Thomas Thursby (d.1543)

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Thomas Thursby (1487–1543) of Ashwicken was a notorious land encloser in Norfolk in the 1510s–1540s.

Life[]

He was the son of Thomas Thursby (d.1510), merchant, three times Mayor of King's Lynn and the founder and benefactor of Thoresby College.[1][2][3]

The great wealth inherited to him by his father enabled him to amass large tracts of arable land, which he then enclosed, turning out the landless peasants who had hereto lived there. It also meant a serious threat against their livelihood, the common ground previously having been available to grazing for the livestock of everyone.[1][3] The Norfolk Heritage writes about one of these villages, Holt:

This is the site of the medieval village of Holt, which disappeared when the landlord, the notorious Thomas Thursby, enclosed the land and converted it to pasture for his sheep. Holt was the only Norfolk village recorded in the Commission of Inquiry in 1517 as being totally depopulated in this way.[4]

His dealings were part of an inquest which took place in 1517, he was sued in the Court of Requests by the inhabitants of Middleton in 1540,[5] and a case was made against him in 1549, years after was he was long dead, for enclosing the salt fen that had always been common to Middleton, but also used by Runcton, West Winch, Setchey and Hardwick.[1]

K.J. Allison writes in The Sheep-Corn Husbandry of Norfolk in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries of the tenant of the "notorious" Thomas Thursby that he "converted their holdings to sheep pasture, evicted them from their dwellings, deprived them of their commons, and pulled down their houses in numerous villages, and also mentions the lost villages, including four that are now deserted."[6]

Land holdings[]

The deserted village of Bawsey, one of several villages depopulated through the evictions of Thomas Thursby.

He inherited Mintlyn, Geyton Thorp, Gayton, Congham and Rydon from his father.[7] In a tax assessment of 1524 Thomas Thursby, Esq. is listed as the wealthiest landowner in Gayton. There is a reference in the record of a lawsuit in the Court of Star Chamber during the reign of Henry VIII to Thomas Thursby's ‘mansion place’ in Gayton.[8] The manors of Rustons and Redehall, moiety of manor of Bawdsey and all possessions in Gayton, Gaytonthorpe, Congham, Rydon, Bawsey, Walton and Rysing was settled on his wife-to-be Anne Knyvett in their marriage settlement of 31 May 1527.[citation needed] The manor of Rysyng was in the hands of the Crown as part of the duchy of Cornwall, but had been let in 1516 for twenty-one years to Thomas Thursby, of Bishop's Lynne, for 50/.[9] The manors of Rustons and Redehall and possessions Gayton, Gaytonthorpe and Rydon were inherited by his son Edmund.[10] Thomas Thursbye of Gayton, esquire, alias of Lynn, merchant, was involved in a suit with Juliana,[11] the widow of Sir Robert Norwich (d.1535), Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1538–1544.

The Ruined Church of St. James in Bawsey

Before 31 May 1527 Thomas Thursby bought the manor of Ashwicken.[12] Ashwicken had previously belonged to another branch of the Thursby family, the grandson of his uncle Robert Thursby, his cousin also named Thomas Thursby (1498–1532).[3][13]

The Dispute of the Salt Fen[]

After the dissolution the Haveless lands were bought by Thomas Thoresby, presumably on 23 August 1540, and he came into conflict with the men of Middleton over the ownership of Salt Fen situated between Middleton and Haveless. He is described as a country gentleman. This dispute was not isolated. He was accused before the Star Chamber in 1535 of attacks on Adam and Ann Foster of Gayton in a dispute over lands and similarly in 1537 for assaults on Nicholas Gurling of Grimston.[1] Edmund Beaupré of the Beauprés of Beaupré Hall was the guardian of Thomas Thursby's relative Edward Thursby of Doreward's Hall during his minority from 1541.[14]

Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire[]

