DYER, Sir Thomas (d.1565), of Weston, Som.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1553
Oct. 1553
1555

Family and Education

1st s. of Alexander Dyer by his w., the da. of one Walter or Walton. m. (1) by 1539, Frances, da. of Thomas or John Darcy of Danbury, Essex, wid. of William Thornburgh of Canterbury, Kent, at least 1s. Edward 3da.; (2) aft. 1556, Joan or Jane (d.1564), da. of Thomas, 5th Lord Berkeley, wid. of Sir Nicholas Poyntz, at least 3s. Kntd. Feb. 1547.

Offices Held

Prob. groom of chamber by 1525; sewer of chamber by Sept. 1532; j.p. Som. 1540-Feb. 1554, q. from 1559; sheriff, Dorset, Som. 1559-60.

Biography

Dyer had sufficient local influence to secure his own return at Bridgwater. He had sat in two Marian Parliaments, voting against government measures in each. His Weston property had formerly belonged to the abbey of Glastonbury. He also had estates at Greinton, Wincanton, Othery, Milton Falconbridge and elsewhere in Somerset, as well as in Devon, Dorset, Essex, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. His relations with his tenants were unfriendly, and his ill-treatment of his second wife caused her death in 1564. Dyer himself died at Weston on 14 June the next year.

Lansd. 1, f. 201; 7, ff. 30, 177; LP Hen. VIII, v. 586; xiv(1), p. 418; xix(2), p. 468; Harl. 1559, ff. 66, 84, 188; Vis. Som.(Harl. Soc. xi), 33; J. Maclean, Fam. Poyntz, i. 72; APC, ii. 451, 458; R. M. Sargent, At the Court of Queen Eliz. 1-12; Berry, Co. Genealogies, Hants, 87; CPR, 1547-8, p. 89; 1553-4, p. 23; SP11/5/6; CSP Dom. Add. 1547-65, p. 483; C142/142/64; Wards 7/10/105; PCC 22 Morrison.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes