{{short description|English administrator and politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}} {{Use British English|date=November 2016}} {{Infobox MP | honorific_prefix = [[The Honourable]] | name = Thomas Denys | honorific_suffix = [[Knight Bachelor|Kt.]] | image = ArmsOfDenysOfBicton.PNG | caption = Arms of Denys of Holcombe Burnel & Bicton, Devon: ''Ermine, three battle-axes gules'' | constituency_MP = [[Devon (UK Parliament constituency)|Devon]] | parliament = <!--Can be repeated up to 16 times by adding a number--> | majority = <!--Can be repeated up to 16 times by adding a number--> | term_start = 1529 | term_end = 1536, 1539–1540, 1553 | predecessor = <!--Can be repeated up to 16 times by adding a number--> | successor = <!--Can be repeated up to 16 times by adding a number--> | prior_term = | birth_date = {{circa|1477}} | birth_place = [[Holcombe Burnell]], [[Devon]] | death_date = 18 February {{Death year and age|1561|1477}} | death_place = | resting_place = |resting_place_coordinates = | parents = Thomas Denys<br />Janera Loveday | spouse = Anne, widow of Thomas Warley<br />Elizabeth Donne | children = '''''with Elizabeth:'''''<br />{{unbulleted list|Sir [[Robert Dennis (died 1592)|Robert Denys]]|George Dennis|Edward Dennis|Walter Dennis|Gabriel Dennis|Margaret Dennis|and others ...}} }} Sir '''Thomas Denys''' ({{circa|1477}} – 18 February 1561) of [[Holcombe Burnell]], near Exeter, Devon, was a prominent lawyer who served as [[High Sheriff of Devon|Sheriff of Devon]] nine times between 1507/8 to 1553/4 and as [[Member of Parliament|MP]] for [[Devon (UK Parliament constituency)|Devon]]. He acquired large estates in Devon at the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]].
==Origins== He was the son and heir of Sir Thomas Denys (died 1498) of Holcombe Burnell by his wife Janera Loveday, daughter of Philip Loveday of Sneston in Suffolk.{{sfn|Kirk & Hawkyard|1982}}
==Career== {{More citations needed section|date=January 2023}} He served twice as [[Recorder of Exeter]], 1514–1544 and September 1551 to his death.{{sfn|Kirk & Hawkyard|1982}} Sir Thomas is notorious as having supervised in Exeter, in his capacity as Sheriff of Devon or as Recorder of Exeter, the burning at the stake of the Protestant martyr [[Thomas Benet (martyr)|Thomas Benet]] in January 1531/32.{{sfn|Kirk & Hawkyard|1982}} The burning took place outside the eastern side of the city walls, near the [[Livery Dole]] where, in 1592, his son, [[Robert Dennis (died 1592)|Sir Robert Dennis]], commenced the building of an [[almshouse]], possibly an act of atonement for his father's action.
In April 1558 he was commissioned to command the [[Devon Trained Bands|Militia]] of the [[Exeter|City of Exeter]] and neighbouring [[Hundred (county division)|Hundreds]] of Devonshire.<ref>Walrond, pp. 6–9.</ref>
==Lands acquired== *Royal grant 11 February 1539. The following grant from King Henry VIII dated 11 February 1539 was made to Thomas Denys of Holcombe Burnell, Knt. for £1,127 3s 4d: ::''"the Manors of [[Littleham|Litlam]] alias Littelham and [[Exmouth]]e belonging to the late [[Sherborne Abbey|Monastery of Shirbourne]], Dorset, in as full manner as the last Abbot held the same; also the messuage formerly in the tenure of Katherine Lytton in the parish of St. Peter-the-Less, in the ward of [[Baynard's Castle|Beynardes Castell]] in London; which messuage lately belonged to the late [[Croxden Abbey|Monastery of Croxden]], Staffs. and is worth 26s 8d per year. Also the [[Hundred (county division)|hundred]] of Budlegh alias [[East Budleigh]] which came to the King's hands by the attainder of [[Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter|Henry Courteney, late Marquis of Exeter]]. To hold by the following yearly rent, viz: for the Manors of Litlam and Exmouth, £6 3s 10d; for the messuage in London 2s 8d, the hundred of East Budleigh to be held by the 20th part of a [[knight's fee]] without any rent"''. :His later heir [[Henry Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle|Henry Rolle]] (1708–1750), later 1st [[Baron Rolle]], of [[Stevenstone]] obtained an [[inspeximus]] of this grant from King George II in 1731, immediately on coming into his inheritance following his father's death in 1730.<ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=027-4822&cid=-1#-1 Devon Record Office 48/22/2/1] National Archives. 25 February 1731, Letters Patent, 4 George II, Inspeximus (at the request of Henry Rolle of Stevenstone)</ref> *[[St Nicholas' Priory, Exeter]], granted 25 June 1541, following Dissolution.{{sfn|Oliver|1821|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=86hfAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA164 164]}} *[[Buckfast Abbey]], Devon{{sfn|Goodwin|1888|p=[[:s:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donne, Gabriel|223]]}}{{sfn|Oliver|1846|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=m8pMAAAAcAAJ&pg=372 372]}}
==Marriages and children== He married twice; firstly, before 1506, to Anne, widow of Thomas Warley (''alias'' Waley) and of Thomas Wood of London.{{sfn|Kirk & Hawkyard|1982}}
