Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/347

 Thomas Thurland of Gamelton Hall, Nottinghamshire. His grandfather, Gervase Thurland, and his father, Edward, were London merchants.

The younger Edward was admitted to the Inner Temple on 20 Oct. 1625, and called to the bar on 15 Oct. 1634. On 13 March 1639–40 he was returned to the Short parliament for the borough of Reigate, but was not re-elected in the Long parliament (Official Returns of Members of Parliament, i. 483). About the same time he was made steward of the manor of Reigate, and on 24 Nov. 1652 was called to the bench of the Inner Temple. He represented Reigate in Richard Cromwell's parliament which met on 27 Jan. 1658–9, was returned for the same borough to the Convention parliament on 9 April 1660, and sat in the parliament of the Restoration from 1661 to 1672 (ib. i. 516, 529;, Hist. of Surrey, ed. Bray, i. 292). In 1661 Thurland was chosen recorder of Reigate and of Guildford, and soon after was selected by James, duke of York, as his solicitor and knighted (ib. i. 40, 342). On 24 April 1672 he was created a serjeant-at-law, and on 24 Jan. 1673 he was appointed a baron of the exchequer, having refused a seat in the common pleas. After sitting six years his infirmities compelled him to retire on 29 April 1679 (, Brief Hist. Relation, 1857, i. 11). He died at Reigate on 14 Jan. 1682–3, and was buried in the chancel of the parish church (, Hist. of Surrey, ed. Bray, i. 317). By his wife, Elizabeth Wright of Buckland in Surrey, he left an only son, Edward, who died five years later, leaving issue.

Thurland was an intimate friend of John Evelyn (1620–1706) [q. v.] and Jeremy Taylor [q. v.] He composed a treatise on prayer which won Evelyn's warmest praise, but which was not published. He employed John Oldham as tutor to his two grandsons 1678–80. His portrait is in the possession of Lord de Saumarez at his residence, 43 Grosvenor Place, London. Lady de Saumarez is a descendant of Thurland through his granddaughter Elizabeth, who was married to Martin Bowes of Bury St. Edmunds. Another portrait of Thurland is in the mayor's court office in the Guildhall, London.

[Foss's Judges of England, vii. 173; Haydn's Book of Dignities, pp. 384, 410; Gent. Mag. 1782, p. 69; Le Neve's Mon. Ang. iii. 38; Pepys's Diary, ed. Braybrooke, ii. 67; Evelyn's Diary, ed. Bray, ii. 33, 100, iii. 63, 74, 87, 91, 106; Harl. Soc. Publ. viii. 191; The Lord Chancellor's Speech in the Exchequer to Baron Thurland at his taking the Oath, 1672.]  THURLOE, JOHN (1616–1668), secretary of state, baptised on 12 June 1616, was the son of Thomas Thurloe, rector of Abbot's Roding, Essex (‘Life’ prefixed to the Thurloe Papers, p. xi). He was brought up to the study of the law, and ‘bred from a youth’ in the service of Oliver St. John (1598?–1673) [q. v.] (Case of Oliver St. John, 1660, pp. 4, 6). By St. John's interest Thurloe was in January 1645 appointed one of the secretaries to the commissioners of parliament at the treaty of Uxbridge (, Memorials, i. 377, ed. 1853). In 1647 he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn, and in March 1648 made receiver of the cursitor's fines under the commissioners of the great seal (ib. ii. 285), a post worth about 350l. per annum. He had nothing to do with the establishment of the republic, and, as to the king's death, he subsequently declared that ‘he was altogether a stranger to that fact, and to all the counsels about it, having not had the least communication with any person whatsoever therein’ (State Papers, vii. 914). In March 1651 he was appointed secretary to St. John and Walter Strickland [q. v.] on their mission to Holland, and on 29 March 1652 the council of state appointed him to be their secretary in place of Walter Frost, deceased. His salary was fixed at 600l. per annum, and he was given lodgings in Whitehall (ib. i. 205; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1651–2, pp. 198, 203). In December 1652 the salary was raised to 800l., and the duty of clerk to the committee for foreign affairs apparently added to his former office (ib. 1652–3, p. 1). In the elevation of Cromwell to the Protectorate Thurloe took a not unimportant part; the letters ordering the sheriffs to proclaim Cromwell were signed by him, and he was charged to perfect the instrument of government. At the same time (22 Dec.) he seems to have been co-opted a member of the council (ib. 1653–1654, pp. 297, 301, 309). He was also given charge of the intelligence department, which had been before confided to Thomas Scott (d. 1660) [q. v.] and Captain George Bishop (ib. p. 133). In addition to this, on 3 May 1655 the Protector entrusted him with the control of the posts both inland and foreign (ib. 1655, pp. 138, 286). Moreover on 10 Feb. 1654 he was made a bencher of Lincoln's Inn (State Papers, vol. i. p. xiii).

Thurloe fulfilled his various duties with conspicuous ability. By the intelligencers he employed in foreign parts, and by the correspondence he organised with the diplomatic agents of the government, he kept the Protector admirably informed of the acts and plans of foreign powers. When