Sir Thomas Parry by Hans Holbein the Younger

Sir Thomas Parry (c. 1515 – 15 December 1560) was a

Comptroller of the Household The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the British royal household, nominally the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department after the Treasurer of the Household. The Comptroller was an ''ex officio'' member of t ...

to the

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 ...

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 ...

. He was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

ed by Elizabeth at her accession in 1558, and held the offices of royal steward,

Cofferer The Cofferer of the Household was formerly an office in the English and British Royal Household. Next in rank to the Comptroller, the holder paid the wages of some of the servants above and below stairs, was a member of the Board of Green Cloth, ...

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a privy council, formal body of advisers to the British monarchy, sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises Politics of the United King ...

(appointed November 1558), Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries (appointed 26 April 1559),

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 Wallingford (elected 1547, 1552, 1555),

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

(elected 5 January 1558–9), and

Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire. Since 1689, all Lords Lieutenant have also been Custos Rotulorum of Berkshire. Lord-Lieutenants of Berkshire *Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk 1545–22 August 1545 *Edw ...

(appointed 1559).

Career

Parry's father was Henry Vaughan of

Tretower Court Tretower Court () is a medieval fortified manor house in Wales, situated in the village of Tretower, near Crickhowell in modern-day Powys, previously within the historical county of Breconshire or Brecknockshire. Local & national importance T ...

, Breconshire, Wales whose father, Sir Thomas Vaughan, had been knighted and later beheaded by

King Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

. He was a friend and kinsman of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, which may have afforded him his introduction to the court of

King Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour ...

. Parry was initially known as Thomas ap Harry (Thomas, son of Harry), later modified to Thomas Parry. He is first noticed attending

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 ...

in 1536, having been employed with various tasks and responsibilities attached to the dissolution of monastic properties. Further on he was one of the Protestants that were allowed to attend Princess Elizabeth when

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

confined her to

Hatfield House Hatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Ceci ...

. Elizabeth was quick to acknowledge his service and loyalty and conferred a knighthood to him upon her accession in 1558 and he was also made a

privy counsellor The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a privy council, formal body of advisers to the British monarchy, sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises Politics of the United King ...

. The following year, he acquired lands in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, centred on

Hamstead Marshall Hamstead Marshall (also spelt Hampstead Marshall) is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. The village is located within the North Wessex Downs. The population of this civil parish at the 2011 census was 275. Location ...

. Although Elizabeth was fond of his services, he was not particularly popular at court and is noted to have "died on 15 December 1560, of 'mere ill-humour' according to popular report (ib. vii. 313; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1598–1601, p. 204), and was buried in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

(Registers, ed. Chester, p. 113)."

Family

He married Anne, daughter of Sir William Reade of

Boarstall Boarstall is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, about west of Aylesbury. The parish is on the county boundary with Oxfordshire and the village is about southeast of the Oxfordshire market town of Bice ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, and widow, first, of

Sir Giles Greville ''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 ...

, and, secondly, of Sir Adrian Fortescue, with whom he had two sons and two daughters; one of whom married

Thomas Knyvett, 4th Baron Berners Thomas Knyvett (or Knyvet), ''de jure'' 4th Baron Berners (1539–c. 1616), was High Sheriff of Norfolk from 1579. Thomas Knyvett was the first son of John Knyvett (1510–1561) and Agnes, daughter of Sir John Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfo ...

(c. 1539–1618) and had issue, one daughter who married

Edmund Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and ...

, the heir of

Sir Robert Bell Sir Robert Bell Serjeant-at-law, SL (died 1577) of Beaupré Hall, Norfolk, was a Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom), Speaker of the House of Commons (1572–1576), who served during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, Queen Eliza ...

. Parry's eldest son was Sir Thomas Parry, ambassador to Paris,

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

and MP for Berkshire 1586-1614 and MP for

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

1610. Lady Parry, who was one of the ladies of the

privy chamber A privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were noble-born servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King in private, as well as during various court activities, f ...

, was granted, about 1566, an annuity of £50 for thirty-three years (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1566–1579, p. 25). She retired to

Welford Park Welford may refer to: Places ;Australia * Welford National Park ;England *Welford, Berkshire **RAF Welford ** Welford Park *Welford, Northamptonshire **Welford Reservoir **Welford Road Stadium Welford Road (currently known as Mattioli Woods ...

and is buried beneath a fine

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

in the adjoining church.

References

*David Nash Ford,
Sir Thomas Parry Senior
in ''Royal Berkshire History'', Nash Ford Publishing 2001 *Gordon Goodwin, ''Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press 1895 *Jonathan Hughes, 'Parry, Sir Thomas (b. in or before 1515, d. 1560)' in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, October 200
accessed 11 May 2006

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parry, Thomas Knights Bachelor Lord-Lieutenants of Berkshire People from Brecknockshire People from Hamstead Marshall Members of the Parliament of England for Hertfordshire 1515 births 1560 deaths 16th-century Welsh politicians Members of the Privy Council of England

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 Ap ...

English MPs 1547–1552 English MPs 1553 (Edward VI) English MPs 1555 English MPs 1559