John Savile, 1st Baron Savile of Pontefract

John Savile, 1st Baron Savile of Pontefract (1556–1630) was an English politician; M.P. for Lincoln, 1586: sheriff of Lincolnshire, 1590; knight of the shire for Yorkshire, 1597, 1614, 1624, and 1626; custos rotulorum of West Riding of Yorkshire; ejected from office in 1615, but reappointed in 1626. privy councillor, comptroller of house hold 1627–1630, and created Baron Savile in 1627.

John Savile was born in 1556, the son of Sir Robert Savile of Barkston, Lincolnshire (d. 1585), by his wife Anne Hussey (d. 1562), sister of John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford, and widow of Sir Richard Thimelby. His father was the illegitimate son of Sir Henry Savile of Thornhill in the West Riding of Yorkshire and had served as sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1573.

He entered parliament as member for Lincoln in 1586, and he served as sheriff of that county in 1590. On 3 October 1597 he was elected knight of the shire for the county of York, for which he was again returned in 1614. In the latter Parliament he distinguished himself by his opposition to the king, and was consequently struck off the commission of the peace at the close of the session. He was also custos rotulorum for the West Riding of Yorkshire, but is said to have made "use of his authority to satisfy his own ends". In 1615 he was removed from the office and Thomas Wentworth (afterwards Earl of Strafford) appointed in his place. There had long been bitter rivalry between the Saviles and the Wentworths, and they soon "imported their county quarrels into public affairs". According to Clarendon, Wentworth's "first inclinations and addresses to the court were only to establish his greatness in the country where he apprehended some acts of power from the old Lord Savile, who had been his rival always there, and of late had strengthened himself by being made a privy councillor and an [ 373  ] officer at court"; and he "rested not until he had bereaved him of all power and place in court, and so sent him down a most abject, disconsolate old man to his country".

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