MAY, Thomas (1604-55), of Rawmere, Mid Lavant, Suss.

The numerous branches of the May family in Sussex descended from Richard May of Wadehurst.14Vis. Sussex (Harl. Soc. liii), 104-6. His son, Thomas May, died in 1501, leaving two sons, of whom the elder, Thomas, was the great-grandfather of Thomas May, the poet and historian of the Long Parliament.15‘Thomas May’, Oxford DNB. William May, the younger brother, was a London Skinner and merchant, who died in Portugal, having married there; his three sons were naturalised between 1542 and 1544. The eldest, Richard, from whom descended the Mays of Rawmere, was a London Merchant Taylor, who in 1581 acquired the manor of Mid Lavant, or Rawmere, north of Chichester.16Letters of Denization and Acts of Naturalisation, ed. W. Page (Huguenot Soc. viii), 167; Suss. Manors, ii. 306; Horsfield, Hist. Suss., ii. 77. At his death in 1588 he left Rawmere, and property in London and Essex, to his sons Richard, William, (Sir) Humphrey May†, and John.17Notes IPMs Suss. 152.

Eventually John, the youngest brother and the father of this MP, inherited the Rawmere estate. Meanwhile, his family prospered through advantageous marriages and gained in social status. His sister Elizabeth married Sir Baptist Hicks†, and became Viscountess Camden, while another sister, Dorothy, married Thomas Bennet, sheriff of London. The latter’s daughter, Rebecca Bennet, was the first wife of Bulstrode Whitelocke*.18R. Spalding, Contemporaries of Bulstrode Whitelocke (1990), 13, 446–7. The connection between the families of May and Whitelocke stemmed from the long-standing friendship between James Whitelocke† and Thomas May’s uncle, Sir Humphrey May.19Spalding, Contemporaries, 189.

In 1620 Thomas May was admitted to St John’s College, Oxford, where Sir Humphrey and James Whitelocke had been educated, and where Thomas’s brothers, Adrian and John, were also to study.20Al. Ox. In May of the same year, Thomas gained free admission to the Middle Temple, owing to the fact that Sir Humphrey May was a Bencher.21Mins. of Parliament of MT, ii. 649; MT Admiss. i. 64, 68, 110. Again, other relatives followed him.22MT Admiss.

Thomas May inherited the family estate on his father’s death in January 1631.23Notes IPMs Suss. 153; Add. 5699, f. 265; WARD7/81/174. Five years later he obtained a royal licence to alienate Woodcote Farm in Goodwood Park, which his father had bought for £1,200, and sold it in 1637, for £1,500, to Sir John Denham, the Ship Money judge.24Goodwood Park, E694-9, 701-5. He was married by December 1634, when the first of five children were baptised at Mid Lavant.25Add. 5699, f. 265. By the time of the county visitation that year, May was also captain of a troop of horse for Chichester.26Vis. Sussex (Harl. Soc liii), 105; CJ v. 81a. In 1634 he joined the commission of the peace, although evidence of his activity emerges only in 1638, when he began attending the assizes, and started sending reports to London, with Sir William Ford, and Sir William Morley*; for the next four years he was fairly active, working with a close-knit group of friends and kinsmen from the western rapes of Sussex – members of the May, Morley, Ford, Lewknor, and Bowyer families.27C193/13/2; C231/5, p. 265; ASSI35/80/9; ASSI35/82/4; ASSI35/82/5; ASSI35/83/6; ASSI35/84/8; SP16/382, f. 182; SP16/386, f. 224; SP16/393, f. 87; SP16/395, f. 228; SP16/425, f. 217. May also had developing court connections through his younger brothers. In 1628 Adrian May succeeded his uncles Sir Humphrey May and Hugh May as a groom of the privy chamber, with an annual pension of 200 marks.28Spalding, Contemporaries, 189; CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 334. By 1638, both Adrian and his brother Richard had been granted the office of clerk of the statutes in reversion.29CSP Dom. 1637-8, p. 173.

