Thomas Thursby (1487âÂÂ1543) of Ashwicken was a notorious land encloser in Norfolk in the 1510sâÂÂ1540s.
He was the son of Thomas Thursby (d.1510), merchant, three times Mayor of King's Lynn and the founder and benefactor of Thoresby College.
The great wealth inherited to him by his father enabled him to amass large tracts of arable land, which he then enclosed, turning out the landless peasants who had hereto lived there. It also meant a serious threat against their livelihood, the common ground previously having been available to grazing for the livestock of everyone. The Norfolk Heritage writes about one of these villages, Holt:
All Saints Church, Ashwicken, Leziate & Bawsey in the Diocese of Norwich, concurs:
His dealings were part of an inquest which took place in 1517, he was sued in the Court of Requests by the inhabitants of Middleton in 1540, and a case was made against him in 1549, years after was he was long dead, for enclosing the salt fen that had always been common to Middleton, but also used by Runcton, West Winch, Setchey and Hardwick.
K.J. Allison writes in The Sheep-Corn Husbandry of Norfolk in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries that the Norfolk landlords committed manifold abuses of the foldcourse system. And that those abuses were frequently accompanied by the acquisition of houses, landholdings, and commons, and how '<nowiki/>large estates were built up, and villages were depopulated.<nowiki/>' K.J. Allison notes that, '<nowiki/>There is a considerable body of evidence to support the poor petitioners' allegations<nowiki/>'. K.J. Allison makes a special note of '<nowiki/>the tenants of the notorious Thomas Thursby<nowiki/>' and describes how he had converted their holdings to sheep pasture, evicted them from their dwellings, deprived them of their commons, and pulled down their houses in numerous villages, and also mentions the lost villages, including four that are now deserted.'
Before 31 May 1527 Thomas Thursby bought the manor of Ashwicken. Ashwicken had previously belonged to another branch of the Thursby family, the grandson of his uncle Robert Thursby, his cousin also named Thomas Thursby (1498âÂÂ1532). This other branch migrated to Essex.
He inherited Mintlyn, Geyton Thorp, Gayton, Congham, and Rydon from his father. In a tax assessment of 1524 Thomas Thursby, Esq. is listed as the wealthiest landowner in Gayton. There is a reference in the record of a lawsuit in the Court of Star Chamber during the reign of Henry VIII to Thomas Thursby's 'mansion place' in Gayton. The manors of Rustons and Redehall, moiety of manor of Bawdsey and all possessions in Gayton, Gaytonthorpe, Congham, Rydon, Bawsey, Walton, and Rysing was settled on his wife-to-be Anne Knyvett in their marriage settlement of 31 May 1527. The manor of Rysyng was in the hands of the Crown as part of the duchy of Cornwall, but had been let in 1516 for twenty-one years to Thomas Thursby, of Bishop's Lynne, for 50/. The manors of Rustons and Redehall and possessions Gayton, Gaytonthorpe and Rydon were inherited by his son Edmund.
Thomas Thursbye of Gayton, esquire, alias of Lynn, merchant, was involved in a suit with Juliana, the widow of Sir Robert Norwich (d.1535), Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1538âÂÂ1544.
As the son of Thomas Thursby (d.1510), the founder of Thoresby College, he had interaction with the Mayor and burgesses regarding his father's will and its conditions:
After the dissolution the Haveless lands were bought by Thomas Thoresby, presumably on 23 August 1540, and he came into conflict with the men of Middleton over the ownership of Salt Fen situated between Middleton and Haveless. He is described as a country gentleman. This dispute was not isolated. He was accused before the Star Chamber in 1535 of attacks on Adam and Ann Foster of Gayton in a dispute over lands and similarly in 1537 for assaults on Nicholas Gurling of Grimston.
Edmund Beaupré of the Beauprés of Beaupré Hall was the guardian of Thomas Thursby's relative Edward Thursby of Doreward's Hall during his minority from 1541.
He was probably the Thomas Thursby who received Anne of Cleves at Rochester on New Year's Eve together with his uncle-by-marriage the Duke of Norfolk and his brothers-in-law Sir Edmund Knyvett, Sir William Coningsby and Thomas Gibbon, and such Norfolk neighbours as Sir James Boleyn and Sir Thomas Lestrange.
His future daughter-in-law, Mary Neville, Lady Dacre was one of the ladies appointed to receive Anne of Cleves when she arrived in England.
He may have been the Thomas Thursby of Caxton, Cambridgeshire who was Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire for a year from 9 November 1513. By 1509, Caxton was held by the sisters Margaret née Burgoyne (d.1529), wife of George Heveningham (d.1530), and Elizabeth Burgoyne (d.1532+), wife of Thomas Thursby of Norfolk. His first cousin once removed by the same name would in 1513 have been a boy of 15, and therefore unlikely to have been sheriff. Like with Ashwicken, it is possible that this Thomas Thursby (d.1543) bought Caxton from his relatives. It is found again as the property of the grandson of this Thomas Thursby (d.1543) also called Thomas Thursby (d.1633) in 1578.
He married Anne Knyvett, lady in waiting to Queen Katherine of Aragon. Marriage preparations were under way 31 May 1527. Anne Knyvett was the daughter of Sir Thomas Knyvett and his wife Muriel, widow of John Grey, 2nd Viscount Lisle, and daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and Elizabeth Tilney. She was the sister of Sir Edmund Knyvett and a first cousin of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Through her mother's first marriage Anne Knyvett was also the sister of Elizabeth Grey, Viscountess Lisle, who was at one time betrothed to Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and later the wife of Henry Courtenay. Anne Thorysby is one of the witnesses of Cecily Aylmer's will in 1541. After Thomas Thursby's death in 1543, Anne Knyvett remarried by license dated 26 January 1543/4 to Henry Spelman, the son of Sir John Spelman (d.1546) and the father of Sir Henry Spelman and of Erasmus Spelman, whose son Henry went to Virginia.
Children of Thomas Thursby:
The will of Thomas Thorresby of Hautbois, Norfolk wasÃÂ dated 24 October 1543 and proven 13 February 1543/4. In it he mentions his wife Anne and his sons Edmund and Francis, and his daughter Mary, the wife of Geoffrey Cobbs.