Sir Thomas Rush (or Russhe) (by 1487 – June 1537), born in

Sudbourne Sudbourne is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England, located approximately north of Orford. All Saints' Church dates from the 14th century but was much restored in 1879. It is a grade II* listed building. Between 964 and 975 King Ed ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, was an English

serjeant-at-arms A serjeant-at-arms, or sergeant-at-arms, is an officer appointed by a deliberative body, usually a legislature, to keep order during its meetings. The word "serjeant" is derived from the Latin ''serviens'', which means "servant". Historically, s ...

who served Henry VII and

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

and was knighted by the latter at the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a coronation crown, crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the ...

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...

in 1533. He was also appointed

High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk This is a list of Sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Sheriff (since 1974 called High Sheriff) is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually by the Crown. He was originally the principal law enforcement officer in the c ...

in 1533.

Career

Thomas Rush was a local politician in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

who had served Henry VII as well as his son

. He was a friend of

Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figur ...

(Henry VIII's first

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

), survived the fallout from Wolsey's downfall, and attached himself to Wolsey's successor

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charge ...

. He was one of the King's sergeants-at-arms, the forerunners of the

Yeomen of the Guard The King's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard is a Sovereign's Bodyguard, bodyguard of the British monarch. The List of oldest military units and formations in continuous operation, oldest British military corps still in existence, it was ...

("Beefeaters"); Debrett's Knightage says that he was one of those made a "

Knight of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

" as part of the coronation ceremonies of Anne Boleyn.

Family

Sir Thomas married Anne Rivers, daughter of John Rivers of Ipswich and widow of Thomas Alvard (1460-1504). Together they had six children: Arthur, Thomas, Leonard, Anthony, John, and an unnamed daughter. Leonard and John did not survive infancy. Sir Thomas later married a woman named Christian, but produced no more children.

Legacy

Sir Thomas is interred in St. Stephen's Church in

, which no longer functions as a church. A popular misconception is that Sir Thomas' most famous name-bearing descendant is Dr.

Benjamin Rush Benjamin Rush (April 19, 1813) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, ...

, signer of the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...

in 1776. Dr. Rush is Sir Thomas' descendant through the latter's eponymous son. he Rush Family History of Northwest Jersey, compiled by Pearl Rush Cressman and Kaye N. Cressman, 1965/ref>

References

1490 births 1560 deaths People from Suffolk Coastal (district) Knights of the Bath 15th-century English people 16th-century English people High Sheriffs of Norfolk High Sheriffs of Suffolk Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Ipswich {{England-pre1707-MP-stub