Family and Education

b. by 1495. m. prob. da. of William Coningsby^† of King’s Lynn, 2s. 1da.

Offices Held

Alderman, Lynn 1525-63, mayor 1535-6, 1551-2, June-Sept. 1558; victualler and purveyor of grain for the armies in the north and in France 1542-50.

Biography

There were at least three men called Thomas Waters at Lynn in this period. The references in the Lynn congregation books, however, together with his unbroken record of aldermanic service and the evidence obtained from various wills of the family, make it reasonable to suppose that it was the same man who sat in all these Parliaments and had the career outlined above. In 1559 he was on the commission to ensure the execution in Lynn of the statute 1 Elizabeth c.11 concerning the loading and unloading of goods at wharves. Two years later, he represented Lynn at meetings to settle an old dispute with Cambridge, and through much of 1562 he was in London on the town’s business. The will he made 19 Dec. 1563 mentions houses, gardens, orchards and land in Lynn. Apart from one house bequeathed to his daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, and some small charitable bequests, his property was to be divided between his two sons, William and Edward, whom he named executors. The will was proved 3 May 1564.

HCA 13/10, f. 76v; PCC 13 Alenger, 17 Stevenson, 10 Alen, 19 Burke; Lynn congregation bks. 1554-69, passim; LP Hen. VIII, xvii-xx; APC, i. passim; E351/130, 198; Norwich consist. ct. 161 Hustinges; CPR, 1558-60, p. 32.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Roger Virgoe

Notes