Thomas Machen (c. 1541–18 October 1614) was a mercer who was

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

three times and sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 1614. Machen was the son of Henry Machen (d. 1566) and his wife, whose surname may have been Baugh or Brayh. He was possibly the Thomas Machin who in 1562 supplicated for his MA at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, where three of his sons were later educated. By 1566 he had married Christian Baston (c.1546–1615); they had seven sons and six daughters. Thomas Machen and his father Henry Machen were the two Sheriffs of Gloucester 1555. Thomas Machen was again Sheriff 1572, 1576, and Mayor in 1579, 1588, and 1601. He was lord of the manor of Condicote in 1608 and was elected as the Member of Parliament for

in 1613, serving in the

Addled Parliament The Parliament of 1614 was the second Parliament of England of the reign of James VI and I and sat between 5 April and 7 June 1614. Lasting only two months and two days, it saw no bills pass and was not even regarded as a parliament by contemp ...

of 1614.The parliamentary history of the county of Gloucester
/ref> He died on 18 October 1614, leaving considerable property, including Condicote manor, and bequeathed more than £4,000 () to his family and to various charities. His monument survives, and is one of the more elaborate to be found in

Gloucester Cathedral Gloucester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity and formerly St Peter's Abbey, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the River Severn. It originated with the establishme ...

. In it he is represented kneeling in his mayoral robes, facing his wife. Also featured are their 13 children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Machen, Thomas 1540s births 1614 deaths English MPs 1614 16th-century English people Alumni of the University of Oxford Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Gloucester Mayors of Gloucester 17th-century English merchants