Sir Thomas Smith, Kt., MP

Family and Education

• b. c.1556, son of Thomas Smith, ?mayor of Abingdon 1583-4, by Joan Jennings;
• brother of Richard.
• educ. Abingdon free sch.; Christ Church, Oxf. student 1573, BA 1574, MA 1578.
• m. by 1604, Frances, daughter of William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos of Sudeley, Gloucester, 1 son d.v.p. 1 daughter.
• Knighted May 1603.[1]

Offices Held

• Public orator, Oxford Univ. 1582, proctor 1584;
• secretary to the Earl of Essex prob. by 1587, certainly by 1591-1601;
• clerk of PC 1587-1605;
• clerk of the Parliaments from 1597;
• Latin secretary from June 1603;
• master of requests from 1608.[2]

Biography

Smith came from a Berkshire family, and may have been related to the Richard Smith (d. c.1568) who was gentleman usher to the Queen. He probably entered the Earl of Essex’s service before 1587, if, as is likely, he obtained his clerkship of the Council through the Earl. In 1588 he was returned as a Member for Cricklade, no doubt being nominated by Giles Brydges, 3rd Baron Chandos, whose niece he was to marry later.[3]

In December 1591 Smith wrote to Cecil from Oxford to support his master’s claim to the chancellorship of the university in succession to (Sir) Christopher Hatton. He asserted that Essex had ‘many more voices than any other’, and appealed to Cecil against those prepared to sacrifice the university’s liberty by soliciting a court nomination, in order to keep Essex out. In September 1592 at Oxford he took a leading part in a disputation before the Queen, who thought his speech ‘too long’. He was brought into Parliament by Essex for Tamworth in 1593. No activity can be ascribed to Smith in either of his two Parliaments.[4]

In July 1597 Smith petitioned Cecil—having, he said, no-one else to rely on, in Essex’s absence abroad—for the clerkship of the Parliaments, left vacant by the death of Anthony Wyckes, another Abingdon man. He assured Cecil that the office was ‘of small commodity, and may well enough be executed by me, notwithstanding the place of service I have already in the court’. He obtained the office against competition from Robert Bowyer II, and may have helped to raise the standard of the Lords’ journals. He continued right up to the winter of 1600-1, to hold both his job with Essex and his clerkship of the Privy Council. He described the Earl in the generosity of his more fortunate days, as ‘yielding moisture unto the dried and withered plants’ such as himself, but during Essex’s eclipse in the autumn of 1599 declared ‘the court is the only school of wisdom in the world’ and he avoided any implication in the Earl’s final downfall: he was not the Thomas Smith imprisoned for several months after the rebellion in February 1601.[5]

In 1605 he seems to have been persuaded by Robert Cecil, then Earl of Salisbury, to resign his clerkship of the Council, possibly in favour of Edward Jones; but he was still fully employed as Latin secretary. In his later years Smith was a great friend of Dudley Carleton. William Knollys, then Lord Knollys, and Salisbury were godfathers to Smith’s son, Salisbury sending Sir Michael Hickes as his proxy at the christening in August 1605. Smith apologized for being absent from his post for an excessive time at his son’s birth; and the boy cannot have lived long, for it was Smith’s daughter who inherited. She married as her second husband, Sir Edward Herbert, attorney-general 1641-5. The Smith property went to her daughter by her first marriage, who married John, 1st Viscount Mordaunt. This included a lodging in the Savoy, a house at Shinfield, near Reading, lands in Gloucestershire, Cambridgeshire and Wiltshire and a manor at Berwick-on-Tees: the Berwick estate he had recently purchased from his friend Hugh Middleton, perhaps in hope of obtaining the secretaryship of the council in the north, the reversion of which had been granted to him and Sir Thomas Edmonds in 1603. He bequeathed £13 6s.8d. to (Sir) Thomas Bodley for his library, and £100 to the corporation of Abingdon for the poor.

On 28 Nov. 1609 it was reported to Salisbury that Smith was dead and that his registers of Latin letters were available for return to the government. Smith’s widow married Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter.[6]

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Alan Harding

Notes

• 1. DNB; Vis. Berks. (Harl. Soc. lvii), 78; A. E. Preston, St. Nicholas, Abingdon, 468; CSP Dom. 1581-90, p. 177; Shaw, Knights, ii. 109.
• 2. CSP Dom. 1595-7, p. 505; 1603-10, p. 14; APC, xxxii. 497.
• 3. Vis. Berks. (Harl. Soc. lvii), 208; PCC 19 Babington; Birch, Mems. i. 112; DNB (Brydges, Grey).
• 4. HMC Hatfield, iv. 162; Nichols. Progresses Eliz. iii. 152; Neale, Commons, 238.
• 5. HMC Hatfield, vi. 242; vii. 229, 334, 335; viii. 334, 399, 400; ix. 48, 149, 310; xi. 102. 208, 530; Neale, Parlts. ii. 332; CSP Dom. 1598-1601, p. 360; APC, xxxii. 70.
• 6. Lansd. 89, f. 92; HMC Hatfield, xvi. 443-4; xvii. 368, 371, 373, 379; CSP Dom. 1603-10, pp. 63, 176, 432, 515, 552, 563; PCC 113 Dorset; DNB; CP.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Smith_(judge)

Sir Thomas Smith (1556?–1609), was the English master of requests.

Family and identity

Smith was born at Abingdon in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), about 1556. He was the son of Thomas Smith, who is almost certainly to be identified with the Thomas Smith who was Mayor of Abingdon in 1584. He must be distinguished from Sir Thomas Smith or Smythe (1558?–1625), governor of the East India Company, and from the latter's father, Thomas Smythe (d. 1591), ‘customer’ of the port of London.

Education

He was educated at Abingdon Grammar School and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was elected student in 1573, graduated B.A. in December 1574, and M.A. in June 1578. He was chosen public orator on 9 April 1582, and proctor on 29 April 1584.

Career

Soon afterwards he became secretary to Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, and in 1587 was appointed clerk of the privy council. In December 1591 he wrote to Cecil urging Essex's claims to the chancellorship of Oxford University. He represented Cricklade in the parliament of 1588–9, Tamworth in that of 1593, and Aylesbury in that of 1597–8. On 30 September 1597 he received a grant of the clerkship of parliament, in succession to Anthony Wyckes, alias Mason. He kept aloof from Essex's intrigues, and on 29 November 1599 was sent by the lords to summon the earl before the privy council. On the accession of James I he received further promotion, perhaps owing to his friendship with Carleton, Edmondes, Winwood, and Bacon[6]. He was knighted at Greenwich on 20 May 1603, and in the following month was granted the Latin secretaryship for life, and the reversion to the secretaryship of the council of the north. On 8 June 1604 he obtained the manor of Wing, Rutland, and in 1608 he was made master of requests. On 20 May in the same year he received a pension of £100.

Death and descendants

He died on 27 November 1609 at his residence (afterwards called Peterborough House) at Parsons Green, near Fulham, in Middlesex and was buried on 7 December in the chancel of Fulham parish church, where a monument, with an inscription to his memory, is extant[7]. He married Frances (1580–1663), daughter of William Brydges, fourth baron Chandos, and sister of Grey Brydges, 5th Baron Chandos. His only son, Robert, died a minor, and his only daughter, Margaret, married Thomas, second son of Robert Carey, first earl of Monmouth. Smith's widow married Thomas Cecil, first earl of Exeter, and survived till 1663. By his will, dated 12 September 1609, Smith left £100 to the poor of Abingdon, and a similar sum to the Bodleian Library.