Sir Thomas Harries or Harris, 1st Baronet (1550 - 18 February 1628) was an English lawyer. Harries was born in 1550, the eldest of four sons of John Harries, of

Cruckton Cruckton is a small village in Shropshire, England (). Cruckton is situated approximately five miles from Shrewsbury town centre, off the B4386 road to Montgomery, Powys. The postcode begins SY5. It is within the civil parish of Pontesbury and t ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

. His mother was Eleanor, daughter of Thomas Prowde of Sutton. Thomas Harries is believed to be the Thomas Harris who was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

in 1586. Another possibility is that it was Thomas Harris of Boreatton, also a resident of

, and who like Harries was also a member of

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

. Thomas Harris of Boreatton was created a baronet at about the same time as Thomas Harries, making precise identification difficult. The ''

History of Parliament The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in w ...

'' however considers this Thomas Harries as the most likely candidate as the MP. Harries was educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into the ...

from 1565, and later at

Clement's Inn The Inns of Chancery or ''Hospida Cancellarie'' were a group of buildings and legal institutions in London initially attached to the Inns of Court and used as offices for the clerks of chancery, from which they drew their name. Existing from a ...

and then Lincoln's Inn from 1575. He was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

at Lincoln's Inn in 1583. He was active in legal affairs in Shrewsbury, and helped in the securing of a new

town charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document (''charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally the granting of a charter ...

in 1584. He contested the Parliamentary seat for Shrewsbury that year, but was defeated, coming third in the poll. He was returned unopposed in 1586. He became a

serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writ ...

in February 1604. He became a

bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can ...

at Lincoln's Inn in 1596, and was possibly the Thomas Harris who was appointed

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

of Shropshire c. 1600, and Cheshire in 1601. In 1613 he bought

Tong Castle Tong Castle was a very large mostly Gothic country house in Shropshire whose site is between Wolverhampton and Telford, set within a park landscaped by Capability Brown,Wolverhampton's Listed Buildings on the site of a medieval castle of the s ...

from Sir Edward Stanley, and on 12 April 1623 was created a baronet, of Tong Castle.George Edward Cokayne ''Complete Baronetage, Volume 1'' 1900
/ref> Blazon of Harries Baronets of Tong Castle (1623)

Blazon of Harries Baronets of Tong Castle (1623)

He was married to Eleanor, daughter of

Roger Gifford Sir Michael Roger Gifford KStJ KNO (3 August 1955 – 25 May 2021) was a British banker in London who served as the 685th Lord Mayor of London from 2012 to 2013. Gifford was the UK head of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) from 2000 and w ...

, physician to Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

. The couple had one son, Francis, and three daughters, but Francis and one of the daughters predeceased their father, and the baronetcy became extinct on Sir Thomas's death on 18 February 1628. Tong Castle passed to the family of his daughter Elizabeth, who married William Pierrepont; in 1764

Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, KG (171123 September 1773) was an English nobleman and landowner, a member of the House of Lords. He was the only son of William Pierrepont, Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull (1692–1713) and his ...

sold it to

George Durant George Durant (October 1, 1632 – February 6, 1692) was an Lawyer, attorney, Attorney General and Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Speaker of the House of Burgesses in the Province of Carolina. He is sometimes called the "fa ...

. Sir Thomas's second daughter, Anne, married the jurist

John Wilde John Wilde (December 12, 1919 – March 9, 2006, pronounced "WILL-dee") was a painter, draughtsman and printmaker of fantastic imagery. Born near Milwaukee, Wilde lived most of his life in Wisconsin, save for service in the U.S. Army during Wor ...

References

* John Burke and

John Bernard Burke Sir John Bernard Burke, (5 January 1814 – 12 December 1892) was a British genealogist and Ulster King of Arms, who helped publish ''Burke's Peerage''. Personal life Burke, of Irish descent, was born at London and was educated in London and ...

, ''A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies of England'', London 1838, p. 245-246 (online at google books) * http://www.discoveringtong.org/tongcastle.htm 1550 births 1628 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England People educated at Shrewsbury School English MPs 1586–1587 {{England-baronet-stub