Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Constable, Henry (d.1645)
CONSTABLE, HENRY, Viscount Dunbar (d. 1645), was son of Henry Constable of Burton and Halsham in the West Riding of Yorkshire, sheriff of the county in 1556 and M.P. for Heydon 1585–8 and 1603–8, by Margaret, daughter of Sir William Dormer of Winthorp, Buckinghamshire (Drake, Yorkshire, p. 354; Willis, Not. Parl.) His mother was reputed an obstinate recusant, not to be ‘reformed by any persuasion, or yet by coercion’ (Strype, Annals, fol. iii. ii. 179 ad fin.) On the death of his father in 1608 he succeeded to the family estates. He was knighted at the Tower of London on 14 March 1614, and created Baron Constable and Viscount Dunbar in the peerage of Scotland by patent dated at Newmarket 14 Nov. 1620. About the same time he was appointed deputy-justice in eyre for Galtres Forest (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1623–5, p. 219). He was charged with recusancy to the extent of not frequenting church in 1629, but obtained a stay of process and a letter of immunity from the king (ib. 1628–9, p. 522, 1635, p. 141). He was apparently much addicted to gaming, losing on one occasion 3,000l. at a sitting (ib. 1635–6, p. 462). He died in 1645. Constable married Mary, second daughter of Sir John Tufton of Hothfield, Kent. He was succeeded in the title and estates by his son John.
[Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, i. 457; Nichols's Progresses of James I, vi. 629; Poulson's Holderness, i. 89, ii. 233.]