TALBOT, Sir Thomas (prob. by 1507/8-58), of Bashall, Yorks., Rishton and Lower Darwen, Lancs.

Although Bashall is in Yorkshire, the Talbots of Bashall are said to have ‘inclined more to Lancashire than to Yorkshire’. They were related to the earls of Shrewsbury. After his father’s death Thomas Talbot’s mother married Sir James Stanley of Cross Hall, Lancashire, a union which later involved Talbot in the marital and extra-marital affairs of Ralph Rishton of Ponthalgh, Lancashire, which have been chosen to illustrate the view that ‘in practice, if not in theory, the early 16th century nobility was a polygamous society’. Rishton formed a connexion, perhaps amounting to marriage, with Talbot’s half-sister Anne Stanley, and Lady Stanley and her son Talbot combined to seize Anne and force her into a ‘marriage’ with John Rishton of Dunkenhalgh. His relationship to the Stanleys (Sir James was the uncle of Edward, 3rd Earl of Derby) may have helped to procure Talbot’s election as senior knight of the shire in 1558.4Watson, 492; Chetham Soc. xcix. 150; ciii. pp. xxiv-xxix; VCH Lancs. vi. 278; Vis. Lancs. 33-34n; L. Stone, Crisis of the Aristocracy, 663.

Talbot had considerable experience in the field. In 1536 he joined the 3rd Earl of Derby with 16 men and in May 1544 was knighted by the Earl of Hertford at Leith. He held a command in Blackburn hundred in 1553, and in 1557 he again joined Derby, this time with 200 men. On 7 Oct. 1557 the 5th Earl of Shrewsbury wrote to Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, that he had sent Talbot with 200 or 300 men towards Berwick. He commended Talbot ‘as a well willing friend of mine, whom I have required to be at your lordship’s commandment’ and asked Northumberland ‘to be his good lord, and to favour him according to his worthiness, whom as soon as any man living, in case of need, I would have been right glad to have had about mine own person’.5LP Hen. VIII, xi, xix; VCH Lancs. ii. 220; Strype, Eccles. Memorials, iii(2), 92; T. D. Whitaker, Whalley (3rd ed.), 547.

Talbot made his will in September 1557. He left Bashall and his Blackburn lease to his daughter Anne and leases which he held of Sir Ralph Assheton to his illegitimate son John. Anne Talbot married William Farrington (son of Sir Henry), whom Talbot made executor of his will. Talbot’s son and heir Henry, who was aged 25 and more at his father’s death, married Millicent, daughter of Sir John Holcroft, Talbot’s fellow-Member in 1558. Talbot died on 1 Aug. 1558, thus missing the second session of the Parliament. If, as is likely, his death was not reported until the House reassembled on 5 Nov., he was probably not replaced before the Queen’s death on 17 Nov. terminated the Parliament.6Watson, 494; Preston RO, Farington of Worden Deeds 2419; Chetham Soc. li. 211-13.