Sir Thomas Holcroft (1505-31 July 1558) was a sixteenth-century English courtier and politician.
He was born at Vale Royal, Cheshire, the son of John Holcroft and Margaret Massey. He married Juliane Jennings, and had a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Isabel, who married Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland.
He was bailiff for the Duchy of Lancaster (1536–45), receiver for Lancashire and Cheshire (most of the period between 1538–58), Knight Marshal (1556–1558) and was knighted by Lord Hertford at Leith in May 1544. He was elected knight of the shire (MP) for Lancashire in 1545 and for Cheshire in 1553 and MP for Arundel in 1554. He was appointed High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1546 and the Custos Rotulorum of Cheshire between 1548 and 1558.[1]
Holcroft was an ally of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, chief regent of the young Edward VI, and after Somerset's downfall in 1551 spent a year in the Tower and lost his public offices. He was nevertheless able to be elected MP for Cheshire in March and October 1553 and for Arundel the following year.