He may have been the Thomas Thursby of Caxton, Cambridgeshire who was Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire for a year from 9 November 1513.[15] By 1509, Caxton was held by the sisters Margaret née Burgoyne (d.1529), wife of George Heveningham (d.1530), and Elizabeth Burgoyne, wife of Thomas Thursby.[16] His first cousin once removed by the same name would in 1513 have been a boy of 15,[3] and therefore unlikely to have been sheriff.[original research?] Like with Ashwicken, it is possible that this Thomas Thursby (d.1543) bought Caxton from his relatives. It is found again as the property of the grandson of this Thomas Thursby (d.1543) also called Thomas Thursby (d.1633) in 1578.[16]

Marriage[]

He married Anne[3] Knyvett, lady in waiting to Queen Katherine of Aragon.[12] Marriage preparations were under way 31 May 1527. Anne Knyvett was the daughter of Sir Thomas Knyvett and his wife Muriel, widow of John Grey, 2nd Viscount Lisle, and daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and Elizabeth Tilney.[17] She was the sister of Sir Edmund Knyvett and a first cousin of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Through her mother's first marriage Anne Knyvett was also the sister of Elizabeth Grey, Viscountess Lisle, who was at one time betrothed to Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. After Thomas Thursby's death in 1543, Anne Knyvett remarried by license dated 26 January 1543/4 to Henry Spelman,[18] the son of Sir John Spelman (d.1546) and the father of Sir Henry Spelman[17] and of Erasmus Spelman, whose son Henry went to Virginia.[19]

Children[]

Children of Thomas Thursby:

  • The Wrest Part Portrait – Recently identified as Mary Neville Fiennes, Lady Dacre
    Edmund (d.1547), m. Ursula (d.1567),[20][21] daughter of Sir Edward Beynton of the Vyse in Wiltshire, Knight,[22] who remarried to Erasmus Spelman.[21] Edmund Thursby and Ursula Beynton had Thomas Thursby, of age c.1565, still living in 1579.[21]
  • Francis Thursby[3] of Congham,[23][24] under 20 in 1543,[3] mentioned in his brother Edmund's will dated 20 December 1547,[25] the third husband of Mary Neville Fiennes, Lady Dacre, with whom he had six children.[23][24][26] This Thursby family owned property in Congham.[27] Mary Neville Fiennes, Lady Dacre is the sitter in two famous portraits, one by Hans Eworth, misidentified as Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, for centuries, the other as her daughter Lady Jane Grey.[23][24][28][29] Her portrait still hangs in Parliament.[29]
  • Mary, married Geoffrey Cobbs[3] (d.1544[30]), the son of William Cobb of Gayton, the grandson of William Cobb of Sandringham and the daughter and heiress of Ralph Gayton, and the great grandson of William Cobb of Sandringham in Norfolk, and Margaret, the daughter of Sir John le Buttler, knight,[3][31] and had: Thomas Cobbs (b.1539[30]), eldest son and heir, William Cobbs, Ann and Dowsabell.[30]

Death[]

