Thomas Owen (died 21 December 1598) was an English judge and politician in the reign of Elizabeth I.
Contents
Thomas Owen (died 21 December 1598) was an English judge and politician in the reign of Elizabeth I.
Owen was first son of Richard Owen, merchant of Shrewsbury by Mary, daughter of Thomas Otley of Salop. He was educated at Oxford University, (variously stated to have been at Christ Church or Broadgates Hall), gaining a B.A. in 1559. He entered Lincoln's Inn in 1562, and was called to the Bar in 1570. [1]
He served at his Inn of Court as Bencher in 1579, marshal 1582–83, keeper of the Black Book 1586–87, and treasurer 1588–89. [1]
From about 1583 he was a J.P. for Shropshire and other counties. He was a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Shrewsbury in 1584, and later Recorder of the borough in 1588–1592; promoted serjeant-at-law in 1589, and Queen's serjeant in 1593; member of the Council in the Marches of Wales 1590; ultimately justice of the common pleas in 1595. [1]
Although Owen bought the manor of Condover, near Shrewsbury, in 1586, and built a fine red sandstone house there which was completed in 1598, he does not seem to have lived in it himself. Contrary to legend, it had not been granted him by Queen Elizabeth, but was purchased from the previously owning family, the Vynars, having previously leased it from 1578. [2] He also bought or leased estates in Montgomeryshire and Essex. [1]
Owen was twice married: first, to Sarah, daughter of Humphrey Baskerville, having by her five sons and five daughters; and second, to Alice, daughter of Thomas Wilkes of London, and widow of William Elkin, alderman of London, and of Henry Robinson, brewer of London. The latter survived him, [1] and lived to found Dame Alice Owen's School in Islington in 1613, the year she died.
Owen died on 21 December 1598 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. In his will he left the bailiffs of Shrewsbury money for the relief of 'decayed householders' and 'poor impotent persons' in the parish of Saint Chad, where he was born. There were also bequests to the poor of Condover parish and Westminster, and the deans of St. Paul's and Westminster each received a small legacy. [1] There is a tomb effigy in Westminster Abbey and he is also portrayed, kneeling facing his son Sir Roger Owen, on a monument erected in Condover church by his daughter Jane Norton (who appears facing her husband) in 1641. [3]
His son, Sir Roger Owen, succeeded to Thomas Owen's Condover and other estates.
The folklorist Charlotte Burne recorded a local legend, told by a person in the parish of Condover in 1881 – noting it to be "utterly at variance with facts", which she meticulously explained- wherein Owen, here the "clever" "son of the ostler of the Lion inn", had risen through education into the legal profession. In studying past trials, he came to suspect that John Viam, a servant at Condover Hall, had been falsely accused of murdering the lord of the manor, Knevett, in the reign of Henry VIII. Per the story, Knevett's son was the real murderer. Owen, "a special favourite with Queen Elizabeth", was given permission for a new trial, and in successfully condemning the murderous younger lord to death, Owen was rewarded with the Condover estate. [4] [5]
As Burne observes, however, Owen was the son of a wool merchant of old Welsh stock, and foremost amongst the discrepancies involved in the story is that Condover Hall was built by Owen's son Roger, fifty years after the death of Henry VIII. The only Knevett (or Knyvett) associated with Condover was a Sir Henry, who sold the manor soon after it was granted to him by Henry VIII. [4] [5]
Shropshire was established during the division of Saxon Mercia into shires in the 10th century. It is first mentioned in 1006. After the Norman Conquest it experienced significant development, following the granting of the principal estates of the county to eminent Normans, such as Roger De Montgomery and his son Robert de Bellême.
Condover is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is about 5 miles (8 km) south of the county town of Shrewsbury, and just east of the A49. The Cound Brook flows through the village on its way from the Stretton Hills to a confluence with the River Severn. Condover is near to the villages of Dorrington, Bayston Hill and Berrington. The population of the Condover parish was estimated as 1,972 for 2008, of which an estimated 659 live in the village of Condover itself. The actual population measured at the 2011 census had fallen to 1,957.
