HURST, Thomas, of Hastings, Suss.

A search of the records has revealed only one mention of a Thomas Hurst. It relates to a man who served in 1424 as lieutenant of the garrison at Torcy in Normandy under the captaincy of John St. Loe*. A.E. Curry, ‘Military Organization in Lancastrian Normandy’ (Council for National Academic Awards Ph.D. thesis, 1985), app. p. cxli (from Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, fr 25767/72). The latter became an esquire for the King’s body a few years later, and returned to France in the royal entourage for the coronation expedition of 1430-2, before coming back to England before the Parliament met on 12 May in the latter year. Yet although St. Loe was later to officiate at Dorset elections in the role of sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, he is not recorded as attesting those of 1432, and there is no further evidence to associate him with Hurst.