Sir Thomas Tresham, Kt., MP

Family and Education

• b. by 1500, 1st son of John Tresham of Rushton by Isabel, daughter and coheir of Sir James Harington of Hornby, Lancashire
• married (1) Anne, daughter and coheir of Sir William Parr, Lord Parr of Horton, 3 sons, 1 daughter;
• married (2) Lettice, daughter of Sir Thomas Peniston of Hawridge, Buckinghamshire, widow of Robert Knollys (d.1521) of Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire and Sir Robert Lee (d.1539) of Quarrendon, Buckinghamshire
• Succeeded father 1521.
• Knighted by 1524.[2]

Offices Held

• Sheriff, Northamptonshire 1524-Jan. 1526, 1539-40, 1555-6;
• Justice of the peace 1531-d.;
• Commissioner of tenths of spiritualities 1535,
• Commissioner of musters 1539, 1542, 1546,
• Commissioner of benevolence 1544/45,
• Commissioner of relief 1550,
• Commissioner of goods of churches and fraternities 1553;
• other commissions 1527-54;
• esquire of the body by 1533;
• grand prior, order of St. John of Jerusalem Nov. in 1557-d.[3]

Biography

Sir Thomas Tresham’s grandson said of his ancestors that they were ‘dignified with many noble offices and advancements’. Tresham’s own father made little mark outside Northamptonshire, but he himself followed a career reminiscent of his great-grandfather William and grandfather Sir Thomas but without their violent ends. Pricked sheriff within three years of succeeding to his patrimony, and put on the bench not long after, he combined local management with attendance at court and military service. He helped to suppress the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 and Ket’s rebellion in 1549.[4]

Tresham’s first known election for Northamptonshire answered to his own standing in the county but was also doubtless assisted by his father-in-law and fellow-knight in 1539, Sir William Parr. In the Parliament of 1542, to which Parr was not returned for the county, Tresham replaced him as senior knight. The names of the Members for 1545 are lost. Parr’s death two years later and Tresham’s own Catholicism presumably account for his failure to be re-elected under Edward VI. After his proclamation of Mary as Queen during the succession crisis of 1553 he might have been expected to reappear as one of the knights for the shire in the first Parliament of her reign, when the senior Member was his kinsman Sir John Fermor, but he found a place at Lancaster, where his name is inserted in the indenture in a different hand. If his support of the Queen was not in itself sufficient to procure him a nomination, he could claim the interest of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, a distant kinsman and a fellow-landowner in both Lancashire and Northamptonshire.

During this Parliament one of Tresham’s servants was granted privilege from an action for debt on 21 Nov. 1553. Tresham again sat for Northamptonshire in the two Parliaments of 1554 but did not do so in that of 1555, the year in which he was pricked sheriff for the third time. His appointment to the grand priorship of the order of St. John gave him a seat in the Lords in the Parliament of 1558, but within a week of its assembly he obtained leave of absence. Summoned to the Lords again in 1559 he perhaps thought it expedient not to attend and named Archbishop Heath as his proxy, but he may already have been a sick man as he died on the following 1 Mar. (not 8 Mar., as stated in his inquisition post mortem) and was buried on 16 Mar. with much pomp at Rushton, where a monument was erected to his memory. During February one of his servants, an Italian from Mantua, observed that Tresham would ‘remain a good Christian, as he always was at the time of the other schism, but he will remain in the country, and will observe the old rite secretly’.

By his will of 28 Nov. 1557 made on entering religion he had provided for his family and had amongst others named Sir George Gifford and Sir Robert Tyrwhitt I executors and William Cordell supervisor. His 15 year-old grandson and heir, also Thomas, was later to become a leading Elizabethan recusant.[5]

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: S. M. Thorpe

Notes

• 1. E159/319, brev. ret. Mich. r. [1-2].
• 2. Of age at fa.’s death. M. E. Finch, Five Northants. Fams. (Northants. Rec. Soc. xix), ped. at end of vol.; Vis. Northants. ed. Metcalfe, 180-1.
• 3. LP Hen. VIII, ii, iv, v, viii, xi-xiv, xvi, xvii, xx, xxi; CPR, 1547-8, p. 87; 1550-3, pp. 141, 395; 1553, pp. 356, 414; 1553-4, pp. 22, 29; 1554-5, pp. 106, 109; 1557-8, p. 313; Machyn’s Diary (Cam. Soc. xlii), 159.
• 4. Finch, 66-67; LP Hen. VIII, xii, xiv, xv, xix; APC, i. 488; ii. 325; iv. 310; v. 9, 30, 161; CPR, 1550-3, p. 200; CSP Ven. 1558-80, p. 31; CSP Dom. 1547-80, pp. 100, 101.
• 5. C142/124/144; 219/21/86; Northants. Past and Present, v. 90-93; Chron. Q. Jane and Q. Mary (Cam. Soc. xlviii), 12, 13; CJ, i. 30; M. A. R. Graves ‘The Tudor House of Lords 1547-8’ (Otago Univ. Ph.D. thesis 1974), 238; LJ, i. 514, 541; CSP Ven. 1558-80, pp. 31, 46; Finch, 68-69; PCC 19 Chaynay; St.Ch.2/23/34. Machyn’s Diary, 192; Bridges, Northants. ii. 72; Pevsner and Cherry, Northants. 397.

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From his English Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Tresham_(died_1559)

Sir Thomas Tresham (died 8 March 1559) was a leading Catholic politician during the middle of the Tudor dynasty in England.

Family

Thomas Tresham was the eldest son of John Tresham of Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire, and Elizabeth Harrington, daughter of Sir James Harrington, of Hornby, Lancashire.

