WOOD, Thomas (d. ?1656), of New Windsor, Berks.

This MP has resisted secure identification. Some information is known about the public offices he held during the 1650s and those indicate that he was probably from Berkshire, the county he represented in the 1653 Parliament. By 1654 he was evidently living at Windsor.7A. and O. ii. 968.

Three men were summoned to represent Berkshire in the Nominated Parliament. That Wood and Vincent Goddard* were two of them may have been an afterthought.8Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate, 139n. Moreover, Wood’s known activity as an MP was extremely slight: on 20 July he was named to the committee for the poor and for regulating the commissions of the peace.9CJ vii. 287a. He was also among Members said to have supported the maintenance of a godly ministry.10Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate, 430. During his time as an MP he was confirmed in office as a justice of the peace.11C231/6, pp. 268, 270, 273.

Wood was one of the immediate beneficiaries of the establishment of the protectorate. Within days of becoming lord protector, Oliver Cromwell* had nominated him to two important offices. On 24 December 1653 he was one of nine ex-MPs added to the list of judges to preside over the probate of wills. Five days later he was among ten former members of the Nominated Parliament appointed as the commissioners to investigate the arrears due from the excise duties.12A. and O. His performance in the latter position was evidently impressive enough to persuade Cromwell to appoint him three months later as one of the five new excise commissioners.13CSP Dom. 1654, p. 35; A. and O. This may indicate that Wood had some sort of commercial background, but, if so, any details have yet to emerge.

During 1654 Wood was appointed as a commissioner for the approbation of public preachers and as one of the Berkshire commissioners to eject scandalous ministers.14A. and O. Both positions would have been consistent with his reported support as an MP for the maintenance of a godly ministry. As a Windsor resident, he was probably an obvious choice by Parliament during that same year to serve as a governor of the almshouses within the Lower Ward of Windsor Castle for the benefit of ex-soldiers, formerly known as the poor knights.15A. and O. The last confirmed detail about Wood’s career is that he was one of the three excise commissioners removed by the protectoral council on 16 February 1656 to make way for new ones.16CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 189. He was certainly dead by early 1657 and had more probably died in 1656, perhaps in July of that year when he was removed from the Buckinghamshire commission of the peace.17Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate, 431n; C231/6, p. 344. Despite having served as a probate judge, he left no will.