Thomas Matthew was an English merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640. Matthew was a merchant of

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

and became a burgess of the town. In April 1640, he was elected

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 the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Aft ...

. He stood again for the

Long parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

later in the year and was initially returned by the burgesses. However the mayor disagreed with the choice and called for another election in which

Richard Ferris Richard Ferris (died 1649, aged 67) was a wealthy merchant from Barnstaple in Devon, England who served as a Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1640 and served twice as Mayor of Barnstaple in 1632 and 1646.Lamplugh, p. 156. He founded the ...

was returned instead. Matthew submitted a petition alleging that the mayor had used questionable methods including locking in the burgesses, and had intimidated them. Matthew's petition was rejected. In 1650 Matthew was

Mayor of Barnstaple The Mayor of Barnstaple together with the Corporation long governed the historic Borough of Barnstaple, in North Devon, England. The seat of government was the Barnstaple Guildhall. The mayor served a term of one year and was elected annually on t ...

. He was mayor again in 1667.Joseph Besly Gribble ''Memorials of Barnstaple''
page 203

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthew, Thomas Year of birth missing Year of death missing English MPs 1640 (April) Mayors of Barnstaple English merchants Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Barnstaple