SHIRWODE, Thomas

A very obscure figure, Thomas shared his surname with William Shirwode, the vicar of Malmesbury in the later 1470s, but it is unknown whether the two men were from the same family. A canon lawyer and a figure of some note, William had served as a chaplain of Henry VI’s Household. He also held a rectory in Oxford, and he received dispensation to acquire a third living in 1477. His papal letters reveal that he was of illegitimate birth, meaning that at the beginning of his career he had needed a dispensation to enter the priesthood in the first place. A Thomas Schirwode was a yeoman of the Household at the beginning of Henry VI’s reign but it is impossible to prove that he was the MP.1 VCH Wilts. xiv. 156; CPL, xi. 521; xiii. 596; E404/48/311.