Thomas Hynxstend was one of the leading members of the community at Winchelsea where in 1544 he was among the chief contributors towards the benevolence. His wife was sister to Goddard Henman, mayor during 1546-7, while another kinswoman, Eleanor, married the grandson of John Convers, a former mayor and one of the port’s Members in the Parliament of 1485. He was almost certainly the ‘Mr. Hyngsted’ who on 23 May 1545 bore a letter from Richard Sackville II to his uncle (Sir) Christopher More reporting an inquiry into ‘whether the manor of Higham with the castle of New Winchelsea [Camber] were within the liberty of the Cinque Ports or not’.4W. D. Cooper, Winchelsea, 106; Suss. Arch. Colls. xxiii. 34; Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. liii), 138; LP Hen. VIII, add.
Hynxstend’s election to the last Henrician Parliament was perhaps favoured by his fellow-Member Philip Chute whose neighbour he was at Appledore. He made his will on 21 Sept. 1545, doubtless in view of his departure for the Parliament which after its postponement from January was to assemble in October, but which on that day was postponed until 23 Nov. following. After asking to be buried in St. Thomas’s church in Winchelsea and leaving money to repair the church and highways, he remembered kinsmen and servants and provided for his two daughters. On 29 Oct. he named his wife executrix in the presence of Chute and several others while staying at the Tabard in Southwark; she was to obtain probate on 10 Dec., but it is not known whether he had lived long enough to take his place in the House. No by-election is recorded at Winchelsea. Hynxstend’s daughter Philippa married Thomas Cheyne.5PCC 44 Pynnyng.