Henry Peart the elder (1637-1697) - Sir Thomas Hervey (1625–1694), KT (after Joseph Brook) - 851806 - National Trust

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

Thomas Hervey (1625 – 27 May 1694) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Commissioner of the Royal Navy, landed gentleman, and Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds.

Life

Hervey was born in 1625, the third son of Sir William Hervey (1585–1660) of

Ickworth Ickworth is a small civil parish, almost coextensive with the estate of the National Trust's Ickworth House, in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, eastern England, south-west of Bury St Edmunds. The population of the parish was only minimal ...

, Suffolk, by his marriage in 1612 to Susan Jermyn, a daughter of Sir Robert Jermyn.

George Edward Cokayne George Edward Cokayne, (29 April 1825 – 6 August 1911), was an English genealogist and long-serving herald at the College of Arms in London, who eventually rose to the rank of Clarenceux King of Arms. He wrote such authoritative and standa ...

, Vicary Gibbs,

Lord Howard de Walden Baron Howard de Walden is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by Hereditary peer#Writs of summons, writ of summons in 1597 by Queen Elizabeth I for Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, Admiral Lord Thomas Howard, a younger son of ...

, eds., '' The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant'', vol. VI (Gloucester: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), p. 516 On 3 April 1641, aged fifteen, Hervey was admitted to Pembroke College, Cambridge, as a

pensioner A pensioner is a person who receives a pension, most commonly because of retirement from the workforce. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom (along with OAP, initialism of old-age pensioner), Ireland and Australia where someone of p ...

, but did not take a degree. He became a Justice of the Peace for Suffolk, an

Alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

of the corporation of Bury St Edmunds, and from 1664 to 1668 was a Commissioner of the Royal Navy. In his role at the

Navy Board The Navy Board (formerly known as the Council of the Marine or Council of the Marine Causes) was the commission responsible for the day-to-day civil administration of the Royal Navy between 1546 and 1832. The board was headquartered within the ...

, Hervey held a political appointment and in practice did very little, like the other Commissioners leaving the actual work to their

Secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a ...

, Samuel Pepys. By 1665, Hervey had been knighted. In his diary for 7 June 1665, Pepys recorded a merry dinner at the Dolphin Tavern with Hervey, Sir John Mennes, and Lord Brouncker, saying of it "very merry we were, Sir Thomas Harvy being a very drolle." On 10 February 1666, as the

Great Plague of London The Great Plague of London, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics that origi ...

was abating, Pepys noted "This day comes first Sir Thomas Harvy after the plague, having been out of towne all this while. He was coldly received by us..." On 7 November of that year, Pepys wrote dismissively of Hervey "... but a coxcombe he is and will never be better in the business of the Navy."Samuel Pepys
Wednesday 7 November 1666
pepysdiary.com, accessed 5 February 2021 When Hervey resigned his commission, Charles II gave him a generous royal bounty."HERVEY, Sir Thomas (1625–94), of Ickworth, Suff." in B. D. Henning, ''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660–1690'' (London: Secker & Warburg, 1983) On 18 January 1679, with the death of his childless elder brother John Hervey (born 1616), Hervey inherited the Ickworth estate, and the same year became one of the two members of parliament for Bury. With the accession of James II, he was part of the opposition to the new king in parliament.

Family

In May 1658, he married Isabella, a daughter of Sir Humphrey May,"HARVEY, Thomas" in ''

Alumni Cantabrigienses ''Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900'' is a biographical register of former members of the University of Cambridge whic ...

'', Vol. II, (1922)
p. 324
/ref> of

Carrow Abbey Carrow Abbey is a former Benedictine priory in Bracondale, southeast Norwich, England. The village on the site used to be called Carrow (there are many alternative spellings) and gives its name to Carrow Road, the football ground of Norwich F.C., ...

, Norfolk.

Death

He died on 27 May 1694.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hervey Thomas 1625 births 1694 deaths Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge English MPs 1679 English MPs 1680–1681 English MPs 1681 English MPs 1685–1687 English MPs 1689–1690 English justices of the peace

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

Knights Bachelor Politicians from Bury St Edmunds