LAMBERT, Thomas (1585-1638), of Boyton, Wilts.

Lambert’s family was originally from Norfolk but had acquired property in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Dorset. His grandfather, a London Grocer, purchased the Wiltshire manor of Keevil in 1560, followed by Boyton and Sherrington manors in 1572. CPR, 1560-3, p. 73; VCH Wilts. vii. 252; Hoare, ‘Heytesbury’, 180. Lambert’s puritan father, a ‘partaker of the everlasting kingdom prepared for the elect’, was clearly prosperous, for in his will of 1609 he set aside £2,200 for marriage portions for his five daughters. He also bequeathed to Lambert extensive lands and tenements in Norfolk. PROB 11/113, f. 149; A.D. Wall, ‘Wilts. Commission of Peace, 1590-1620’ (Univ. Melbourne MA thesis, 1966), p. 11. Lambert took full possession of Boyton manor after his mother’s death in 1619, his elder brother having predeceased him, although in practice he was already in control of the Wiltshire estates and had entirely rebuilt the manor house. PROB 11/119, f. 340; E179/199/367; Country Life, 30 Aug. 1910, pp. 262-8. In 1621 his brother-in-law William Dunch further augmented his holdings by conveying to him the manor of Avebury. Wilts. N and Q, viii. 220.

Lambert almost certainly owed his election for Hindon, a borough which lay a few miles to the south of Boyton, to the 2nd earl of Castlehaven (Sir Mervyn Audley alias Tuchet*), to whom he was related by marriage. His mother-in-law had taken as her second husband Sir James Marvyn†, whose estate of Fonthill Gifford and electoral interest at Hindon had descended to Castlehaven, his grandson and heir. HP Commons 1558-1603, ii. 65; iii. 26-8. Although he sat twice, Lambert left no impression upon the parliamentary records other than his nomination for a committee to consider the malt bill (6 Mar. 1626). CJ, i. 833a.

Lambert was appointed in 1625 to Wiltshire’s commission of the peace, on which he was unusually active, serving regularly on all four annual sessions. Wilts. RO, A1/150/7; A1/150/8. However, he was subsequently removed, being restored in July 1631. That same year he was nominated as a juror to examine evidence against two of the servants of Sir Mervin Tuchet, now 2nd earl of Castlehaven, both of whom had been implicated during Tuchet’s trial for indecency. However, he refused to serve, perhaps out of loyalty to Castlehaven, and was fined £6. KB8/63, f. 19; Trial of Lord Audley (1679), p. 2.

Lambert died in Boyton on 30 Aug. 1638 and was buried in the parish church on the following day. Wilts. RO, 1507/2, unfol. No will or administration of his estate has survived. At his death he held six manors, together with several hundred acres and numerous messuages and cottages. C142/22/35; Wilts. IPMs, 35. His second son, also Thomas, became archdeacon and canon residentiary of Salisbury, but no other member of the family sat in Parliament. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, 1541-1857 comp. J.M. Horn, vi. 17, 45, 99.