Sir Thomas Meautys (1592–1649) was an English civil servant 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 ...

between 1621 and 1640.

Biography

Meautys was the son of Thomas Meautys of West Ham and of St Julian's Hospital,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Coningsby of North Mimms. His elder brother, Henry, was also a Member of Parliament. He became the private secretary to

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

. In 1619, he was made clerk to His Majesty's Council. He is credited, with William Rawley, as being one of two key clients of Bacon who remained loyal to the former Lord Chancellor in his disgrace. Meautys eventually paid for a

funerary monument Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and comm ...

to Bacon at his gravesite in St. Albans.Jane Cornwallis Bacon, Joanna Moody ''The private correspondence of Jane Lady Cornwallis Bacon, 1613-1644''
/ref> After Bacon's fall, Meautys became a protégé of Lord Keeper Coventry, High Steward of Cambridge from 1626 to 1640. In 1621, Meautys was made a freeman and elected an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

of Cambridge. On the same day, he was elected Member of Parliament for

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. He was a clerk of the Privy Council from 1623. He was re-elected MP for Cambridge in 1625, 1626, and 1628 and continued to sit for the town until King Charles I began to rule without parliament in 1629. On Bacon's death in 1626 Meautys inherited Old Gorhambury House outside St Albans, with the will vesting Verulam House in trustees for Meautys' use. He became clerk of the Writs and Processes in the

Star Chamber The court of Star Chamber () was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late to the mid-17th century (), and was composed of privy counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judicial activities of the ...

. In 1634, he became clerk to His Majesty's Privy Council Extraordinary. He was re-elected for Cambridge for 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 ...

in April 1640 when the other representative was

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

. He was knighted at Whitehall in 1641. He performed the duties of his office until August 1645 when the office became virtually extinct. Meautys died at the age of 57 and was buried just in front of Bacon's monument.

Family

In 1639 Meautys married Anne Bacon, a daughter of his cousin Jane (daughter of Thomas Meautys' senior's brother Hercules) and her husband Sir Nathaniel Bacon (Sir Francis Bacon's nephew), of Culford,

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. They had a daughter who died in childhood. Anne later married Sir Harbottle Grimston.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Meautys, Thomas 1592 births 1649 deaths English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 English MPs 1640 (April) Clerks of the Privy Council