He married, secondly, in 1524, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Angel Donne of London, and Anne Hawarden (''alias'' Hawardine), of [[Cheshire]], and widow of [[Thomas Murfyn]],{{sfn|Kirk & Hawkyard|1982}} an alderman and former [[Lord Mayor of London]].{{sfn|Kirk & Hawkyard|1982}}{{sfn|Robertson|1975|p=474}} By March 1534 his stepdaughter, Frances Murfyn, had married, [[Thomas Cromwell]]'s nephew, [[Richard Williams (alias Cromwell)|Richard]].{{sfn|Hofmann|1982}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=114}} His wife's brother, [[Gabriel Donne]] (died 1558), was the last Abbot of [[Buckfast Abbey]] in Devon, who in 1539 on the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]] surrendered his abbey to Sir [[William Petre]], as agent for King Henry VIII and was rewarded with a large annual pension of £120. The site of the abbey was granted by the king to Dennis, the Abbot's brother-in-law.{{sfn|Goodwin|1888|p=[[:s:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donne, Gabriel|223]]}}{{sfn|Oliver|1846|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=m8pMAAAAcAAJ&pg=372 372]}}<ref>''Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries'': Volume 23, 1949{{full citation needed|date=May 2021}}</ref>
By his second wife he had five sons and three daughters, including:{{sfn|Kirk & Hawkyard|1982}}{{sfn|Vivian|1895|p=[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002002213917&view=1up&seq=294 280]}} * Sir [[Robert Denys]] (died 1592), his eldest son, was MP for Devon in 1555 and Sheriff of Devon, who acquired the manor of [[Bicton, Devon|Bicton]], on the other side of Exeter (i.e. the eastern side) to Holcombe Burnell. It is likely that the Easter Sepulchre in the church is his tomb and monument.<ref>{{harvnb|Hoskins|1954|p=?}}{{full citation needed|date=July 2013}}</ref> * George Dennis * Edward Dennis * Walter Dennis * Gabriel Dennis * Margaret Dennis, married George Kirkham of Blackden in Devon.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources== *{{cite DNB |last=Goodwin |first=Gordon |volume=15 |wstitle= Donne, Gabriel|page = 223 |short=1}} *{{cite book |last1=Hoskins |first1=William George |author1-link=W. G. Hoskins |title=Devon |date=1954 |publisher=[[Harpercollins|Collins]] |series=A New Survey of England |volume=2 |location=London }} *{{cite book |last=Hofmann |first=T.M. |year=1982 |chapter=Cromwell, alias Williams, Richard (by 1512-44), of London; Stepney, Mdx. and Hinchingbroke, Hunts. |title=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 |editor-first=S.T. |editor-last=Bindoff |publisher=Boydell and Brewer |chapter-url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/cromwell-richard-1512-44 |archive-date=2 March 2015 |access-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150302142920/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/cromwell-richard-1512-44 |url-status=dead }} *{{cite book |last1=Kirk |first1=L.M. |last2=Hawkyard |first2=A.D.K. |year=1982 |chapter=Denys, Sir Thomas (by 1477-1561), of Holcombe Burnell and Bicton, Devon and London |title=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 |editor-first=S.T. |editor-last=Bindoff |publisher=Boydell and Brewer |chapter-url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/denys-sir-thomas-1477-1561 |ref={{sfnref|Kirk & Hawkyard|1982}} |archive-date=13 May 2021 |access-date=13 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513002752/https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/denys-sir-thomas-1477-1561 |url-status=dead }} *{{Cite book |last=MacCulloch |first=Diarmaid |author-link=Diarmaid MacCulloch |year=2018 |title=Thomas Cromwell: A Life |location=London |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=9780141967660 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qLBwDQAAQBAJ }} *{{cite book |last1=Oliver |first1=George |author1-link=George Oliver (historian) |title=The History of Exeter |date=1821 |publisher=R. Cullum |location=Exeter |page=164 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=86hfAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA164 }} *{{cite book |last1=Oliver |first1=George |title=Monasticon Dioecesis Exoniensis, Being a Collection of Records and Instruments Illustrating the Ancient Conventual, Collegiate, and, Eleemosynary Foundations in the Counties of Cornwall and Devon, with Historical Notices, and a Supplement, Comprising a List of Churches in the Diocese, an Amended Edition of the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, and an Abstract of the Chantry Rolls |date=1846 |publisher=P.A. Hannaford |location=Exeter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8pMAAAAcAAJ&pg=372 }} *{{cite thesis |last=Robertson |first=Mary Louise |date=1975 |title=Thomas Cromwell's Servants: the Ministerial Household in Early Tudor Government and Society |type=PhD thesis |publisher=University of California, Los Angeles}} * {{cite book|last=Vivian |first=J. L. |title=The Visitations of the County of Devon, Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564, to 1620, with additions by J. L. Vivian |location=Exeter |publisher=H.S. Eland |year=1895 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002002213917&view=1up&seq=294 }} * Col Henry Walrond, ''Historical Records of the 1st Devon Militia (4th Battalion The Devonshire Regiment), With a Notice of the 2nd and North Devon Militia Regiments'', London: Longmans, 1897/Andesite Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-37617881-4.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Denys, Thomas}} [[Category:High sheriffs of Devon]] [[Category:Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Devon]] [[Category:English MPs 1529–1536]] [[Category:English MPs 1539–1540]] [[Category:English MPs 1553 (Mary I)]] [[Category:Devon Militia officers]] [[Category:1470s births]] [[Category:1561 deaths]]