Career

Tresham was knighted by 1524. He was chosen Sheriff in 1524, 1539, 1548 and 1555/6, and returned as a Member of Parliament for Northamptonshire in 1541 and twice in 1554. In 1530 he served on a Royal Commission inquiring into Cardinal Wolsey's possessions. In 1537 he served on another to inquire into the Lincolnshire rebellion.[1]

In 1539 he was one of those appointed to receive Henry VIII's future fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, at Calais. In 1540, he had license to impark the Lyveden estate in the Aldwinkle St Peter's parish, where the "New Bield" erected by his grandson Thomas Tresham II still stands.[1]

In the same year, although his main estates were in Northamptonshire, it was noted that he had a house with twenty-nine household servants at Wolfeton in Charminster, Dorset.

In 1544 he supplied men for the king's army in France, and a little later was one of the commissioners to collect the "benevolence" for the defense of the realm. In 1546 he was appointed assessor to the "Contribution Commission", and was summoned to Court to meet the French ambassador. In 1549 he assisted in suppressing Kett's Rebellion, and received £272, 19.6 for his services.[1]

On 18 July 1553 he proclaimed Queen Mary at Northampton, and accompanied her on her entry into London. He was one of those appointed on 3 August 1553, "to staye the assemblies in Royston and other places of Cambridgeshire".[1] That year he was also MP for Lancaster.

He was named Grand Prior of England in the Order of Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem by Royal Charter dated 2 April 1557, qualifying him for a seat in the House of Lords. It was not till 30 November that the order was re-established in England with four knights under him, and he was solemnly invested. In the meantime Sir Richard Shelley had been made turcopolier at Malta. The order was endowed by the queen with lands to the yearly value of £1436. He took his seat in the House of Lords in January, 1557-8, but sent a proxy to the first parliament of Queen Elizabeth, possibly due to illness. He died in 1559.

He was buried at All Saints Church, Rushton, Northamptonshire with great pomp on 16 March 1559.[1]

Marriages and issue

He married firstly Mary Parr, youngest daughter and co-heir of William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Horton, by whom he had two sons:[2]

• John Tresham, who died in the lifetime of his father. His son, also named Sir Thomas Tresham, succeeded his grandfather.
• William Tresham.
• George Tresham (d. before 28 November 1557)[citation needed][3]

He married secondly Lettice Peniston, widow successively of Sir Robert Knollys and Sir Robert Lee (d.1539), and daughter of Sir Thomas Peniston of Hawridge. She predeceased him without issue.[4]

References

• 1. Wikisource-logo.svg "Sir Thomas Tresham". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
• 2. Burke, John. A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland, pg. 532. Google eBook
• 3. Dictionary of National Biography states he only had two sons, John and William.
• 4. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982. TRESHAM, Sir Thomas (by 1500-59), of Rushton, Northants. History of Parliament Online

History of Parliament TRESHAM, Sir Thomas (by 1500–59) of Rushton, Nortants

Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Tresham, Thomas (d.1559)". Dictionary of National Biography 57. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Sir Thomas Tresham". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.

Sir Thomas Tresham (died 8 March 1559) was a leading Catholic politician during the middle of the Tudor dynasty in England.

Family

Thomas Tresham was the eldest son of John Tresham of Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire, and Elizabeth Harrington, daughter of Sir James Harrington, of Hornby, Lancashire.

Career

Tresham was knighted by 1524. He was chosen Sheriff in 1524, 1539, 1548 and 1555/6, and returned as a Member of Parliament for Northamptonshire in 1541 and twice in 1554. In 1530 he served on a Royal Commission inquiring into Cardinal Wolsey's possessions. In 1537 he served on another to inquire into the Lincolnshire rebellion.

In 1539 he was one of those appointed to receive Henry VIII's future fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, at Calais. In 1540, he had license to impark the Lyveden estate in the Aldwinkle St Peter's parish, where the "New Bield" erected by his grandson Thomas Tresham II still stands.

In the same year, although his main estates were in Northamptonshire, it was noted that he had a house with twenty-nine household servants at Wolfeton in Charminster, Dorset.

In 1544 he supplied men for the king's army in France, and a little later was one of the commissioners to collect the "benevolence" for the defense of the realm. In 1546 he was appointed assessor to the "Contribution Commission", and was summoned to Court to meet the French ambassador. In 1549 he assisted in suppressing Kett's Rebellion, and received £272, 19.6 for his services.

On 18 July 1553 he proclaimed Queen Mary at Northampton, and accompanied her on her entry into London. He was one of those appointed on 3 August 1553, "to staye the assemblies in Royston and other places of Cambridgeshire". That year he was also MP for Lancaster.

He was named Grand Prior of England in the Order of Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem by Royal Charter dated 2 April 1557, qualifying him for a seat in the House of Lords. It was not till 30 November that the order was re-established in England with four knights under him, and he was solemnly invested. In the meantime Sir Richard Shelley had been made turcopolier at Malta. The order was endowed by the queen with lands to the yearly value of £1436. He took his seat in the House of Lords in January, 1557-8, but sent a proxy to the first parliament of Queen Elizabeth, possibly due to illness. He died in 1559.

He was buried at All Saints Church, Rushton, Northamptonshire with great pomp on 16 March 1559.

Marriages and issue

He married firstly Mary Parr, youngest daughter and co-heir of William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Horton, by whom he had three sons:

John Tresham, who died in the lifetime of his father. His son, also named Sir Thomas Tresham, succeeded his grandfather.

William Tresham.

George Tresham (d. before 28 November 1557)

He married secondly Lettice Peniston, widow successively of Sir Robert Knollys and Sir Robert Lee (d.1539), and daughter of Sir Thomas Peniston of Hawridge. She predeceased him without issue.