In the spring of 1640 May was elected to Parliament as a burgess for Midhurst, some nine miles to the north of Rawmere.30C219/42ii/36. His return may have owed something to the patronage of Francis Browne, 3rd Viscount Montagu, who resided close by at Cowdray. Fellow Members included his brother-in-law, Christopher Lewknor*, MP for Chichester, but he made no recorded contribution to proceedings.

May was re-elected unopposed in the autumn, but the second seat was contested, and it was not until mid-February 1641 that William Cawley I* was confirmed as his partner.31CJ ii. 63b, 86a; Harl. 164, f. 118. The pair were poles apart, Cawley being a Chichester brewer, and one of the most radical of the county members during the 1640s. May’s activity at Westminster was slight. He made the Protestation promptly on 3 May 1641 and his name also appears on the Protestation returns for Mid Lavant.32West Suss. Protestation Returns, 113; CJ ii. 133b. In February 1642, somewhat surprisingly, he proposed John Hampden* to be lieutenant of the Tower of London: his motive is not known. On 7 February his brother Adrian was summoned to Parliament to be examined regarding information that he had been negotiating in the Low Countries on the king’s behalf to send arms to Hull – a summons he appears to have obeyed.33CJ ii. 415b, 422b; PJ i. 295, 324, 329, 333, 351. However, other preoccupations apparently intervened, and the case did not resurface until late May. On 1 June Thomas May was instructed to inform his brother of another summons; this time it was probably ignored and instead, attempts were made to cut off Adrian’s funds for arms-dealing at source.34CJ ii. 598a, 602b, 603a, 604a; PJ ii. 376; PJ iii. 6.

It is likely that soon after this Thomas May left London and went to Sussex. On 9 August, along with John Alford*, Sir Thomas Bowyer*, and Sir William Morley, he was summoned to attend the House to answer charges that commissions had been issued by the king for them to seize Chichester on his behalf.35CJ ii. 711a. Having unsuccessfully challenged Captain Chittey to deliver up the magazine, these men were alleged to have instigated a plot to betray the garrison to Colonel George Goring*, governor of Portsmouth. Suspicion also fell upon the cathedral clergy, including May’s brother-in-law, Joseph Henshaw (a client of Archbishop William Laud, and Restoration bishop of Peterborough), who had sent supplies to Portsmouth.36An Exact Relation from Portsmouth (1642), sigs. Av-A2 (E.112.34); Exceeding Good News (1642) (E.114.3); Add. 5699, f. 265; Suss. Arch. Coll., xix. 107; ‘Joseph Henshaw’, Oxford DNB. Although, like Morley, May subscribed on 27 August to the covenant to assist Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, as commander of parliamentary forces, doubts about his loyalty deepened in the aftermath of the battle of Edgehill. On 1 November, following a report from the committee for contributions, he was sent for as a delinquent for refusing to contribute financially to the cause.37CJ ii. 830; SP28/194/625.

Three weeks later a letter reached Parliament from William Cawley, describing how May, Sir William Morley, Sir Thomas Bowyer, Thomas Leedes*, and May’s brother-in-law Sir John Morley were present when a royalist force had captured Chichester. On 23 November May, Morley, Bowyer and Leedes were all disabled from sitting in Parliament and were sent for as delinquents.38CJ ii. 860b; C 231/6, p. 19; HMC Portland, i. 72-4; A Perfect Diurnall, no. 24 (21–28 Nov. 1642), n.p. (E.242.27); Add. 18777, ff. 68v, 127; Add. 5699, f. 265. May remained in Sussex, however. Following the fall of Chichester to parliamentarian commander Sir William Waller* in December, he was arrested, as were Sir William Morley, May’s brother-in-law Lewknor and his brothers William and Richard. Styled by some one of the ‘four prime commanders’ of the royalist initiative, he was sent to London.39The latest printed newes (22 Dec. 1642), 2 (E.83.8); Brave Newes of the taking of Chichester (1642) (E.83.36); Speciall Passages, no. 21 (27 Dec. 1642-3 Jan. 1643), 277–8; England's Memorable Accidents (26 Dec. 1642-2 Jan. 1643), 134 (E.244.34); A True Relation of Sir William Waller (1643), sig. A4v (E.84.22). He had been discovered not in the city itself, but ‘hath hid in his own house near Chichester’.40SP23/176, p. 201.

