HYRNE, Sir Thomas (bef. 1566-1637/8), of Norwich and Haveringland, Norf.

Hyrne’s father, who served as sheriff of Norwich in 1575 and mayor in 1593, was a grocer and member of the Norwich Fishmongers’ Company.24MI, St. Mary in Coslany, Norwich. He seems to have been wealthy, owning properties in two Norwich parishes and five manors elsewhere in Norfolk.25Cozens-Hardy and Kent, 65. Hyrne, an eldest son, took his father’s place as an Alderman when the latter died in 1596.26Norf. RO, NCR Case 16/C/5, f. 168. He subsequently served as the city’s sheriff before undertaking the first of three mayoral terms in 1604-5.27Ibid. f. 181r-v. Initially unwilling to be mayor, perhaps preferring his business interests to those of the city, he was eventually persuaded to undertake the office.28Cozens-Hardy and Kent, 68. Later, as a senior member of the corporation, he leased land from the city in the parish of St. Simon and St. Jude and was granted £40 above his £100 mayoral salary in 1616 for the repair of his house.29Norf. RO, NCR Case 16/D/5, ff. 24, 42v.

In 1610 Sir John Heveningham* entered a bill in Parliament to confirm his purchase of Lowestoft manor from Hyrne, thereby breaking various entails.30Suff. RO (Lowestoft), 317/1/1/3. The measure passed swiftly through the Commons, being examined by a committee which included several prominent members of the East Anglian gentry, such as Sir Nathaniel Bacon, Sir Charles Cornwallis, Sir Henry Hobart, Sir John Heigham and Sir Robert Hitcham. After an equally quick procedure through the Lords it was enacted.31CJ, 394a, 397b, 405b, 408b, 409b; LJ, ii. 567a, 568a, 571a, 585b. Hyrne himself was elected to Parliament in 1614, but made no impact on its records. As sheriff of Norfolk he was unable to stand for re-election in 1620/1, but was returned to the Commons again in 1624, when he was he was named to four committees. Two were concerned with naturalization bills, one for a Norwich grain merchant, Peter Verbeake (12 Apr.) and the other for David Stanniere (24 April).32CJ, 762b, 774a; HLRO, main pprs., 1 May 1624. Hyrne’s remaining appointments dealt with scandalous ministers (22 Mar.) and a bill to relieve creditors of persons who died while their estates were in execution (17 April).33CJ, 746a, 769b; Kyle thesis, pp. 273-5, 329-33. Hyrne was re-elected to the first two Caroline parliaments. Although he went unmentioned in the records of the 1625 assembly, in 1626 he was named to the privileges committee,34Procs. 1626, ii. 7. and to a bill committee concerning a land transaction between Richard Fust and William Hill (1 June).35Ibid. iii. 340.On 22 Mar. he claimed parliamentary privilege after being served with a subpoena by one Martin Simpson on his way to Parliament. It seems likely that Simpson was admonished.36Ibid. ii. 339.

Hyrne was a trustee of the Paston estate from 1619.37Paston Letters ed. R. Hughey (Norf. Rec. Soc. xiv), 31. He died at Haveringland, eight miles north-west of Norwich, shortly before 11 Jan. 1638, when his will was proved. In this he asked to be buried next to his wife in Haveringland parish church, and bequeathed money for four sermons annually to be preached in his honour. His only son, Clement, inherited the rest of his estate.38Norf. RO, Norwich Consistory Ct., 250 Parke, ff. 250-1v. None of Hyrne’s direct descendants sat in Parliament, but two distant relatives, Sir Nathaniel Herne and Joseph Herne, represented Dartmouth in the later 17th century.39HP Commons, 1660-90.