
Simon Forman was an Elizabethan astrologer, occultist and herbalist active in London during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and James I of England. His reputation, however, was severely tarnished after his death when he was implicated in the plot to kill Sir Thomas Overbury. Astrologers continued to revere him, while writers from Ben Jonson to Nathaniel Hawthorne came to characterize him as either a fool or an evil magician in league with the Devil.
Richard Napier was a prominent English astrologer and medical practitioner.
Sir William FitzWilliam (1526–1599) was an English Lord Justice of Ireland and afterwards Lord Deputy of Ireland. In 1587, as Governor of Fotheringhay Castle, he supervised the execution of the death sentence on Mary, Queen of Scots. He was the Member of Parliament for Peterborough and represented County Carlow in the Irish House of Commons. He lived at Gainspark, Essex, and Milton Hall.
Sir William Cornwallis was an early English essayist and served as a courtier and member of Parliament. His essays, influenced by the style of Montaigne, rather than that of Francis Bacon, became a model for later English essayists. He has sometimes been confused with his uncle of the same name.
John Harington, 1st Baron Harington of Exton in Rutland, was an English courtier and politician.
Bellott v Mountjoy was a lawsuit heard at the Court of Requests in Westminster on 11 May 1612 that involved William Shakespeare in a minor role.
Henry Edward Napier was a British naval officer and historian.
Sir William Sidney (1482?–1554) was an English courtier under Henry VIII and Edward VI.
Sir Edward Hungerford (1596–1648) of Corsham, Wiltshire and of Farleigh Castle in Wiltshire, Member of Parliament, was a Parliamentarian commander during the English Civil War. He occupied and plundered Salisbury in 1643, and took Wardour and Farleigh castles.
Edward Cromwell, 3rd Baron Cromwell was an English peer. He was the son of Henry Cromwell, 2nd Baron Cromwell by his wife Mary, daughter of John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester and his first wife Elizabeth Willoughby. His grandfather, Gregory, son of Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII, was created Baron Cromwell on 18 December 1540.
Sir Oliver Cromwell was an English landowner, lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1589 and 1625. He was the uncle of Oliver Cromwell, the Member of Parliament, general, and Lord Protector of England.
Theodosia Harington, Lady Dudley was an English aristocrat who was abandoned by her husband, but maintained connections at court through her extensive family networks.
Sir James Harington, 1st Baronet (1542–1613/4) of Ridlington, Rutland was an English politician.
Sarah Harington (1565–1629) was an English courtier.
Mabel Harington, was a courtier to Elizabeth I of England and the sixth daughter of Sir James Harington and Lucy Harington, the daughter of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst, Kent. She married Sir Andrew Noel of Dalby and Brooke, having 7 children. Later dying in 1603.
Margaret Harington an English woman in 16th-century Spain.
Sir Edward Wingfield of Kimbolton (c.1562-1603), member of Parliament and author of a masque.
Katherine Doyley Dyer notable for the epitaph she placed on her husband's tomb at Colmworth, Bedfordshire, England