Thomas Burgh, 1st Baron Burgh

Sir Thomas Burgh
Baron Burgh of Gainsborough
Baron Strabolgi
Baron Cobham of Sterborough
Spouse(s) Agnes Tyrwhitt
Alice London
Issue
Sir Edward Burgh
Sir Thomas Burgh
William Burgh, 2nd Baron Burgh
Anne Burgh
Margaret Burgh
Agnes Burgh
Henry Burgh
Eleanor Burgh
Dorothy Burgh
Elizabeth Burgh
John Burgh
Richard Burgh
Father Edward Burgh, 2nd Baron Burgh
Mother Anne Cobham
Born c. 1488
Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England
Died 28 February 1550
Burial Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England

Thomas Burgh, 1st Baron Burgh or Borough (c. 1488 – 28 February 1550), 1st Baron Borough of Gainsborough, also de jure 5th Baron Strabolgi and 7th Baron Cobham of Sterborough, was an English peer. He was knighted on Flodden Field in 1513 where he was one of the King's Spears (bodyguard of Henry VIII). He was a Member of Parliament in 1529 and Lord Chamberlain to Anne Boleyn. He was also one of the twenty-six Peers summoned to the trial of Anne Boleyn in May 1536.[1]

Contents

Life

Thomas Burgh or "Borough" was born circa 1488 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, the eldest son of Edward Burgh, 2nd Baron Burgh (c.1463-1528) and Anne Cobham, suo jure 6th Baroness Cobham, daughter of Sir Thomas Cobham, de jure 5th Baron Cobham of Sterborough and Lady Anne Stafford, daughter of the 1st Duke of Buckingham.[2]

His father, Edward, succeeded as 2nd Baron of Gainsborough on 18 March 1495/96, but was never summoned to Parliament and the barony created for his grandfather in 1487 is considered to have become extinct on his death in 1496. After his father was found a lunatic however, in December 1529, Sir Thomas Burgh, was summoned to the House of Lords as Lord Burgh, of Gainsborough in the County of Lincoln. He was already to have succeeded as de jure fifth Baron Strabolgi by his father and Baron Cobham which he inherited from his mother, although he was never summoned to Parliament in this title or confirmed in it.[3] He was knighted in 1513 and served as High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1518 and 1524.

Sir Thomas' home was Gainsborough Old Hall. Burgh was an over-bearing father given to violent rages. He ruled with an iron hand requiring absolute obedience. Some time after 1529, Sir Thomas had a daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Owen, thrown out of the household and her children with his younger son Thomas declared bastards. Sir Thomas' children lived in fear of their own father.[4]

Sir Thomas was opinionated on matters of religion. Burgh was passionate about the new reformed religion which was being introduced to England. Burgh had an ambitious reform-minded chaplain with whom he discussed his opinions in the matter of religion with. When his chaplain went to London to find a new patron in Thomas Cromwell, Burgh wrote asking that he be returned immediately.[5][6]

In May 1533, at the celebrations for the coronation of Anne Boleyn, Borough was severely rebuked for 'ripping Queen Catherine of Aragon's [coat of] arms off her barge and for seizing the barge.' Having been appointed Boleyn's Lord chamberlain, he maintained a high profile and rode in her barge as she was received at the Tower on her coronation day. Appearing in the procession he wore a surcoat and mantle of white cloth of tissue and ermine as he held the middle of Anne Boleyn's coronation train.[5][7]

It had been thought until recently that Thomas's father Edward Burgh, 2nd Baron Burgh had married Catherine Parr in 1529, but the 2nd Baron died in August 1528.[3][8] Through the recent research of documents and the will of Catherine's mother by biographers Susan James, Linda Porter, David Starkey, and Alison Weir; all confirm that she married the 2nd Baron's grandson, who shared his first name.[1][8][9][10] Sir Edward Borough was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Borough. In the will of Maud Parr, dated May 1529, she mentioned Sir Thomas, father of Edward, saying I am indebted to Sir Thomas Borough, knight, for the marriage of my daughter. At the time of his son's marriage, Thomas, was thirty-five which would have made Edward around Catherine's age.[8] Sir Edward was in his twenties and may have been in poor health. He served as a feoffee for Thomas Kiddell and as a justice of the peace. According to Susan James and Linda Porter, Sir Edward Borough died in the spring of 1533, never fulfilling the title of Lord Borough.[5][8] Other sources state before April 1533.[1]

Marriage and issue

He married twice; firstly in 1496, Agnes Tyrwhitt, the daughter of Sir William Tyrwhitt,[3] by whom he had issue. He married secondly Alice London by whom he had no issue.[1]

Lord Burgh died in February 1550 and was succeeded in the barony by his third son William Burgh, 2nd Lord Burgh. Sir Thomas's second wife, Alice, died in 1559.

Issue by Agnes Tyrwhitt:

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cole, Robert Eden George. History of the manor and township of Doddington, otherwise Doddington-Pigot, in the county of Lincoln and its successive owners, with pedigrees, James Williamson, Printer, 1897. pg 41-50.
  2. ^ a b c Sir Bernard Burke. A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct peerages of the British empire (Google eBook)
  3. ^ a b c d Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 587.
  4. ^ Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII.
  5. ^ a b c d e James, Susan E. Kateryn Parr: The Making of a Queen. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. 1999. pg. 60-63.
  6. ^ D. Willen: 1989, 148-152.
  7. ^ Eric Ives. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. Wiley-Blackwell, 2004. pg 212.
  8. ^ a b c d e Linda Porter. Katherine, the Queen. Macmillan. 2010.
  9. ^ a b David Starkey. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII. HarperCollins, 2004. pg 697.
  10. ^ Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 154.
  11. ^ Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham. Magna Carta ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families, Genealogical Publishing Company, 2005. pg 838.
  12. ^ Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 587.
  13. ^ George Edward Cokayne. Complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, Volume 2, G. Bell & sons, 1889. pg 76-77. Google eBook
  14. ^ a b Sir Bernard Burke. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage, 1938 ed., pg 1523.
  15. ^ George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, Vol. VIII, p. 262-3.
  16. ^ a b Col. F.W.T. Attree R.E./F.S.A. & Rev. J.H.L. Booker M.A., The Sussex Colepepers, Part I, Sussex Archaeological Collections, XLVII, 47-81, (1904)
  17. ^ a b Sussex Archeological Collections, Sussex, England: Sussex Archaeological Society. Janet H. Stevenson, Alexander Nesbitt, a Sussex antiquary, and the Oldlands estate, 1999, Volume 137, pages 163-164.

Notes

Peerage of England
Preceded by
Sir Edward Burgh		 Baron Burgh
1529-1550		 Succeeded by
Sir William Burgh
Preceded by
Sir Edward Burgh		 Baron Strabolgi
1529-1550		 Succeeded by
Sir William Burgh
Preceded by
Anne Cobham		 Baron Cobham of Sterborough
1526-1550		 Succeeded by
Sir William Burgh