Sir Francis [q. v.] and two daughters, Margaret and Katherine.
[Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ed. Brewer and Gardiner, passim; Harrison's Annals of an Old Manor House, pp. 31–65; Manning and Bray's History of Surrey, i. 133, 134.]
WESTON, RICHARD, first Earl of Portland (1577–1635), baptised at his mother's home, Chicheley, Buckinghamshire, on 1 March 1576–7, was the eldest son of Sir Jerome Weston of Skreens in Roxwell, Essex, by his first wife, Mary (d. 1593), daughter and coheir of Anthony Cave of Chicheley. According to an elaborate pedigree fabricated for Portland's benefit in 1632 by Henry Lilly [q. v.], then rouge croix, certified by Sir William Segar [q. v.], engrossed on vellum, extant in British Museum Additional MS. 18667, and printed in Erdeswick's ‘Staffordshire’ (ed. Harwood, p. 164), Portland was descended from the ancient family of Weston, represented in the sixteenth century by Robert Weston [q. v.], lord chancellor of Ireland, who is erroneously said to have been brother of Portland's grandfather, Richard Weston (d. 1572), justice of the common pleas. The judge is represented as second son of John Weston of Lichfield by Lady Cecily Neville, but there is no proof that this branch of the Weston family had any connection with Staffordshire; and Morant's statement, that he came from an Essex family, is more probably correct. His grandfather seems to have been William Weston (d. 1515), whose fourth son, John, was father of the judge (see an elaborate examination of the Weston genealogy in Chester Waters, Chesters of Chicheley, pp. 93 sqq.). He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple, where he was reader in the autumn of 1554, and on 10 Oct. 1555 was returned to parliament for Maldon, Essex; on 20 Nov. 1557 he was appointed solicitor-general, was called to the degree of the coif on 24 Jan., and made queen's serjeant on 13 Feb. 1558–9. On 16 Oct. 1559 he was raised to the bench as justice of common pleas, and retained his seat until his death on 6 July 1572. With the proceeds of his lucrative practice he purchased in 1554 Skreens in Roxwell, Essex, which he made the family seat. He was thrice married, and by his first wife, Wiburga, daughter of Thomas Catesby of Seaton, Northamptonshire, was father of Sir Jerome Weston (1550?–1603), high sheriff of Essex in 1599, who married twice, died on 31 Dec. 1603, and was buried at Skreens on 17 Jan. 1603–4.
Sir Jerome's son, Richard, was educated in the legal profession at the Middle Temple, like many of his relatives. According to Clarendon, his education was ‘very good amongst books and men. After some years' study of the law in the Middle Temple, and at an age fit to make observations and reflections … he travelled into foreign parts (Rebellion, bk. i. § 102). On 28 Sept. 1601 he was returned to parliament for his grandfather's old constituency, Maldon, Essex. He was knighted by James I on 23 July 1603, and succeeded his father on 31 Dec. Possibly he was too much occupied with his new property to secure his return for Maldon at the general election in February 1603–4, but on 29 March he was returned at a by-election for Midhurst, Sussex. On 20 Feb. he had been appointed keeper of the king's deer in Windsor Forest, and on 30 May received a further grant of his expenses in building a new lodge there. On 23 Feb. he was granted protection for three months, and on 14 Oct. for six months, possibly when going abroad on some minor diplomatic employment. According to Clarendon, Weston spent most of his father's fortune in attendance at court before being rewarded with any preferment; but it seems unlikely that he was the Sir Richard Weston who was accused of ‘dishonesty towards his majesty’ by Salisbury, and was ‘likely to die of starvation’ in prison in April 1609 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1603–10, pp. 503, 553). Probably these notes refer to Sir Richard Weston (1564–1613), the father of Sir Richard Weston (1591–1652) [q. v.] On 22 June 1612 he was recommended for the deputy-lieutenancy of Middlesex; on 1 July 1616 he was granted the collectorship of ‘little’ customs in the port of London (ib. 1611–18, pp. 135, 378); and in January 1617–18 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the chancellorship of the duchy of Lancaster (Court and Times of James I, ii. 61). On 12 Feb., however, on the reorganisation of the naval administration, he was appointed joint commissioner, comptroller, and surveyor of the navy (Oppenheim, Administration of the Navy, 1896, p. 195); in the Short parliament of April–June 1614 he was knight of the shire for Essex (Official Return, App. p. xxxviii; Court and Times of James I, i. 235).
Weston had hitherto been known only as a courtier and a competent man of business, but in June 1620 he was selected for important diplomatic employment. Almost all the branches of the Weston family had retained a secret or open attachment to the Roman catholic religion. Sir Richard was no exception, and with this religious belief went
