Sampson Lennard of Chevening

Chevening

Chevening, also known as Chevening House, is a country house at Chevening in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, in England. It is an official residence of the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom...

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, was an English Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 who represented an unusually large number of different constituencies during the reigns of Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

 and James I

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

.

A prominent member of the Kent and Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

 gentry, Lennard was High Sheriff of Kent

High Sheriff of Kent

The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions...

 in 1590-1. He entered Parliament in 1571 as member for Launceston (Cornwall)

Launceston (UK Parliament constituency)

Launceston, also known at some periods as Dunheved, was a parliamentary constituency in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the British House of Commons from 1295 until 1832, and one member from 1832 until 1918...

. He subsequently also represented Bramber

Bramber (UK Parliament constituency)

Bramber was a parliamentary borough in Sussex, one of the most notorious of all the rotten boroughs. It elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in 1295, and again from 1472 until 1832, when the constituency was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:The borough consisted of...

 (1584-5), St Mawes

St Mawes (UK Parliament constituency)

St Mawes was a rotten borough in Cornwall. It returned two Members of Parliament ) to the House of Commons of England from 1562 to 1707, to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom until it was abolished by the Great Reform Act in...

 (1586-7), Christchurch

Christchurch (UK Parliament constituency)

Christchurch is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Centred on the town of Christchurch in Dorset, it elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 (1589), St Germans

St Germans (UK Parliament constituency)

St Germans was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1562 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...

 (1593), Rye

Rye (UK Parliament constituency)

Rye was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Rye in East Sussex. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until its representation was halved under the Reform Act 1832....

 (1597), Liskeard

Liskeard (UK Parliament constituency)

Liskeard was a parliamentary borough in Cornwall, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832, and then one member from 1832 until 1885, when the borough was abolished.- History :...

 (1601) and Sussex

Sussex (UK Parliament constituency)

Sussex was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832...

 (1614).

Lennard married Margaret Fiennes

Margaret Fiennes, 11th Baroness Dacre

Margaret Fiennes, 11th Baroness Dacre was a suo jure peeress having been created Baroness Dacre by King James I of England in 1604. She was the daughter of Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre who was executed for murder in the year of her birth. His title and lands had been forfeited to the crown...

 (1541–1612), daughter of Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre

Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre

Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre was an English aristocrat notable for his conviction and execution for murder.Dacre was the son of Sir Thomas Fiennes and Jane Sutton daughter of Edward Sutton, 2nd Baron Dudley...

, and after her brother's death in 1594 he successfully claimed the barony

Baron Dacre

Baron Dacre is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England, every time by writ. The first creation came in 1321 when Ralph Dacre was summoned to Parliament as Lord Dacre. He married Margaret, 2nd Baroness Multon of Gilsland, heiress of a large estate in Cumbria centred on...

 on her behalf, so that she became the 11th Baroness Dacre. They had seven children, and their younger son, Sir Henry Lennard

Henry Lennard, 12th Baron Dacre

Henry Lennard, 12th Baron Dacre was an English baron and politician. He was the son of Margaret Fiennes, 11th Baroness Dacre and Sampson Lennard.He was the Member of Parliament for West Looe and Baron Dacre....

(1570–1616), succeeded his mother as 12th Baron Dacre.