Thomas Matthew was an English merchant and politician who 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 1640. Matthew was a merchant of

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...

and became a burgess of the town. In April 1640, he was elected Member of Parliament for

in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short session of only three weeks. After 11 years of per ...

. He stood again for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

later in the year and was initially returned by the burgesses. However the mayor disagreed with the choice and called for another election in which Richard Ferris was returned instead. Matthew submitted a petition alleging that the mayor had used questionable methods including locking in the burgesses, and had intimidated them. Matthew's petition was rejected. In 1650 Matthew was Mayor of Barnstaple. He was mayor again in 1667.Joseph Besly Gribble ''Memorials of Barnstaple''
page 203

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Matthew, Thomas Year of birth missing Year of death missing English MPs 1640 (April) Mayors of Barnstaple English merchants Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Barnstaple