Thomas Frowyk

Sir Thomas Frowyk KS (c. 1460 – 7 October 1506) was an English justice.

Family

Born at Gunnersbury, Middlesex, Thomas Frowyk was the son of a London mercer, Sir Thomas Frowyk, by his second wife, Jane Sturgeon, daughter of Richard Sturgeon.^[1] He had a sister, Isabel Frowyk, who married Sir Thomas Haute (d. 1505), and a brother, Sir Henry Frowyk. His grandfather, Henry Frowyk, was also a mercer, and an alderman and Lord Mayor of London. Frowyk was mentioned in the 1464 will of his grandmother, Isabella Frowyk.^[1][2][3]

Career

Frowyk is said to have been educated at Cambridge.^[1] He was admitted to the Inner Temple, where he appears to have shared a chamber with Thomas Marowe (d.1505), Serjeant-at-law, author of the legal treatise, On The Peace. Frowyk and John Kingsmill, Justice of the Common Pleas, were later among those appointed as executors of Marowe's will.^[1]

At the Inner Temple Frowyk 'gave readings in the autumn terms of 1492 (Westminster II cc.6–11) and 1495 (Prerogativa regis), readings which were often cited subsequently'.^[1][4]

He was appointed Common Serjeant of London about 1486, Serjeant-at-law in 1495, and King's Serjeant in November 1501. At about this time he was on retainer to the Earls of Stafford and the Dukes of Buckingham. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas on 30 September 1502. In his capacity as Chief Justice he wrote 'a significant dissenting judgment in the celebrated case of Orwell v. Mortoft (1505) contributing to the development, in later years, of the action on the case as an alternative process to recover a debt'.^[1]

Frowyk was knighted in 1502. He died 7 October 1506, and was buried at Finchley with his first wife, Joan (née Bardville), where a memorial to him was erected which was later defaced. He left a will dated 13 August 1505, with a codicil dated 6 October 1506.^[1]

He was said by Thomas Fuller to have been ‘accounted the oracle of law in his age’.^[1]

Marriages and issue

Frowyk married firstly Joan Bardville, by whom he had a son, Thomas, who appears to have died young.

He married secondly, by 1498, Elizabeth Carnevyle, daughter of William Carnevyle of Tockington, Gloucestershire.

At the time he made his will, Frowyk had a daughter, Frideswide, aged 9 on 2 February 1507;^[5] it is not known whether she was the child of his first or second marriage. Frideswide Frowyk was the first wife of Sir Thomas Cheyney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.^[6][7][8]

After Frowyk's death, his widow married Thomas Jakes (d.1516), Clerk of the Warrants of the Inner Temple, and one of Frowyk's executors. Frowyk's niece, Elizabeth Frowyk, married Sir John Spelman, Justice of the King's Bench.^[1]

Notes

References

• Adams, Alison, ed. (1986). The Changing Face of Arthurian Romance. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer. p. 103.  |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Blaydes, Frederic Augustus (1884). The Visitations of Bedfordshire. XIX. London: Harleian Society. p. 14. Retrieved 18 August 2013. 
• Doe, Norman (2004). "Frowyk, Sir Thomas (c.1460–1506)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10206.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Lehmberg, Stanford (2004). "Cheyne, Sir Thomas (c.1485–1558)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5263.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• McGlynn, Margaret (2003). The Royal Prerogative and the Learning of the Inns of Court. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 23–5, 96–7, 107–8.  |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G., ed. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. IV (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. p. 372. ISBN 1460992709. 
• Wedgwood, Josiah C. (1936). History of Parliament: Biographies of the Members of the Commons House 1439-1509. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office. pp. 358–9.  |access-date= requires |url= (help)

External links

• Will of Sir Thomas Frowyk of Saint Thomas the Apostle, City of London, proved 3 November 1506, PROB 11/15/285, National Archives Retrieved 14 August 2013