In November 1606 he was one of the barons of the exchequer who decided that the king was ‘entitled by his sole prerogative to levy impositions upon imports and exports,’ a decision that has been received by posterity with universal disfavour (Gardiner, ii. 6). Savile died on 2 Feb. 1606–7, and was buried in the church of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, London; his heart was conveyed to Methley in Yorkshire, in the church of which a handsome monument, with an inscription, was erected to his memory.
Savile was four times married: first, to Jane, daughter of Richard Garth of Morden, Surrey, by whom he had issue Henry Savile (see below) and two daughters; secondly, to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Wentworth of North Elmsall, Yorkshire, by whom he had issue John (d. 1651), who was heir to his half-brother Henry, and great-grandfather of John Savile, first earl of Mexborough (1720–1778); thirdly, to Dorothy, daughter of Thomas, first baron Wentworth (d. 1551), and widow of Sir W. Widmerpoole and then of Sir Martin Frobisher [q. v.]; and fourthly, to Margery, daughter of Ambrose Peake, citizen of London, and widow of Sir Jerome Weston. By the last two Savile had no issue.
Like several other members of his family, Savile was an intimate friend of Camden, whom he entertained at Bradley in August 1599 (Gent. Mag. 1852, i. 270, 271). One of his letters to Camden, pointing out errors in the ‘Britannia,’ is printed in ‘Camdeni et Illustrium Virorum Epistolæ,’ 1691, 4to, pp. 36–9. Savile was himself an original member of the Society of Antiquaries, founded by Archbishop Parker in 1572, and is said by Wood to have left behind him ‘certain things fit for the press;’ but the only published work of his is the collection of ‘Reports’ of cases tried in the exchequer court, edited (1675, fol.) by John Robertson, with a preface containing a poor account of him and his family (cf. Bridgman, Legal Bibliography, p. 297; Wallace, Reporters, 1855, p. 142). The judge must be distinguished from a contemporary John Savile, ‘a great pretender to poetry,’ who published ‘King James his entertainment at Theobalds, with his welcome to London, and a salutatory Poem,’ London, 1603, 4to, which Halliwell erroneously styles a play (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. i. 774; Fleay, English Drama, ii. 175).
Sir Henry Savile (1579–1632), the eldest son, born in 1579, matriculated from Merton College, Oxford, on 4 Feb. 1583–4, but left without a degree, entering Middle Temple in 1593. He was knighted at the coronation of James I, on 23 July 1603, and created a baronet on 29 June 1611. He represented Aldborough in parliament from 1604 to 1611, and again in 1614. Before 1627 he became vice-president of the council of the north, serving under Wentworth. In the following year he was sheriff of Yorkshire, and in 1629 was knight of the shire in parliament. He died on 23 June 1632, having married Mary, daughter of John Dent, citizen of London, by whom he had three sons, all of whom predeceased him without issue. The baronetcy consequently expired on his death. His widow married Sir William Sheffield.
[Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1581–1610; Hunter's Antiquarian Notices of Lupset; Official Return of Members of Parliament; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. i. 773–4; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, iii. 162–3; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 153; Burke's Extinct Baronetage and Extinct Peerage; Foster's Yorkshire Pedigrees; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. v. 366; Forster's Life of Strafford (sometimes ascribed to Robert Browning), 1892, p. 70; Foss's Lives of the Judges.]
SAVILE, JOHN, first Baron Savile of Pontefract (1556–1630), born in 1556, was son of Sir Robert Savile of Barkston, Lincolnshire, by his wife, sister of John, baron Hussey, and widow of Sir Richard Thimelby. The father was illegitimate son of Sir Henry Savile of Thornhill in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and served as sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1572. John entered parliament as member for Lincoln in 1586, and he served as sheriff of that county in 1600. On 3 Oct. 1597 he was elected knight of the shire for the county of York, for which he was again returned in 1614. In the latter parliament he distinguished himself by his opposition to the king, and was consequently struck off the commission of the peace at the close of the session (Gardiner, ii. 249). He was also custos rotulorum for the West Riding of Yorkshire, but is said to have made ‘use of his authority to satisfy his own ends.’ In 1615 he was removed from the office and Thomas Wentworth (afterwards Earl of Strafford) appointed in his place. There had long been bitter rivalry between the Saviles and the Wentworths, and they soon ‘imported their county quarrels into public affairs’ (Ranke, ii. 202–3). According to Clarendon, Wentworth's ‘first inclinations and addresses to the court were only to establish his greatness in the country where he apprehended some acts of power from the old Lord Savile, who had been his rival always there, and of late had strengthened himself by being made a privy councillor and an
