Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/575

 CROMWELL 555 CROMWELL BARONY, Thomas Cromwell,(*) only s.^") of Walter Cromwell, otherwise Smyth, of Putney, Surrey, fuller and shearer of I. 1536 cloth, as also brewer and blacksmith, was h. about 1485, to and is stated, apparently in error, to have served at the 1540. battle of Garigliano, 27 Dec. 1503, being after June 1504 a trader at Florence and elsewhere abroad, but in 15 13 was established in London, apparently as a lawyer, as well as a cloth-dresser; was, in 15 14, Collector of the revenues of the Archbishop (Wolsey) of York; M.P. as early as 1523, representing Taunton 1529-36; admitted Gray's Inn, I524;('=) was, in Jan. 1525, one of the three persons appointed for the suppression of small monasteries, "incredible things " being spoken as to the way in which he so acted, and was from this time to the fall of Wolsey (17 Oct. 1529) that statesman's most important and trusted agent.('*) At this period began his rapid rise in the Royal favour. P.C. early in 1531; represented by the Earl of Abingdon and Lord Beaumont; (2) Maud, who m. Sir William Fitzwilliam of Sprotborough (from whom the Copleys of Sprotborough); and (3) Elizabeth, who w., istly, Sir John Clifton (from whom the Knevitts of Bucken- ham), and andly, Sir Edward Benstead. (^) See an able account of him in Diet. Nat. Biog., incorporating the recent discoveries of John Phillips, of Putney, as to the family of Cromwell, otherwise Smyth. C") Of his two sisters, Catherine m. Morgan Williams, a Welshman, from Glamorganshire, Ale brewer and Innkeeper at Putney, by whom she had a son, Sir Richard Williams, otherwise Cromwell, who adopted the name of his uncle and patron, the Earl of Essex, and became of Hinchinbrooke, co. Huntingdon, being great-grand- father of the notorious Oliver Cromwell, who was s. of Robert, and s. of Sir Henry C. of Hinchinbrooke, the s. and h. of Sir Richard Williams, otherwise Cromwell above- named. ("=) Being the second nobleman on the roll of that society, though not ennobled till 1 2 years after his admission. Thomas (Fiennes), Lord Dacre, had been admitted 32 years earlier. V.G. C') His "most devoted attachment to his old master in trouble" is generally assumed, and "as this view is set forth in Shakespeare it is, of course, indelible;" it was, indeed, at first (but, apparently, not latterly) believed in by Wolsey himself. Self interest, however, alone seems to have been Cromwell's ruling star, and his defence of Wolsey was limited accordingly. It has even been suggested that he stole from Wolsey's papers the all important Royal Licence for the use of the Legatine prero- gative, a loss which enabled the King (who could hardly, in the face of his own permission, have done so) to proceed against the Cardinal under the statute of pramunire, and so possess himself (always a great point with his Majesty) of Wolsey's vast estates. Wolsey expressly states that this licence was " now in the hands of my enemies," and it is difficult to see who else but Cromwell could have had access to it so as to transfer it from its proper custody. See Henry Fill and the English Monasteries, by F. A. Gasquet. G.E.C. " Putney saw his cradle in a cottage, and England saw his coffin in a ditch; his original was mean, his end meaner. ... His apprehension was quick and clear; his judgment methodical and solid; his memory strong and rational; his tongue fluent and" pertinent; his presence stately and obliging; his heart large and