RODES, Thomas.

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

Constituency

Dates

Oct. 1553
Nov. 1554

Family and Education

Offices Held

Bailiff, Hastings 1554-5, 1555-6.3

Biography

Although he was presumably related to at least some of the bearers of his surname in Sussex, including John Rothes or Rotes who sat for Bramber in 1491, nothing has been discovered about the origins of Thomas Rodes. His career is also obscure. He is unlikely to have been the Thomas Rodes who appeared in July 1533 at a Brotherhood of the Cinque Ports as chamberlain for Winchelsea, but may well have been the Thomas Roodes ‘of the guard’ who 12 years later was captain of the Mary Fortune and perhaps also the man who for services unspecified was granted in November 1550 a fee of 6d. a day for life, to be paid by the treasurer of the chamber. Employment by the crown could account for Rodes’s return to three Marian Parliaments for Hastings and would be consistent with the absence of his name from any of the ‘opposition’ lists.4

Rodes may have continued to serve the crown under Elizabeth for in May 1574 Thomas Rootes, deputy vice-admiral of Sussex, was summoned to appear before the admiralty court at Southwark to account for the revenues of the office of vice-admiral: when he failed to appear his arrest was ordered and in July he entered into a recognizance to appear at the next session of the court. In the following April Thomas Rootes, gentleman, deputy bailiff of Pevensey (a limb of Hastings) was present at a special Brotherhood of the Cinque Ports. Since the Thomas Rhodes of Chichester who made his will in April 1585 was apparently a man of humbler station this is the last reference found which may relate to the Member.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Patricia Hyde

Notes

  • 1. Bodl. e. Museo 17.
  • 2. C219/23/184; OR gives Thomas Rede.
  • 3. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. (Kent Arch. Soc. recs. br. xix), 249, 251-2.
  • 4. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. 216; LP Hen. VIII, xx, add.; Royal 18C, 24, f. 9v.
  • 5. Guildford mus. Loseley 1591, 1740/1, 2; Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. 299; W. Suss. RO, orig. will J14.