GALEYS, Thomas

Impossible to identify for certain, Galeys possessed a surname with several possible variants, including several beginning with the letter ‘W’. In the spring of 1421 the Crown issued letters of protection to one ‘Thomas Walley’, who was about to embark for France with (Sir) Walter Hungerford†.1 DKR, xliv. 623. Afterwards Baron Hungerford, the latter was an important magnate in Wiltshire who began to acquire significant interests at Chippenham from 1424 onwards. It is nevertheless impossible to know whether his retainer was the man who sat for the borough in 1447, or if the MP had a connexion with Chippenham before he won his seat.

If one accepts that the government called the Parliament of 1447 to bring about the downfall of Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, and that the King’s household was well represented in the Commons, one might speculate that Galeys had household connexions. It is also possible that the MP was a member of the legal profession, given that so many lawyers sat for Wiltshire boroughs in this period; not least because a ‘Galeys’ was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in late 1443.2 L.Inn Adm. i. 9. Finally, it is worth noting that Thomas ‘Waleys’ attested the return of the Members of another Wiltshire borough, Cricklade, to the Parliament of 1455.3 C219/16/3.