Coventry, George William, 7th Earl of Coventry (1758 -1831)

Sir Walter Covert, of Slaugham in Sussex, was the second, but eldest surviving son of Richard Covert, of Slaugham, and his first wife, Anne, daughter and coheir of Sir Walter Hendley, of Cranbrook, in Kent. He was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1567, and married, firstly, Timothea, daughter of John Lennard, of Chevening in Kent, and secondly, Jane, daughter of John Shurley, of Isfield. He entered Parliament as one of the Members for Sussex at a by election in 1572, and succeeded his father in all the considerable family estates in 1579. At the next general election in 1584, he was unable to represent his county as he was Sheriff for Sussex. Instead he was returned for the Cornish Borough of Newport iuxta Launceton, probably through the influence of Lord Burghley. He represented Sussex again in 1586, missed the 1589 Parliament, and in 1593 represented the Borough of Petersfield, as he was again Sheriff for the county. Knighted in 1591, he did not sit in Parliament again during Elizabeth's reign, but represented Sussex in 1614 and 1626. He was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for Sussex. When he died in 1632, Covert made provisions for his widow, but no mention is made of children, and Slaugham, after his widow's death, passed to Walter Covert, the son of Anne, daughter of his brother John, who had married her distant cousin, Walter Covert, of Vinters, at Boxley in Kent in 1608.