LANSDEN, Thomas (by 1512-71), of Bristol, Glos.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1554
Nov. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1512. m. (1) by 1533, Elizabeth, da. of John Arthur of Clapton-in-Gordano, Som., at least 2s. 2da.; ?(2) by Oct. 1554, Barbara; ?(3) Juliana, wid. of John Bysse (d. by Aug. 1557) of Publow, Som.2

Offices Held

Sheriff, Bristol 1543-4, auditor chamberlain’s accts. 1548, alderman by 1550.3

Biography

Thomas Lansden, who occupied a house on the Bridge and later one in Temple Street, was assessed on goods worth £35 for the subsidies of the period. A member of the grocers’ company, he traded as a haberdasher, and sometime before 1542 he borrowed £70 for capital from his brother-in-law, Thomas Arthur. In a Star Chamber suit of 1544 he was accused (possibly as sheriff) with others of forcibly removing cattle from a close in Brislington, Somerset. His return to the two Parliaments of 1544 answered to his standing in the city but may have been furthered by his connexions, through his first marriage, with Arthur Porter, who was elected a knight of the shire in the autumn of 1554.4

By a will of 2 Aug. 1571 Lansden left his wife Juliana his dwelling house in the parishes of St. Thomas and Redcliffe with 20 marks yearly from his tenements in Gloucestershire and Somerset. He bequeathed his house on the Bridge to his daughter Elizabeth and property at Almondsbury and Stanley to his son Thomas. The will was proved some three weeks later by Lansden’s widow and his son John.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: M. K. Dale

Notes

  • 1. Huntington Lib. Hastings mss Parl. pprs.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Cal. Bristol Apprentice Bk. i (Bristol Rec. Soc. xiv), 28; PCC 30 Wrastley, 35 Holney; Req.2/76/47 Som. Med. Wills (Som. Rec. Soc. xxi), 70; Collinson, Som. iii. 178; Bristol AO, 04352/1/58—Barbara may have been Lansden’s daughter-in-law.
  • 3. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. xxvi. 136; Bristol AO, 04026/4/160; 04027/12 et passim.
  • 4. Cal. Bristol Apprentice Bk. i. 28, 142, 146, 167; Req.2/76/47; St.Ch.2/28/82; Bristol Chs. (Bristol Rec. Soc. xii), 97; LP Hen. VIII, xix; Bristol AO, 04026/2/77, 3/291; E179/114/269.
  • 5. PCC 35 Holney.