DALTON, Thomas (1516/17-91), of Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. 1516/17, 3rd s. of Thomas Dalton of Kingston-upon-Hull by Maud, da. of Thomas Wilkinson of Kingston-upon-Hull. m. (1) Anne Walker, wid., s.p.; (2) by 1563, Anne, da. of Robert Tyrwhitt II of Kettleby, Lincs., 6s. 3da.2

Offices Held

Sheriff, Kingston-upon-Hull 1550-1, mayor 1554-5, 1560-1, 1569-70; commr. sewers 1565, array, Yorks. 1569, goods arrested by Spain 1573.3

Biography

Thomas Dalton was one of a large family of merchants descended from two brothers living in Hull at the end of the 15th century. His father, who was mayor of Hull in 1547-8, made his career in overseas trade but it was only a modest landed estate in North Cave and Patrington which passed in 1556 to the heir John Dalton; both the second and third sons were, however, to make good marriages, Robert Dalton to the heiress of John Sylston of Yorkshire, and Thomas Dalton, after his first wife’s death, to a Tyrwhitt of Kettleby.4

Dalton became a man of greater substance than his father through trading with the Netherlands. He was named among those who received a special pardon and further licence to ship wools in 1558 and those licensed to found a staple in England in 1561. He used the profits of the trade to acquire landed property, his purchases including the manors of Doddington and Paull, with Walter Jobson, in 1556, those of Sculcoates near Hull and Battle in Breconshire, with (Sir) Henry Gates, for £2,108 in 1558, and the manor of Sutton in 1565. It was with Jobson that Dalton was returned for Hull to the Parliament of 1555 towards the end of his first mayoralty, being distinguished from his father on the indenture (to which both were parties) as ‘Thomas Dalton minor’. Unlike Jobson he is not to be found on the list of Members who voted against one of the government’s bills towards the close of that Parliament but as he was to be a Member again under Elizabeth, and to be named a commissioner of array in 1569, this probably implies no more than a disposition to follow authority.5

Dalton died on 4 Jan. 1591 and was buried in Holy Trinity church, Hull, where a brass records his age and the names of his wives and children.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: M. K. Dale

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
  • 2. Aged 74 at death, Yorks. Arch. Jnl. xii. 218; The Gen. n.s. xxi. 45-46; Glover’s Vis. Yorks. ed. Foster, 141; York wills 11, f. 259; C142/229/107.
  • 3. T. Gent. Kingston-upon-Hull (1735), 119, 120, 122; CPR, 1569-72, p. 216; 1572-5, pp. 31-32; L. M. Stanewell, Cal. Anct. Deeds, Kingston-upon-Hull, M60.
  • 4. HP, ed. Wedgwood, 1439-1509 (Biogs.), 251-2; Stanewell, passim; CPR, 1494-1509, pp. 448-9; LP Hen. VIII, xiii; C142/113/36; Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis van den Handel met Engeland, Schotland en Ierland, ed Smit. i. 263, 276-9, 524, 691-8; VCH Yorks. (E. Riding), i. 123.
  • 5. CPR, 1557-8, pp. 289, 300; 1558-60, p. 24; 1560-3, p. 29; Yorks. Fines, i (Yorks. Arch. Soc. ii), 193, 310; Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis, i. 691-700; C219/24/207.
  • 6. C142/229/107; York wills 24, f. 769.