Sir Richard Tempest (about 1480 – 25 August 1537) was an English landowner, courtier, soldier, administrator and legislator under Kings Henry VII and Henry VIII who was imprisoned after joining the Pilgrimage of Grace and died in jail.
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Origins and early life
Tempest was from a long established Yorkshire family who had been landowners in Yorkshire since the time of King Henry I, with their estates centred on the village of Bracewell (now in Lancashire). Richard's father, Nicholas Tempest (about 1450 – 1483), was a younger son of Sir John Tempest of Bracewell (about 1420 – 1464) and his wife Alice, daughter of Sir Robert Sherburne of Stonyhurst. His mother was Margaret Pilkington, daughter of Sir Robert Pilkington of Pilkington and his wife Joan Rawson.
His father having died when he was only about three years old, he was brought up by his uncle Sir Thomas Tempest who married him to an heiress Rosamund Bolling, daughter of Tristram Bolling and Beatrix Calverley when he was about 17 years old. Her father died 31 May 1502, leaving the couple his lands, and his uncle died in 1507, leaving Richard the family estate of Bracewell.
Career
In local administration, by 1505 he obtained a post under the Duchy of Lancaster as steward of Bradford, adding the stewardship of Blackburn in 1511, of Rochdale in 1527, of Wakefield by 1530, and of Barnoldswick by 1537. In 1523 he was receiver for the Lancashire lands of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby. By 1526 he was master forester of the Forest of Bowland, in 1527 keeper of Quernmore Park and by 1530 constable of Sandal Castle. From 1511 he was a justice of the peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire, being appointed to the bench for the East Riding in 1530 and the North Riding in 1536. As a JP he was on the commission of array for the West Riding in 1511, the commission for the subsidy tax for the whole of Yorkshire in 1512 and various other commissions over the years. In 1516 he served as high sheriff of Yorkshire.