Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam (died 4 March 1497) was

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of the

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in 1489–1490. He was born into a Lincolnshire gentry family, the son of Thomas Fitzwilliam of Mablethorpe and educated at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and W ...

. He was appointed

Recorder of Lincoln Judge John Pini, QC was appointed honorary Recorder of Lincoln on 1 December 2015. He is a circuit judge, having been appointed Assistant Recorder and as a Recorder both in 2000. Pini was made a Queen's Counsel in 2006. The previous recorder was ...

and elected MP for Lincoln in 1459. In 1467 he was returned as MP for Plympton Earle, then a seat under the control of the Crown. In 1478 he was appointed a serjeant-at-law for the

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. After obtaining a house in

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, he was elected a

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and supported the claim of

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Bat ...

to the English throne. He nevertheless welcomed Henry Tudor after the

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and became more active in government, representing London in King Henry's first parliament. He was knighted in 1486. In 1489, in Henry's third Parliament, he was elected Speaker of the House, electing to sit as

knight of the shire Knight of the shire ( la, milites comitatus) was the formal title for a member of parliament (MP) representing a county constituency in the British House of Commons, from its origins in the medieval Parliament of England until the Redistributio ...

for

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershir ...

. He died in 1497 and was buried in Mablethorpe church. He had married Margaret Harrington (d. 1498),with whom he had at least three sons, John, George, and William. John predeceased him, and he was succeeded by John's son, another Thomas, who also died young in 1502. The estates then passed to Sir Thomas' second son, George.

References

Oxford DNB Fitzwilliam, Sir Thomas
Year of birth unknown 1497 deaths People from Mablethorpe English MPs 1459 Speakers of the House of Commons of England Serjeants-at-law (England) Recorders of London English MPs 1467 English MPs 1485 Members of the Parliament of England for Plympton Erle {{15thC-England-MP-stub