Family and Education

Offices Held

Sec. to ld. kpr. Coventry (Sir Thomas Coventry*) by 1626-at least 1638.1

Freeman, Cambridge, Cambs. 1626.2

Clerk of the Petty Bag, Chancery 1629-by 1666.3

Biography

This member has not been positively identified. He was serving as a secretary to the lord keeper Coventry by 1626, when Coventry, as high steward of Cambridge, recommended him for election to Parliament. The corporation willingly complied and Thompson swore his oath as a freeman before Coventry on 21 Jan. 1626, six days before he was elected.4 He is not recorded as having spoken during the Parliament and was only named to one committee, for a private bill to naturalize the sons of Sir Jacob Astley (11 May).5

An undated draft of Coventry’s will mentions a ‘brother Thompson’. However, the name does not appear in the final version of the will, which was proved in 1640, nor is it even certain that this man was Coventry’s secretary.6 Thompson held his Chancery clerkship until at least 1659, and no successor was appointed until after the Restoration; his date of death is unknown.7

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: Chris Kyle

Notes

• 1. C. Cooper, Annals of Camb. iii. 183; Cal. Docquets of Ld. Kpr. Coventry, 1625-40 ed. J. Broadway, R. Cust and S.K. Roberts (L. and I. Soc. spec. ser. xxxvii), 762, 764.
• 2. Cooper, iii. 184.
• 3. T.D. Hardy, Principal Officers of Chancery, 127; Cal. Docquets of Ld. Kpr. Coventry, 1625-40, p. 447.
• 4. Cambs. RO, Mun. Rm., Shelf C.7, ff. 145v-6v.
• 5. Procs. 1626, iii. 227.
• 6. Croome Estate, Worcs., Box 15, F66/1; PROB 11/182, ff. 1-4.
• 7. E.R. Adair and F.M. Greir Evans, ‘Writs of assistance, 1558-1700’, EHR, xxxvi. 357.