Condover Hall is an elegant Grade I listed three-storey Elizabethan sandstone building, described as the grandest manor house in Shropshire, standing in a conservation area on the outskirts of Condover village, Shropshire, England, four miles south of the county town of Shrewsbury.
Sir Thomas Bromley was a 16th-century lawyer, judge and politician who established himself in the mid-Tudor period and rose to prominence during the reign of Elizabeth I. He was successively Solicitor General and Lord Chancellor of England. He presided over the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots and died three months after her execution.
Sir Thomas Bromley was an English judge of Shropshire landed gentry origins who came to prominence during the Mid-Tudor period. After occupying important judicial posts in the Welsh Marches, he won the favour of Henry VIII and was a member of Edward VI's regency council. He was appointed Chief Justice of the King's Bench by Mary I.
Sir Francis Rodes of Barlborough Hall in the parish of Barlborough, Derbyshire, was an English judge who took part in the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. He built Barlborough Hall and was one of the founders of Netherthorpe School.
This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of Shropshire
![Thomas Mytton Welsh [[Puritan]], soldier and politician (ca.1597-1656)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Thomas_Mytton_Harding.jpg/245px-Thomas_Mytton_Harding.jpg)
Major General Thomas Mytton, also spelt Mitton, 1597 to November 1656, was a lawyer from Oswestry who served in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and as MP for Shropshire in the First Protectorate Parliament.
Sir Thomas Harries or Harris, 1st Baronet was an English lawyer.
Edward Drew (c.1542–1598) of Killerton, Broadclyst and The Grange, Broadhembury, Devon, was a Serjeant-at-Law to Queen Elizabeth I. He served as a Member of Parliament for Lyme Regis in 1584, twice for Exeter in 1586 and 1588 and in 1592 for the City of London. He occupied the honourable position of Recorder of the City of London.
Sir Walter Leveson was an Elizabethan Member of Parliament and a Shropshire and Staffordshire landowner who was ruined by involvement in piracy and mental illness.
Sir Robert Townshend of Ludlow, Shropshire was a judge who held a number of positions, including Chief Justice of the Marches of Wales and Chester. He was the founder of the Cheshire and Shropshire branch of the Townshend family.
Sir Roger Owen was an English Member of Parliament. He was the eldest son of Thomas Owen of Condover, Shropshire and was educated at Shrewsbury School (1583) and Christ Church, Oxford. He trained for the law at Lincoln's Inn (1589) and was called to the bar in 1597. In 1598 he succeeded his father, who had built Condover Hall for him, and was knighted in 1604.
Sir Richard Newport was an English landowner and politician of Shropshire origin, prominent regionally during the mid-Tudor and early Elizabethan periods.
Richard Corbet was an English landowner and politician who represented Shropshire in the parliaments of 1558 and 1563.
Sir Matthew Arundell of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, known between 1552 and 1554 as Matthew Howard and after his death sometimes called Matthew Arundell-Howard, was an English gentleman, landowner, and member of parliament in the West of England.
Sir Roger Corbet, of Moreton Corbet, Shropshire was a landowner and politician who was a knight of the shire for Shropshire in three Parliaments of England. He was involved in a series of complex and sharply contested property disputes with members of his own family.
Robert Corbet (1383–1420) of Moreton Corbet, Shropshire, was an English soldier, politician and landowner who represented Shropshire twice in the House of Commons of England. A retainer of Thomas FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel, and implicated in his alleged misrule in Shropshire, he accompanied his patron to the Siege of Harfleur and suffered a temporary eclipse after his death.
Roger Corbet was an English soldier, politician and landowner. He was a client of Thomas FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel and was implicated in the disorder that accompanied Arundel's rule in Shropshire. He probably fought at the Battle of Agincourt. After the untimely death of his patron, he became a successful municipal politician at Shrewsbury and represented Shrewsbury twice and Shropshire once in the House of Commons of England.
John Darras (c.1355–1408) was an English soldier, politician and landowner, who fought in the Hundred Years' War and against the Glyndŵr Rising. A client of the FitzAlan Earls of Arundel, he served them in war and peace, helping consolidate their domination of his native county of Shropshire. He represented Shropshire twice in the House of Commons of England. He died by his own hand.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