Thursby died some time between 24 October 1543, when he wrote his will, and the following 13 February when it was proved.[3]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Yates, E.M. (1982). "The Dispute of the Salt Fen" (PDF). Norfolk Archaeology. 38 (1): 73–78. doi:10.5284/1078176.
  2. ^ Bannerman, W. Bruce (William Bruce) (1906). Miscellanea genealogica et heraldica. London, England : Mitchell, Hughes & Clarkepages=138.[full citation needed]
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bannerman, W. Bruce (William Bruce) (1906). Miscellanea genealogica et heraldica. London, England : Mitchell, Hughes & Clarke. p. 139.[full citation needed]
  4. ^ "Deserted-medieval-village-of-Holt - Norfolk Heritage Explorer". www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  5. ^ Leadam, I.S. (1893). The Inquisition of 1517. Inclosures and Evictions. Edited from the Lansdowne MS. I. 153. Part II. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society New Series, Vol. 7. Cambridge University Press. p. 136.
  6. ^ Allison, K.J. (1957). The Sheep-Corn Husbandry of Norfolk in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (PDF). Agricultural History Review, V, pt. X. pp. 12–30.
  7. ^ Eller, George (1861). Memorials: Archaeological and Ecclesiastical of the West Winch Manors from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period. Thew & Son. pp. 133–140.
  8. ^ "Medieval and early post-medieval settlement remains 570m west of Jubilee Farm, Gayton - 1019330 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  9. ^ Leadam, I.S. (1893). The Inquisition of 1517. Inclosures and Evictions. Edited from the Lansdowne MS. I. 153. Part II. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society New Series, Vol. 7. Cambridge University Press. p. 194.
  10. ^ "Freebridge Hundred and Half: Congham". A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk.[full citation needed]
  11. ^ New York, Kraus Reprint Corp; Great Britain. Public Record Office; Great Britain. Court of Chancery (1963). List of early Chancery proceedings preserved in the Public Record Office. New York, Kraus Reprint Corp. p. 173.
  12. ^ a b "K". A Who’s Who of Tudor Women. 2017-11-17. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  13. ^ Farrer, Reverend Edmund (1931). Early Suffolk Heraldry Volume XXI Part 1 (PDF). The Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History. p. 23.
  14. ^ "Letters and Papers Henry VIII, 1541, February 1541, 26-28, g. 580/74".[full citation needed]
  15. ^ Carter, Edmund (1819). The History of the County of Cambridge, from the Earliest Account to the Present Time. S. &. R. Bentley.[full citation needed]
  16. ^ a b "Parishes: Caxton". Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire.[full citation needed]
  17. ^ a b Thoresby, Ralph (1715). Ducatus Leodiensis, Or, The Topography of the Ancient and Populous Town and Parish of Leedes, and Parts Adjacent in the West-Riding of the County of York: With the Pedigrees of Many of the Nobility and Gentry, and Other Matters Relating to Those Parts.[full citation needed]
  18. ^ Dashwood, G.H. (ed.). The Visitation of Norfolk in the year 1563, taken by William Harvey, Clarenceux King of Arms: Volume 1 (PDF). Norwich. p. 253.
  19. ^ Harleian Society (1886). The Publications of the Harleian Society. Robarts - University of Toronto. London : The Society. 1543-4 [...] Jan. 26 Henry Spylman & Anne Thursby, of diocese of Norwich.
  20. ^ Dashwood, G.H. (ed.). The Visitation of Norfolk in the year 1563, taken by William Harvey, Clarenceux King of Arms: Volume 1 (PDF). Norwich. pp. 253, 255 and 260.
  21. ^ a b c "Impington: Manors and other estates". The Victoria History fot he County of Cambridgeshire.[full citation needed]
  22. ^ Rye, Walter; Hervey, William; Cooke, Clarenceux; Raven, John. The visitacion [i.e., visitation] of Norfolk, made and taken by William Hervey, Clarencieux King of Arms, anno 1563, enlarged with another visitacion [sic] made by Clarenceux Cook : with many other descents, and also the vissitation [sic] made. p. 265.
  23. ^ a b c James, Susan E. (2017-07-05). "The Feminine Dynamic in English Art, 1485?603 ": "Women as Consumers, Patrons and Painters ". Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-54460-3.
  24. ^ a b c Edwards, Dr. John Stephan (January 2014). "Framing a Life in Portraits: A 'New' Portrait of Mary Nevill Fiennes, Lady Dacre". The British Art Journal. XIV (2): 14–20.
  25. ^ "Freebridge Hundred and Half: Wyken, alias Ashwyken, Lesiate, and Holt". A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk. www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-09-30.[full citation needed]
  26. ^ "Mitford Hundred and Half: North Tudenham". A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk.[full citation needed]
  27. ^ "Freebridge Hundred and Half: Congham". A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk.[full citation needed]
  28. ^ "Frances, Duchess of Suffolk and her Husband Adrian Stokes Esquire | British Museum". The British Museum. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  29. ^ a b "Frances Brandon, The Marchioness of Dorset (1517-1559) - Explore-Parliament.net". www.explore-parliament.net. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  30. ^ a b c Blomefield, Francis (1808). An essay towards a topographical history of the county of Norfolk. (Continued from p. 678 [of vol. 3] by C. Parkin).
  31. ^ "Freebridge Hundred and Half: Geyton". A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk.[full citation needed]
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