Family and Education

b. by 1507, prob. s. of Christopher Hayward of Ipswich. m. Alice, da. of one Lonzam of Suff., ?1s. 1da.2

Offices Held

Common clerk and clerk of peace, Ipswich 1528-33; bailiff 1533-d.3

Biography

The heralds’ visitation of Norfolk gives three generations of Haywards in the early 16th century, and names the head of the family Thomas in each case. The first of them (whose wife is not named) is shown as the father of Thomas Hayward, who married Alice Lonzam and who is here treated as the Member. It is more likely, however, that his father was Christopher Hayward, chamberlain, coroner and claviger of Ipswich (d.1536), whose son Thomas when he predeceased his father left a son, another Thomas, then aged less than 24: after her husband’s death Alice Hayward married Richard Fulmerston, whose mention in his will of ‘Thomas Heyward my son-in-law’ almost certainly denotes his stepson.4

Hayward’s clerkship of Ipswich implies legal training and so suggests his identification with the ‘Thomas Heyworth’ who on 9 July 1527 was pardoned all offices and vacations at the Inner Temple, perhaps in anticipation of the appointment at Ipswich. (A William ‘Heyward’ was admitted and similarly pardoned there in the following June.) His election to the Parliament of 1529 was clearly due to his own and his father’s official standing in the town: it may also have been a gesture of municipal independence against the recent tendency towards the intrusion of local gentlemen, for the corporation at least saved the technical point of qualification by admitting Hayward as a burgess ‘intrinsecus’ on the day of his election. How regular in attendance or active in participation Hayward proved himself is not known, but it was probably the inconvenience of his absences from the town which led to his being authorized in September 1532 to exercise his clerkship by deputy, just as his decision to make his will before setting off to attend the fifth session may reflect the fear of returning to the plague-ridden City rather than the onset of the disease which was to kill him 12 months later.5

Hayward’s will was drawn up on 20 Jan. 1533 and proved on 7 May 1534. The only offspring menfriars in Ipswich on condition that they should sing masses on the day of his burial for his soul and for the souls of all Christians. He judged 6s.8d. sufficient for his funeral and left any residue towards the repair of the friaries concerned, with a further 2d. for tithes and oblations negligently forgotten. To his wife he bequeathed the house they lived in, another occupied by Ralph Goodwin, and all movable goods and debts provided that his own debts were paid. His daughter Elizabeth received £26 13s.4d. and two tenements in the parish of St. Nicholas. His executors were his wife, Christopher Hayward and Robert Bray.6

The date of Hayward’s death is supplied by a chancery case as ‘about’ 16 Jan. 1534. His widow was being sued by the bailiffs of Ipswich, who claimed that of £60 which they had delivered to Hayward for the fee-farm of the town for the year 1532-3 he had paid in only the £20 due to the crown and not the £40 due to Catherine of Aragon as the widow of Prince Arthur. The uncertainty of the plaintiffs as to the date of Hayward’s death suggests that he died away from Ipswich. As the sixth session of the Parliament of 1529 opened on 15 Jan. 1534, he may have died on his way to attend it or soon after his arrival. He was replaced in the Commons by Thomas Alvard.7

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: John Pound

Notes

• 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
• 2. Date of birth estimated from first appointment. Vis. Norf. (Harl. Soc. xxxii), 153.
• 3. N. Bacon, Annals Ipswich, 201-6; C1/727/40.
• 4. Bacon, 194-206 passim, 222, 232, 234, 248; Vis. Norf. 153; PCC 3 Crumwell, 33 Stonard.
• 5. Bacon, 206; Cal. I.T. Recs. i. 88, 96; Ipswich ct. bk. 8, f. 309.
• 6. Norwich consist. ct. 108 Platfoote.
• 7. C1/727/40.