Thomas Cromwell (Parliamentary diarist)

Thomas Cromwell (1552–1611), born in Putney, third surviving son of The 1st Baron Cromwell and grandson of the famous Thomas Cromwell, was an English Member of Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. His diaries of proceedings in the House of Commons are an important source for historians of parliamentary history during the period at which he was a member, and Sir John Neale draws heavily upon them in his ground-breaking two-volume study of Elizabeth I and Her Parliaments (1953-7).

Cromwell was a member of five successive Parliaments between 1571 and 1589. His constituencies included Fowey (1571), Bodmin (1572–81) and Grampound (1586-7 and 1588). He served on numerous Parliamentary committees and, by the end of his career, seems to have been one of the most respected of the independent members and recognised as an authority on Parliamentary procedure. His sympathies were with the Puritan party in the House, but he was considered a moderate. Neale sums him up as

the model type of parliamentarian: deeply versed in the history and procedure of the institution, though like all his generation ... hopelessly yet profitably lacking in historical perspective; eminently responsible, but fearless in defence of liberty; liberal, not to say radical, by instinct.

After his retirement from Parliament, he lived until 1611.

He married Anne, family unknown, and had a daughter Elizabeth Cromwell, born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, in 1577, who married Richard Price and had Eleanor Price.

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