Richard Corbet (died 1606)

Sir Richard Corbet (c.1545–1606) was an English landowner and politician of the Elizabethan period.

Richard Corbet the second son of

His parent's marriage had been arranged by Sir Andrew's uncle, Richard Corbet, who acquired his wardship after the early death of Roger Corbet. Their first son was Robert. Richard was born in about 1545, two or three years after his brother. His name had been common in the Corbet family for generations but the choice might have been a tribute to his great-uncle Richard, who remained close to Sir Andrew and his family even after the wardship ended in 1543. Sir Andrew and Jane were to have four more sons and six daughters.

Richard Corbet was probably educated at Shrewsbury School. The family historian Augusta Corbet, maintained that:

However, the school was not opened until 1552 and Ashton was not appointed until 1561, so it is unlikely that Richard studied under his headship for more than a couple of years, if at all. It is unclear from such scanty evidence which of Sir Andrew's sons studied at the school, although the argument for Richard being among the three mentioned is much stronger than for his elder brother. The Corbets had numerous links to the school. Reginald Corbet, another of Sir Andrew's uncles, had been a leading figure in agitating for its establishment. The first head, Thomas Ashton knew Sir Andrew well and wrote to Burghley praising him. The school had a Calvinist ethos and was the obvious place for Protestant gentry to send their sons: Philip Sidney was placed there by his father, Henry Sidney, the president of the Council in the Marches, and a close friend of the Corbets.

Richard Corbet, as a younger son, was not destined to inherit the Corbet estates. He married Mary Morgan, daughter of Morgan Wolfe of Meriden, then in Warwickshire. Corbet is said to have adopted as his main residence Meriden, "which his first wife had received as her dower." However, this seems to rest on Augusta Corbet's construction of events, i.e. that he "lived chiefly at Meriden, where he had inherited his first wife's property in Warwickshire." The term dower generally refers to property signed over to a woman by her husband or his family. Corbet's wife, Mary, was the widow of Thomas Lee of Clattercote, Oxfordshire. It was Clattercote that was she held for life after her first husband's death, although the reversion was held by Lee's nephew, William Watson. Corbet bought the reversion from Watson in 1582, securing Clattercote for himself, should his wife die, and it was possibly their main residence. He later left it to his second wife, Judith Austin, for her life.

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