Richard Lewknor (1542–1616)

Sir Richard Lewknor (bapt. 14 March 1541 – 6 April 1616) of Downeley, West Dean, Sussex, was an English politician.

He was the son of Edmund Lewknor of Tangmere, Sussex and the brother of Thomas Lewknor, MP. He was educated at the Middle Temple and there called to the bar.

Career
He was made a bencher in 1581 and sergeant-at-law in 1594. He was appointed Recorder of Chichester from 1588 to 1590 and a judge on the Chester circuit in 1589, where he was promoted to be Chief Justice of Chester in 1603, a position he held until his death. As a judge he was impartial although a staunch Catholic, even sentencing four Catholic priests to death. He also held a number of public commissions during his career and was knighted in 1600.

He was elected Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Chichester in 1572, 1584, 1586, 1589, 1593 and 1597. In Parliament he sat on a number of committees.

He moved to Wales after his appointment as Chief Justice of Chester and effectively ran the country for some time between the death in 1601 of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, the Lord President of Wales and the arrival of the new Lord President, Lord Zouch, in 1602.

Private life
He married twice. From his first marriage he had two sons, Thomas Lewknor who died without issue and Richard Lewknor of West Dean in Sussex who married Eleanor, daughter of Sir Christopher Brome of Holton, Oxfordshire. Through his son Richard he was the grandfather of Richard Lewknor and Christopher Lewknor, both also Members of Parliament.

After his first wife's death he married Margaret, the daughter of Thomas Atkins of London and widow of both Thomas Hughes, the royal physician and Stephen Hadnall of Lancelevy, Hampshire.

He was a second cousin of Jane Lewknor. In 1589, he bought the manor of West Dean, which was left to his grandson Richard Lewknor at his death in 1616.