Sir Thomas Meautys (1592–1649) was an English civil servant 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. T ...

between 1621 and 1640.

Biography

Meautys was the son of Thomas Meautys of West Ham and of St Julian's Hospital, Hertfordshire, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Coningsby of North Mimms. His elder brother, Henry, was also a Member of Parliament. He became the private secretary to

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 ...

. In 1619, he was made clerk to His Majesty's Council. He is credited, with

William Rawley William Rawley (–1667) was the chaplain of several major 17th-century English figures, including the philosopher Francis Bacon, King Charles I, and King Charles II. In this role, he served as Bacon's literary executor, with the standing and me ...

, as being one of two key clients of Bacon who remained loyal to the former Lord Chancellor in his disgrace. Meautys eventually paid for a

funerary monument Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and comm ...

to Bacon at his gravesite in

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

.Jane Cornwallis Bacon, Joanna Moody ''The private correspondence of Jane Lady Cornwallis Bacon, 1613-1644''
/ref> After Bacon's fall, Meautys became a protégé of Lord Keeper Coventry, High Steward of Cambridge from 1626 to 1640. In 1621, Meautys was made a freeman and elected 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 Cambridge. On the same day, 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

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. He was clerk of the Privy Council from 1623. He was re-elected MP for Cambridge in 1625, 1626 and 1628 and continued to sit for the town until King Charles I began rule without parliament in 1629. Meautys inherited

Old Gorhambury House Old Gorhambury House located near St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, is a ruined Elizabethan mansion, a leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. It was built in 1563–68 by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, and was visited ...

in Hertfordshire in 1626. He became clerk of the Writs and Processes in the Star Chamber. In 1634 he became clerk to His Majesty's Privy Council Extraordinary. He was re-elected for Cambridge for the Short Parliament in April 1640 when the other representative was

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

. He was knighted at Whitehall in 1641. He performed the duties of his office until August 1645 when the office became virtually extinct. Meautys died at the age of 57.

Family

Meautys married Anne Bacon, a daughter of his cousin Sir Nathaniel Bacon, of Culford, Suffolk, in 1639. They had a daughter who died in childhood. Anne later married Sir Harbottle Grimston.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meautys, Thomas 1592 births 1649 deaths English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 English MPs 1640 (April) Clerks of the Privy Council