Thomas Knyvett (or Knyvet), ''de jure'' 4th Baron Berners (1539–c. 1616), was

High Sheriff of Norfolk The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually (in March) by the Crown. The High Sheriff of Norfolk was originally the principal law enforcement officer in Norfolk and presided at the assizes and other imp ...

from 1579. Thomas Knyvett was the first son of John Knyvett (1510–1561) and Agnes, daughter of Sir John Harcourt of

Stanton Harcourt Stanton Harcourt is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about southeast of Witney and about west of Oxford. The parish includes the hamlet of Sutton, north of the village. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 960. A ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. A native of Ashwellthorpe in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, Knyvett married Muriel Parry, daughter of Sir Thomas Parry,

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 ...

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 inherited the Ashwellthorpe estates from his paternal grandmother, Jane Knyvett (''née'' Bourchier), ''de jure'' 3rd Baroness Berners (daughter and heiress of

John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners (1467 – 19 March 1533) was an English soldier, statesman and translator. Family John Bourchier, born about 1467, was the only son of Sir Humphrey Bourchier (d.1471 at the Battle of Barnet) and Elizabeth Ti ...

), on her death in 1561/1562, along with rights to the title Baron Berners. 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 in 1578 and created Lord High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1579. He failed to formally claim the title Baron Berners until 1616, when the office of the Earl Marshall certified his "right and title to the Barony of Berners", but he died shortly thereafter, before the new king

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

could confirm the title. He was buried at Ashwellthorpe on 9 February 1616/7.

Children

His daughter Katherine Knyvett, Lady Paston, married Edmund Paston and was one of the writers of the

Paston Letters The ''Paston Letters'' is a collection of correspondence between members of the Paston family of Norfolk gentry and others connected with them in England between the years 1422 and 1509. The collection also includes state papers and other impor ...

. His daughter Abigail Knyvett married Sir Edmund Moundeford of

Mundford Mundford is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated at the intersection of two major routes, the A134 Colchester to King's Lynn road and the A1065 Mildenhall to Fakenham road, about north west of Thetford. ...

and

Hockwold Hockwold cum Wilton (''"Hock/mallow wood and willow-tree farm/settlement"'') is 10 miles west of Thetford, Norfolk, England and is in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. It is located near several USAF airbases, notably RAF Lakenheath a ...

, Norfolk, the grandson of Francis Mountford, as his second wife. From his first marriage, her husband had a son, Sir Edmund Moundeford (1596 – May 1643), who left much of his inheritance to his half-sister, Abigail's daughter and Thomas Knyvett's granddaughter Elizabeth.

References

1539 births 1610s deaths Year of death uncertain 16th-century English nobility 17th-century English nobility English knights High Sheriffs of Norfolk

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 ...

People from Ashwellthorpe and Fundenhall 4 {{England-baron-stub