John Guildford

Sir John Guildford, JP (by 1508 – 1565), of Hemsted in Benenden, also written Guilford, was an English landowner, administrator and politician.

Origins Born by 1508, he was the only son of George Guildford (died by 1537), of Hemsted, who was the second son of Sir Richard Guildford and his first wife Anne, daughter of John Pympe, of Nettlestead. His mother was Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Robert Mortimer (died 1485 at Bosworth), of Thorpe-le-Soken, and his wife Isabel, daughter of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk. His own uncles, Sir Edward Guildford and Sir Henry Guildford, were the knights of the shire for Kent. He may have sat for Gatton in later Parliaments, but the records are lost.

In 1534 he was appointed bailiff of Winchelsea, holding the post for life, and about 1537 inherited his father's property. As a landowner, he was made a justice of the peace for Kent and, in 1542, he was knighted, sitting that year in Parliament as knight of the shire for Kent and thereafter sitting on various commissions involving the county. Dorothy (died 1584), who married Sir Thomas Walsingham (died 1584) and was the mother of Sir Thomas Walsingham, patron of Christopher Marlowe. Jane, who married Robert Cranmer (died 1619), of Chepsted in Chevening, and was mother of Anne, who was first wife of the MP Sir Arthur Harris. Elizabeth, who married as his second wife the MP William Cromer (died 1598), of Tunstall, Kent, a Sheriff of Kent. Mary, who married as his first wife George Harlakenden (died 1565), of Harlakenden in Woodchurch, Kent. Anne (died 1580), who married first Walter Mayne (died 1572), of Biddenden, and secondly the MP Levin Bufkin, of Gore Court in Otham. After 1550, he married secondly Mary, widow of John Shelley (died 1550), of Michelgrove in Clapham, Sussex, and daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam, of Milton Malsor in Northamptonshire. They had a son Richard.