People: Langton, Sir Thomas

Sex

Male

Approx Year of Birth

1496/97

Marital Status

Married

Spouse Name

First wife, Elizabeth; second wife, Anne

Occupation Status

Gentleman

Remarks

Career:  Thomas Langton was born in 1496/97, the second son of Ralph Langton of Newton and Walton-le-Dale. His father and older brother had died by 1511, and he was made a ward of a younger son of the first earl of Derby, Sir Edward Stanley, whose daughter, Elizabeth, became Langton’s first wife.

He was knighted in 1533 at the coronation of Anne Boleyn and later assisted the earl of Derby in the suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace and fought in the border wars against the Scots. He was elected to the second Marian parliament of 1554 and served as sheriff of Lancashire three times in the 1560s and 1570s.

His will indicates that he held extensive lands and also held the advowson of the parish of Wigan. He is named as baron of Newton and baron of Walton.

He has been described as an ‘ardent litigant’ (Alan Davidson, History of Parliament Online).

Sir Thomas Langton died in 1569 and asked to be buried ‘in the parisshe churche of Lawe’ (Piccope, p. 250).

Sources:

Rev. G. J. Piccope (ed.), Lancashire and Cheshire Wills and Inventories from the Ecclesiastical Court, Chester (Chetham Society, old series, 51, 1860), pp. 246-255

F. R. Raines (ed.), The visitation of the county palatine of Lancaster, made in the year 1567 by William Flower, Esq (Chetham Society, old series, 81, 1870), p. 24

https://historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/langton-sir-thomas-149697-1569

Causes

EDC 5/11/1 – plaintiff