Thomas Gape (died 1678) was an English lawyer, administrator and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

in 1660. Gape was the son of Hugh Gape, a weaver, of Dorchester, Dorset. He became servant to the

Marquis of Hertford The titles of Earl of Hertford and Marquess of Hertford have been created several times in the peerages of England and Great Britain. The third Earldom of Hertford was created in 1559 for Edward Seymour, who was simultaneously created Baron B ...

in 1646. He entered

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1648 and by 1660 he was steward of the manorial court of

Great Bedwyn Great Bedwyn is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in east Wiltshire, England. The village is on the River Dun (River Kennet), River Dun about southwest of Hungerford, southeast of Swindon and southeast of Marlborough, Wilt ...

, Wiltshire. He was instructed by his employer to stand as

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

in April 1660 and was blamed for the "hot contest" and double return that followed. He was allowed to sit in the Convention Parliament on the merits of the return. He was commissioner for assessment for Wiltshire from August 1660 to 1661, and clerk of the peace for Somerset from August 1660 to about 1673. History of Parliament Online - Thomas Gape
/ref> When the Duke of Somerset died in October 1660, Gape became servant to the dowager duchess. He was commissioner for assessment for Wiltshire from 1664 to 1669. He claimed penury from service to the Seymours. In 1666 he wrote that he did not dare to leave his employer's house in London for fear of a debtors' prison, and on 18 January 1667 he wrote "In above twenty years, I have not been able to make any considerable provision for my wife and children, notwithstanding my diligent performances in this noble family". 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 ...

in 1667 and remained in the service of the duchess until 1674. She owed him £1,250 when she died and in 1677 he spent £3,750 on the purchase of land in Wiltshire. When he died at

Porton Porton is a village in the Bourne valley, Wiltshire, England, about northeast of Salisbury. It is the largest settlement in Idmiston civil parish. The village gives its name to the nearby Porton Down military science park, which is home to th ...

, Wiltshire in 1678, he left £1,000 portions to his two unmarried daughters, and his coach and horses to his wife. He had married Anne Backhouse, daughter of William Backhouse of London and had two sons (of whom one died young and the other was lunatic) and four daughters. His wife died on 29 April 1686.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gape, Thomas Year of birth missing 1678 deaths Members of the Middle Temple English lawyers English MPs 1660