Sir Thomas Monson, 1st Baronet

Illustration : [Sir Thomas Monson and his son John, who succeeded him as baronet]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Thomas_Monson,_1st_Baronet

Sir Thomas was the son of Sir John Monson of South Carlton, Lincolnshire, a past High Sheriff of Lincolnshire. Sir Thomas's younger brother was Admiral Sir William Monson. Thomas was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, matriculating at the age of fifteen in December 1579, and at Gray's Inn, where he was admitted a student in 1583.

He died in 1641 and was buried in South Carlton. He had married Margaret Anderson, the daughter of Sir Edmund Anderson, with whom he had four sons and five daughters. His eldest son and heir was John Monson (1600–1683), a member of parliament under Charles I.

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Monson, Thomas

MONSON, Sir THOMAS (1564–1641), master of the armoury at the Tower, eldest surviving son of Sir John Monson, knight, by Jane, daughter of Robert Dighton of Little Sturton, Lincolnshire, and elder brother of Admiral Sir William Monson [q. v.], was born in 1564 at his father's manor at South Carlton, Lincolnshire. Robert Monson [q. v.] was his granduncle. Thomas matriculated, aged fifteen, 9 Dec. 1579, from Magdalen College, Oxford, but left the university without a degree. He was created M.A. on 30 Aug. 1605, when he accompanied James I on a visit to Oxford. He was knighted the year of the Armada (1588), and in 1593 succeeded to all his father's estates in Lincolnshire and to Dunham Manor in Nottinghamshire. He first entered parliament on 10 Oct. 1597 as member for Lincoln county, sat for Castle Rising in 1603-4, and Cricklade in 1614 (Official Returns).

Monson spent his old age in retirement. He amused himself by writing a book of advice for his grandson: ‘An Essay on Afflictions,’ printed 1661–2, and another on ‘Fasting, Adoration, and Prayer.’ He was an accomplished man, ‘a great lover of music.’ He seems to have educated young musicians ‘as good as England had,’ especially singers, in his household, and ‘was at infinite charge in breeding some [singers] in Italy.’ His enemies called him ‘proud and odious.’ He died at South Carlton in May 1641, aged 77, and was buried 29 May in the church there. By his wife Margaret (d. 1630), daughter of Sir Edmund Anderson [q. v.], lord chief justice of the common pleas, he had four sons, three of whom lived to maturity, and four daughters. His eldest son, Sir John (1600–1683), and the second, Sir William (d. 1672?), are separately noticed.