Thomas Thursby (d. 1543)

He was the son of Thomas Thursby (d.1510), merchant, three times Mayor of King's Lynn and the founder and benefactor of Thoresby College. The great wealth inherited to him by his father enabled him to amass large tracts of arable land, which he then enclosed, turning out the landless peasants who had hereto lived there. It also meant a serious threat against their livelihood, the common ground previously having been available to grazing for the livestock of everyone. he was sued in the Court of Requests by the inhabitants of Middleton in 1540, and a case was made against him in 1549, years after was he was long dead, for enclosing the salt fen that had always been common to Middleton, but also used by Runcton, West Winch, Setchey and Hardwick. ==Ashwicken==

Before 31 May 1527 Thomas Thursby bought the manor of Ashwicken. Ashwicken had previously belonged to another branch of the Thursby family, the grandson of his uncle Robert Thursby, his cousin also named Thomas Thursby (1498). ==Mintlyn, Geyton Thorp, Gayton, Congham, and Rydon==

He inherited Mintlyn, Geyton Thorp, Gayton, Congham, and Rydon from his father. In a tax assessment of 1524 Thomas Thursby, Esq. is listed as the wealthiest landowner in Gayton. There is a reference in the record of a lawsuit in the Court of Star Chamber during the reign of Henry VIII to Thomas Thursby's 'mansion place' in Gayton. The manors of Rustons and Redehall, moiety of manor of Bawdsey and all possessions in Gayton, Gaytonthorpe, Congham, Rydon, Bawsey, Walton, and Rysing was settled on his wife-to-be Anne Knyvett in their marriage settlement of 31 May 1527. The manors of Rustons and Redehall and possessions Gayton, Gaytonthorpe and Rydon were inherited by his son Edmund. Thomas Thursbye of Gayton, esquire, alias of Lynn, merchant, was involved in a suit with Juliana, the widow of Sir Robert Norwich (d.1535), Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1538–1544. ==Thoresby College==

As the son of Thomas Thursby (d.1510), the founder of Thoresby College, he had interaction with the Mayor and burgesses regarding his father's will and its conditions: ==The Dispute of the Salt Fen==

After the dissolution the Haveless lands were bought by Thomas Thoresby, presumably on 23 August 1540, and he came into conflict with the men of Middleton over the ownership of Salt Fen situated between Middleton and Haveless. He is described as a country gentleman. This dispute was not isolated. He was accused before the Star Chamber in 1535 of attacks on Adam and Ann Foster of Gayton in a dispute over lands and similarly in 1537 for assaults on Nicholas Gurling of Grimston. ==Anne of Cleves==

He was probably the Thomas Thursby who received Anne of Cleves at Rochester on New Year's Eve together with his uncle-by-marriage the Duke of Norfolk and his brothers-in-law Sir Edmund Knyvett, Sir William Coningsby and Thomas Gibbon, and such Norfolk neighbours as Sir James Boleyn and Sir Thomas Lestrange. His future daughter-in-law, Mary Neville, Lady Dacre was one of the ladies appointed to receive Anne of Cleves when she arrived in England. ==Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire==

He may have been the Thomas Thursby of Caxton, Cambridgeshire who was Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire for a year from 9 November 1513. By 1509, Caxton was held by the sisters Margaret née Burgoyne (d.1529), wife of George Heveningham (d.1530), and Elizabeth Burgoyne (d.1532+), wife of Thomas Thursby of Norfolk. His first cousin once removed by the same name would in 1513 have been a boy of 15, and therefore unlikely to have been sheriff. Like with Ashwicken, it is possible that this Thomas Thursby (d.1543) bought Caxton from his relatives. It is found again as the property of the grandson of this Thomas Thursby (d.1543) also called Thomas Thursby (d.1633) in 1578. ==Marriage==

He married Anne She was the sister of Sir Edmund Knyvett and a first cousin of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Through her mother's first marriage Anne Knyvett was also the sister of Elizabeth Grey, Viscountess Lisle, who was at one time betrothed to Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and later the wife of Henry Courtenay. Anne Thorysby is one of the witnesses of Cecily Aylmer's will in 1541. After Thomas Thursby's death in 1543, Anne Knyvett remarried by license dated 26 January 1543/4 to Henry Spelman, the son of Sir John Spelman (d.1546) and the father of Sir Henry Spelman ==Children==

Children of Thomas Thursby: • Edmund (d.1547), m. Ursula (d.1567), daughter of Sir Edward Beynton of the Vyse in Wiltshire, Knight, who remarried to Erasmus Spelman, the daughter of Roger Barlow of Slewinge and Jylian Dew, and niece of William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester, by license dated 17 March 1574/5. The will of Thomas Thoresby of Ashwicken (d.1633) was proven 17 December 1633. They had Edmund Thoresby of Haveles in Mintlyng, who married 1) Ann, daughter of Robert Spring of Icklingham; 2) Jane, daughter of Thomas Astley; 3) Susan, daughter of Edmund Jermyn, Francis who died s.p., will proven 1608, Thomas and Wingfield. under 20 in 1543, the third husband of Mary Neville Fiennes, Lady Dacre, with whom he had six children. This Thursby family owned property in Congham. Mary Neville Fiennes, Lady Dacre is the sitter in two famous portraits, one by Hans Eworth, misidentified as Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, for centuries, the other as her daughter Lady Jane Grey. Her portrait still hangs in Parliament.), the son of William Cobb of Gayton, the grandson of William Cobb of Sandringham and the daughter and heiress of Ralph Gayton, and the great grandson of William Cobb of Sandringham in Norfolk, and Margaret, the daughter of Sir John le Buttler, knight, and had: Thomas Cobbs (b. 1539), eldest son and heir, William Cobbs, Ann, and Dowsabell. ==Last will and testament==

The will of Thomas Thorresby of Hautbois, Norfolk was dated 24 October 1543 and proven 13 February 1543/4. ==References==