Thomas Lambard first paid taxes at Romney in 1485. He may have been a son of the John Lambard who appears in the local records from 1453, but there were two other men with that surname, natives of Canterbury and Dymchurch, admitted to the freedom of Romney during the reign of Edward IV, to either of whom Thomas Lambard may have been related.3Romney assessment bk. 1469-92, f. 240; HMC 5th Rep. 543, 544, 546.
Lambard was a jurat of five years’ standing, with seven attendances at the Brotherhood to his credit, when in June 1509 he was one of the four men chosen by Romney to attend the coronation of Henry VIII. This honour, followed by his election to the Parliament which met in January 1510, marked the brief climax of his public career, for he died on 24 Aug. 1510. A brass effigy in the parish church commemorates him; to this church he had made various bequests in his will of 18 Mar. 1510. Although his wife and his son Richard survived him, his only other bequests were to his two daughters, each of whom was to receive £6 13s.4d. on marriage.4Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. 136-43; HMC 5th Rep. 552; W. D. Belcher, Kentish Brasses, ii. 115; Canterbury prob. reg. C10, f. 44.