Go To Section
KEMPE, James (by 1523-1566 or later), of Kentish Town and Acton, Mdx.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. by 1523, s. of Edmund Kempe of London by Bridget, da. of John Style. m. lic. 12 June 1544, Anne Powle of London, 2s. 2da.1
Offices Held
Biography
Although born in London Kempe may have been of Cornish descent. A family of this name lived near Liskeard, but his return there to Mary’s second Parliament was probably the work of Sir John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, and another of the Queen’s Councillors, Kempe’s kinsman Sir Henry Bedingfield. The Journal does not mention Kempe. His father, from whom he inherited a house and land in Acton, had been a merchant, but nothing has come to light of his own trade or calling. In 1549 he was assessed as a resident of Kentish Town at £10 for the subsidy. In 1552 he received a black gown and a ring under the will of his courtier ‘cousin’ Sir Humphrey Style of Beckenham, Kent, and four years later he was presented with several others before the manorial court of the Countess of Bedford at Acton for pasturing land which he had agreed to sow. His name appears on the subsidy roll for 1563 under Acton where he, his wife, sister and brother-in-law paid a fine for property in 1566. In the absence of a will or an inquisition post mortem the date of his death is not known.2