Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/148

 DOCWRA, THOMAS (d. 1527), prior of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem in England, was descended from an old Westmoreland family, the Docwras of Docwra Hall in Kendal; but he came of a younger branch which had been for some generations settled in Hertfordshire. According to an old pedigree his father's name was Richard, and his mother was Alice, daughter of Thomas Green of Gresingham, presumably Gressingham in Lancashire. He succeeded Sir John Kendal as prior of the knights of St. John at Clerkenwell on 1 May 1502 (, Monasticon, vi. 799, Caley's edit. 1817). That he had property at this time in Hertfordshire is shown by a sculptured stone still preserved in some buildings of a later date at Highdown, the old family seat near Hitchin, bearing the arms of the family with the inscription ‘Thomas Docwra, miles, 1504’ (, Hertfordshire, ii. 18). Shortly after this we begin to meet with notices of him as engaged in diplomatic missions. He was one of the commissioners employed by Henry VII to negotiate with Philip, king of Castile in 1506, during the period of Philip's enforced stay in England, when he was driven by tempest on the coast, that treaty of commercial intercourse with the Low Countries which the merchants there stigmatised as the ‘intercursus malus.’ He also negotiated at the same time a treaty for the English king's marriage with Margaret of Savoy (, xiii. 132;, Spanish Cal. i. 455). Next year he was one of a body of commissioners who went over to Calais in the end of September, and were met there by a great embassy from Flanders to settle the terms of an alliance with Philip, and a treaty for the marriage of Charles, prince of Castile (afterwards the emperor Charles V), with Mary, the king of England's daughter. They returned just before Christmas, having concluded both treaties at Calais on 21 Dec. (, xiii. 173, 189, 201). In February following (1508) it is mentioned that he paid visits of courtesy to Fuensalida, the newly arrived ambassador from Spain. After Henry VIII's accession he and Nicholas West were sent to France (20 June 1510), and on 23 July they received from Louis XII a formal acknowledgment of the sum in which he stood indebted to the king of England for arrears of tribute (Cal. Henry VIII, vol. i. Nos. 1104, 1182). While on this mission he received ‘diets’ or allowances at the rate of forty shillings a day (ib. ii. 1446).

About this time his services were very much desired at Rhodes by the grand-master, the head of his order, in consequence of their danger from the Turks; but the king of England could not spare him for such a distant expedition (ib. vol. i. Nos. 540, 4562). As prior of St. John's his name appears in numerous commissions in the early years of Henry VIII, among which is one of gaol delivery for Newgate (ib. No. 1942); one to inquire of alleged extortions by preceding masters of the mint (No. 3006); several of sewers for Lincolnshire, where the order had important interests (Nos. 663, 1716, 1979, 3137, 5691); and one for the Thames from Greenwich to Lambeth (No. 4701). On 4 Feb. 1512 he was appointed one of the king's ambassadors to the council to be held at the Lateran on 19 April following (Nos. 2085, 3108). But he certainly could not have gone thither, and indeed the appointment seems to have been superseded by a new commission to the Bishop of Worcester and Sir Robert Wingfield only (No. 3109). On 2 May following he was one of those appointed to review and certify the numbers of the force sent to Spain under Dorset for the invasion of Guienne (No. 3173). Next year (1513) on 22 Feb. he received a summons to be ready before April to attend the king with three hundred men (No. 3942). He crossed with the army to Calais in May, and on 6 June entered the French territory with 205 men under the Earl of Shrewsbury (Nos. 3277, 4070; the former of these two documents is clearly placed a year too early). In a catalogue of the badges borne in the standards in that expedition we read: ‘The lord of St. John's’ (i.e. the prior) ‘beareth gold half a lion sable gotted gold ramping out of a wrayth gules and sable, with a platte between his feet voided; the same platte gules par pale’ (Cotton MS. Cleop. C. v. 59). In some naval accounts of this time we find mention made of ‘my lord of St. John's ship’ of two hundred tons burden, commanded by Lord Edmund Howard (Cal. i. 553, vol. iii. No. 2488). This was probably a ship belonging to the order put in requisition for service in the war.

That Docwra was a man of valour we may take for granted from the position which he filled, and from the desire repeatedly expressed by the grand-master for his presence at Rhodes (ib. vol. ii. Nos. 1138, 3607, vol. iii. No. 2324); but we do not hear of any special actions by which he distinguished himself in this war. It was soon over, however; and in August of next year, on the conclusion of peace, he, with the Earl of Worcester and Dr. Nicholas West, afterwards bishop of Ely, was sent over to France to obtain the ratification of Louis XII, and witness his marriage to Henry VIII's sister Mary (ib. vol. i. Nos. 5335, 5379, 5391, 5441, &c.) They also re-