LATHAM, Thomas (c. 1603-?1662), of Stifford, Essex and the Middle Temple.

The Lathams first acquired land in Essex through marriage early in the sixteenth century, but by the 1620s Thomas Latham senior’s business interests were in London, where he was a member of the East India and Virginia Companies.13T.K. Rabb, Enterprise and Empire (1967), 330; CSP Dom. 1636-7, pp. 226, 229. In 1636 Latham senior refused to pay Ship Money and was criticised by Sir Henry Mildmay* as a ‘stiff-necked Londoner’ for his obtuseness.14CSP Dom. 1636-7, pp. 57, 226, 229. When bailiffs took livestock to cover the £4 owed, they were resisted by his sons, and shortly afterwards a horse purchased by a local parson was seized. In January 1637 the privy council ordered the family to pay the original sum with costs, but Latham senior remained obdurate, bringing a suit before king’s bench which had not been resolved in January 1638.15CSP Dom. 1636-7, pp. 197, 226, 264; 1637, p. 190; 1637-8, p. 148. It may have been the expense of this legal dispute that forced the sale of Stifford manor in 1640.16VCH Essex viii. 28.

Thomas Latham junior was educated at Oxford and the Middle Temple (where his relative, Ralph Latham, was reader) and he was called to the bar in May 1639.17Al. Ox.; MTR ii. 798, 881. Latham maintained strong links with Essex: he served as sewers commissioner, alongside his father, in December 1644; his brother Daniel was the rector of Stifford from the mid-1640s, and he bought back Stifford Hall a few years later.18W. Palin, Stifford and its Neighbours (1872), i. 177; VCH Essex viii. 28. Latham’s legal career was based in Westminster, however, and he was sufficiently prominent in the local community to be chosen as deputy high steward of Westminster by Philip Herbert*, 4th earl of Pembroke in 1648.19J.F. Merritt, Westminster 1640-60 (Manchester, 2013), 161n. Latham was a popular choice, and after Pembroke’s death he was continued in office by order of Parliament, responding to a petition of the citizens of Westminster, in February 1650.20CJ vi. 358a; Merritt, Westminster, 174. Yet Latham seems to have been treated with suspicion by the governors of Westminster School, who had taken over the local government since the abolition of deans and chapters, and they were probably behind an attempt to remove him from office during the Nominated Assembly.21Merritt, Westminster, 178-80. In June 1653 Latham was challenged for the deputy stewardship by John Corbett, but gained the support of the burgess court, 24 of whose members petitioned the governors of Westminster School in Latham’s favour, ‘whose integrity to this commonwealth, fidelity and ability to the performance of the said place, we have had sufficient testimony’. According to the petitioners, Latham ‘through his great pains … hath preserved many persons from ruin and brought such a conformity of the inhabitants to the court … as hath not been done in any of our memories by any of his predecessors’. They added that his removal would not only be unwise but also unjust

That notwithstanding his great labours, charges and the benefit this City hath received thereby yet we do believe never any before him in the said place have received less encouragement than himself for so doing.22CSP Dom. 1652-3, pp. 397, 410; WAM 9886.

Latham’s local popularity was reflected at the polls in July 1654 where he was chosen MP for Westminster as the second of five candidates, and despite the result being disputed, his return was upheld.23Several Proceedings of State Affairs (6-13 July 1654), 3968 (E.230.17); Perfect Diurnal (10-17 July 1654), 88 (E.230.15). Nevertheless, his name does not appear in the list of MPs approved by the council or in the records of the session, and it is probable that he was one of those excluded from the session, probably at the request of the Westminster governors.24Gaunt, ‘Cromwell’s Purge? Exclusions and the First Protectorate Parliament’, PH v. 14; Merritt, Westminster, 180. At the 1656 election Latham stood on an anti-army platform, in a contest which saw disorderly conduct by his supporters and those of Quarter-master Edward Gravener*.25TSP v. 337. Latham failed to secure a seat, and subsequently he lost his positions as deputy steward of Westminster and justice of the peace.26TSP v. 337; C231/6, p. 351.

Latham remained at the Middle Temple in the later 1650s, acting as manucaptor to one of his wife’s relatives in November 1656, and moving into the chambers vacated by Chaloner Chute I* in June 1659.27MTR iii. 1102, 1136. This was destined to be a temporary arrangement, however, as in the same month Latham, being ‘sick in body’, drew up his will. In it he left his lands in Essex to his wife for her jointure, £150 each to his two unmarried daughters and £10 to the poor of Stifford.28.PROB11/308/132. The date of Latham’s death is unknown, but his will was proved in May 1662. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Thomas, who had entered the Middle Temple in 1654 and was called to the bar in June 1662.29MTR iii. 1058, 1178.