Family and Education

b. by 1525, o. s. of Vincent Grantham of Goltho and Lincoln by 1st w. Alice, da. of Hamon Sutton of Lincoln; half-bro. of Thomas Grantham. educ. L. Inn. m. by 1547, Mary, da. and coh. of Sir John Dunham of Kirklington, Notts., 3s. 4da. suc. fa. 2 Nov. 1550.1

Offices Held

J.p. Lincs. (Kesteven and Lindsey) 1554-d.; alderman, Lincoln 1557, mayor 1557-8.2

Biography

Thomas Grantham followed his father to Lincoln’s Inn, although the date of his admission is unknown, and was perhaps acting for him in 1546 when with George Rithe of the same inn he purchased land from the crown in Hampshire, Leicestershire and elsewhere for £1,570: Rithe retained some of the Hampshire property but the bulk of the remainder was sold. In 1557 Grantham and William Rotheram sold the Lincolnshire manor of Wickenby to Gilbert Dighton, probably a son of Robert Dighton.3

Grantham’s election to the Parliament of 1547 for Lincoln, where he had only recently become a freeman, was a tribute to his father’s standing in the city. The young lawyer received 36 votes, seven more than his fellow-Member and kinsman George St. Poll, the city’s recorder, who also belonged to Lincoln’s Inn: of the defeated candidates John Broxholme obtained 15 votes and William Yates four. Nothing is known of Grantham’s role in the House but he presumably played some part in the passage during the second session of the Act for the uniting of churches in Lincoln (2 and 3 Edw. VI, no. 48). The city’s Members in the Parliament of March 1553 are unknown but Grantham is unlikely to have been one of them; his father had died in 1550 and he was not to sit again, although his later mayoralty shows that he was not without some of his father’s influence.4

Grantham’s inheritance involved him in some litigation, but by his will of 13 Aug. 1558, after making provision for his family, he could spare £100 for charity. The family’s wealth was founded on the wool trade and Grantham owned a flock of more than 2,000 sheep. His executors included Andrew Gedney of Bag Enderby, Lincolnshire, brother-in-law to Christopher Rithe and George Rithe, and Anthony Thorold, St. Poll’s successor as recorder of Lincoln. Grantham died on 15 Oct. 1558.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: S. M. Thorpe

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. li), 421-2; LP Hen. VIII, xxi; CPR, 1547-8, p. 1.
• 2. CPR, 1553-4, p. 21; 1557-8, p. 109; Lincs. Peds. 422.
• 3. LP Hen. VIII, xxi; CPR, 1547-8, pp. 335, 361; 1557-8, p. 334.
• 4. HMC 14th Rep. VIII, 41; J. W. F. Hill, Tudor and Stuart Lincoln, 53; Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. lii), 844-5; CJ, i. 4-6.
• 5. St.Ch.2/16/205; 3/6/93; PCC 41 Welles; C142/121/109.