WILKES, Thomas (by 1508-36/37), of Chippenham, Wilts.

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. by 1508. m. Edith, at least 1s.1

Offices Held

Biography

Thomas Wilkes was presumably the Chippenham ‘yeoman’ of that name who figures in two actions brought before the court of requests in 1537 and 1538 by Geoffrey Daniell and his wife Margaret: save for his Membership in 1529 and collectorship of the revenues of Monkton Farleigh priory before its dissolution in February 1536, everything that has come to light about Wilkes is drawn from these suits. In 1531 Margaret Daniell, then the widow of Richard Hitchcock, had sold wool worth £36 to Nicholas Taylor, a Gloucestershire clothier, who was to pay the money to Thomas Wilkes to the use of Margaret’s children. This Taylor claimed to have done, and although Wilkes had since died his brother John admitted as much in his deposition of May 1538. The Daniells accordingly claimed the amount from Wilkes’s executors, his widow and son John, who replied, as did Edith Wilkes’s second husband Richard ap Harry, by denying knowledge of the transaction: which party prevailed is not known. Wilkes presumably lived long enough to be reelected to the Parliament of 1536, in accordance with the King’s request for the return of the previous Members, but on the evidence of the lawsuit of 1537-8 he did not long survive it.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. F.T. Baker

Notes

  • 1. Presumed to be of age at election. Req. 2/10/208.
  • 2. Req. 2/3/153, 10/208; VCH Wilts. iii. 266; Val. Eccles. ii. 144.