THUNDER, Thomas II

Thunder’s career began in the lifetime of his father, after whom he was named. They were both chosen as jurats of Winchelsea in April 1443 by the incoming mayor, Thomas Sylton*, and in the following year, on 13 Apr., Thomas senior, at the start of his seventh mayoralty, confirmed his son’s place on the conciliar body. Six days later the young man was selected to be one of Winchelsea’s delegates to the Brodhull. It was during his father’s eighth mayoralty, and while he himself was still a jurat, that he was returned to the Parliament which met at Westminster on 25 Feb. 1445 and carried on through four sessions until April 1446. Thunder senior confirmed his son’s status as a jurat at Easter 1445 while the Parliament was in progress.6 Cott. Julius BIV, ff. 71v-72v. In 1447 Thomas ‘junior’ acted as one of the Cinque Ports’ bailiffs at the Yarmouth herring fair. His father probably died in the following year, for after the spring of 1448 no such terms were used to distinguish between them.

In the course of his career Thunder was chosen as Winchelsea’s delegate to no fewer than 49 meetings of the Brodhull,7 White and Black Bks. 17, 20, 22-39, 41-45, 48-50, 52, 53, 55, 57-61, 63-66. but never again, so far as is known, as the Port’s representative in Parliament. He was elected mayor seven times (just failing to equal his father’s record), and was often chosen to deputize for others in the mayoral office. In 1449 he was appointed to the first of several royal commissions focused on Winchelsea, where he was to take musters, arrest pirates and conduct inquiries about breaches of the truce in the Channel. One of the commissions, to which he was appointed while mayor of Winchelsea on 17 Dec. 1450, concerned a breach of the truce with Burgundy committed in the previous October. Yet he himself may not have been innocent of similar offences, for five days earlier justices of oyer and terminer had been instructed to look into the capture off Portsmouth of Le Saint George of Bruges, by a flotilla including a barge belonging to the ‘mayor of Winchelsea’.8 CPR, 1446-52, pp. 435-6. While Thunder was still mayor in the following May the Brodhull decided that it should be he who should administer the duke of Buckingham’s oath and charge as the new warden of the Cinque Ports at the next court of Shepway. This was after some considerable delay, for the duke had been appointed warden the previous summer. In July the Ports’ bailiffs at the forthcoming herring fair were authorized to make the final payments for the messuage at Yarmouth purchased by their predecessors, and Thunder and seven others were to take formal possession of the property, which they were to hold to the use of the barons of the Ports. Then, in November he was appointed with others including the lawyer Bartholomew Bolney* to present in person a petition from the Ports to their warden Buckingham, a matter so important as to warrant the payment to each member of the delegation of a daily remuneration of 3s. 4d.9 White and Black Bks. 27, 29.

Thunder took out a royal pardon, as ‘gentleman alias merchant’ and former mayor on 14 Nov. 1452.10 C67/40, m. 5. There is nothing to indicate that he sided with either Lancaster or York in the civil wars of 1459-61, although it may be significant that the only royal office he held (excluding commissions) was that of deputy butler in Chichester and the other ports of Sussex, to which he owed his appointment in 1461 to the chief butler appointed by Edward IV.11 CPR, 1461-7, p. 129. A few days after this appointment, on 21 July, he was delegated with John Chenew* and Thomas Bayen* to ‘labour’ for the renewal of the Cinque Ports’ charter by the new King, a task for which they were to receive 2s. a day each and £7 for their costs ‘in frenship makyng and counceyll gettyng’. This matter was still not settled a year later: on 27 July 1462 Thunder, Bayen and John Copledyke* were instructed to ‘labour’ further. It was then decided that if a Parliament was summoned before Christmas Bayen (currently clerk of the Commons) and the elected barons would act in this regard, but Thunder and Copledyke were to do so only if they were among those elected. In the event Parliament was not called until the next spring, and the charters were not confirmed until that Parliament was dissolved in 1465. Thunder was also one of those nominated at the Brodhull to determine the heated dispute over the financial accounts of John Green IV* as mayor of Sandwich.12 White and Black Bks. 43, 46. Business of the Ports also took ‘Master’ Thunder on occasion to Lydd, a member-port of New Romney, notably for the making of the ‘Town Custumes’ (its custumal) in 1465-6, and in April 1466 the Brodhull named him as an arbiter in a suit between Lydd and Tenterden. When, a year later, the mayor of Winchelsea, Robert Basele†, was arbitrarily put under ward in the castle of Dover by the lieutenant, Sir John Guildford, Thunder acted in his place at the Brodhull.13 Ibid. 54, 55; Lydd Recs. ed. Finn, 216-17.

Not infrequently, Thunder was placed in positions of trust. He was a feoffee of the manor of Codyng in the parish of Bexhill, which he received from Godard Pulham* in 1453 and passed on to Thomas Hoo II* and others before April 1455, apparently for the endowment of the Batisford chantry,14 CCR, 1454-61, p. 140; CAD, i. C240. and during the same decade he was also a co-feoffee with Pulham of land in Brede, and a trustee of the manor of Levesham, probably on behalf of Thomas Pope*, and of lands which had once belonged to William Morfote*. Similar commitments were undertaken by him in later years.15 CP25(1)/241/91/1; Battle Abbey mss, deed 1043; Add. Chs. 20104, 20208, 24855. Of his own landed holdings there is little record, although for many years he claimed exemption from taxation on his moveable goods at Guestling, and in the 1460s did likewise on those at Wadhurst and Mayfield, elsewhere in east Sussex.16 E179/189/96; 228/131.

In the will Thunder made on 14 Feb. 1474 he asked to be buried next to his father in St. Thomas’s church, Winchelsea, to which he left £20 for the new works as well as a silver-gilt pax worth £5. Every Christmas for the rest of her life his widow Katherine was to distribute 13s. 4d. in alms, and was made responsible for arranging the marriages of their daughters, Alice and Anne, who were each left a dowry of 100 marks. All Thunder’s lands in Sussex and Kent were left to Katherine for her lifetime, and after her death to be divided equally between their daughters, with remainder should the girls die childless to Katherine’s heirs. Thunder specified that Alice was to have the family home in Winchelsea, and Anne another building in the town, but if neither girl left issue these two properties were to be sold to provide prayers for the souls of the testator’s parents and friends. The will was proved on 26 May.17 PCC 15 Wattys. Katherine, who was named as sole executor, died five years later.18 Her will was dated 4 Aug. and proved 12 Nov. 1479: PCC 12 Logge (PROB11/7, f. 93).