Sir Thomas Stafford ( – 1655) was an English

courtier A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the official ...

, politician, and historian of the Irish Wars. He 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. T ...

at various times between 1593 and 1625. Stafford was the illegitimate son of

Sir George Carew ''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 ...

. In 1593, 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 o ...

for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. He was knighted in 1611. By 1619 he was a Gentleman Usher of the Privy Chamber to Queen Anne. In 1621, he was elected MP for

Helston Helston ( kw, Hellys) is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula approximately east of Penzance and south-west of Falmouth.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map she ...

. He was elected MP for Bodmin in 1624. He was also Gentleman Usher to Queen Henrietta Maria. History of Parliament Online - Thomas Stafford
/ref> Stafford married Lady Mary Killigrew (''floruit'' 1621–55), widow of Sir Robert Killigrew of St. Margaret Lothbury, London, and daughter of Sir Henry Woodhouse of Waxham, after 1633. She was also the niece of

Sir Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both n ...

, a friend of John Donne, and Sir Constantijn Huygens. Stafford's will was made in 1653 and proved by his widow in February 1655. He was buried in the same tomb as the Earl of Totnes in the

Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon The Collegiate Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon, is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. It is often known simply as Holy Trinity Church or as Shak ...

, with a Latin inscription mentioning military service in Ireland.William Dugdale, ''History of Warwickshire'' (London, 1656), p. 518

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stafford, Thomas 1570s births 1655 deaths Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall People from Bodmin Politicians from Dorset People from Helston Date of birth unknown English MPs 1593 English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1624–1625 17th-century Irish historians Knights Bachelor English knights