Maurice Denys

Sir Maurice Denys (1516–1563) of St John's Street, Clerkenwell, London and Siston Court, Gloucestershire, was an English lawyer in London and a property speculator during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, during which period he served as a "powerful figure at the Court of Augmentations". He served as Member of Parliament for Malmesbury in Wiltshire and as Treasurer of Calais. He was the builder of Siston Court in Gloucestershire, which survives largely unaltered since his time.

Denys was the second son of Sir William Denys (died 1533) of Dyrham, Gloucestershire, a courtier of King Henry VIII, by his second wife Anne Berkeley, daughter of Maurice Berkeley, de jure 3rd Baron Berkeley (1436–1506). His father was a great-grandson of Sir Gilbert Denys (died 1422) of Waterton, Glamorgan, who had settled in Gloucestershire following his first marriage in 1379 to Margaret Corbet, heiress of Siston.

Denys entered the Inner Temple in London, where he received legal training, and was appointed Marshal (1542-4, 1546), Steward (1545-6) and Bencher (1547).

In 1537 he was granted by King Henry VIII the Receivership of the former Order of Saint John. This may have been due to his eldest brother, Sir Walter Denys, having married Margaret Weston, daughter of Sir Richard Weston(d.1541) of Sutton Place, Surrey, elder brother of Sir William Weston, the last prior of the Order before its dissolution. Denys took up residence at Clerkenwell, which had been the Order's headquarters and also at St John's Jerusalem, its former Commandery at Sutton-at-Hone in Kent. He continued as Receiver of the Order until 1544, and after that was Receiver jointly with Thomas Poley.

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