In 1643, May took advantage of an opportunity to redeem himself in Parliament’s eyes. Named as executor of the will of his aunt Elizabeth Hickes, Viscountess Camden, he faced the prospect of her estates suffering sequestration even before she was buried, on account of her bequests to known royalists. Pre-empting seizure, he offered to pay £5,000 to Parliament in return for indemnification from further interference, and on the recommendation of the Committee for Advance of Money, this was accepted (ordered 21 June 1643).41CJ iii. 132a, 137a, 139a; LJ vi. 108a; CP; PROB11/193/510 (Elizabeth, ‘Viscount Campden’); CCAM 157; HMC 5th Rep., 93; PA, MP 26 June 1643. The outcome was less clear-cut. By 25 November he had duly deposited £3,000, but assessed at £1,500 on his own account in Sussex the same month, he paid only £80.42CCAM 158; SP19/63, f. 105; SP19/75, pp. 166, 168. On the other hand, in January 1645, the Committee for Sequestrations ordered the committee at Camden House to repay £250 seized from May, although this order had to be repeated three times before being carried out.43SP20/1, pp. 538, 546, 565, 600.

By the time that a new writ was issued for an election at Midhurst in September 1645, May was on the way to obtaining a pardon from the House of Commons.44CJ iv. 271b. As early as 27 February 1644, he claimed that he had taken the Solemn League and Covenant at Chichester.45SP23/70, f. 281; CCC 834. In November 1645, he begged to compound, claiming that, although he was in Chichester when it was captured by Waller in December 1642, he had lived quietly in Rawmere ever since, as a tenant of the state on his own lands. He claimed to have advanced £50 for payment of the Scots, and that he had never assisted the king with horse, money, plate, or arms.46SP23/176, p. 214; CCC 834.

May received the support of Richard Manning, clerk of the sequestrations committee at Chichester, and William Barton, treasurer at Chichester, who affirmed that May had taken the covenant; Barton also confirmed May’s offer to pay for the Scots.47SP23/176, pp. 210, 225, 227. More importantly, Edward Apsley*, Thomas Middleton*, Harbert Morley*, William Hay*, William Spence*, William Morley and Anthony Stapley* certainly not all his natural friends, certified that May had never been at Oxford, or within the king’s quarters, or indeed in action against Parliament.48SP23/176, p. 211, 231. May then claimed that his appearance at Chichester in 1642 had been in response to a summons of posse comitatus, issued by the sheriff, Sir Edward Forde – a summons he could not ignore, since Forde had yet to declare for the king. Confronted on his arrival with Forde’s declaration of his allegiance to Charles I, ‘this deponent preremptorily refused to command those of his trained horse that were in the said city, and upon his refusal’ Forde deprived him of his troops.49SP23/176, p. 229. The claim is corroborated by some contemporary newspaper coverage and by Cawley’s report, which talked of the sheriff employing a ‘trick’ to entice the county to join him and then ‘[locking] the gates and set a strong guard at them so that they could not retire to their own houses, but were forced to abide in the city’. Cawley, who avowed that ‘the countrymen express they have no hearts to the service’, made no mention of May among the ringleaders.50HMC Portland, i. 72-4; Perfect Diurnall, no. 23 (13-21 Nov. 1642), sigs. Z2v, Z4 (E.242.20); no. 24 (21-28 Nov. 1642), sig. Z3v (E.242.26).

In February 1646, the Committee for Compounding set his fine at £900.51SP23/176, pp. 201-3, 215, 219, 221; SP23/3, p. 43; CJ v. 81a; CCC 834. However, despite his claims that property worth £500 had been taken away by the committee at Chichester, and that £2,500 had been plundered by Waller’s troops, the sum was later fixed at £3,600.52SP23/176, pp. 205-8, 223. This may have had something to do with the activities of his fervently royalist brothers, whose portions had originally been set against the amount he would have to pay. Adrian May had been committed to the Tower in August 1644 for his adherence to the king’s party, and Charles May was gentleman of the robes to James, duke of York.53CJ iii. 29a, 39b, 58b, 100a, 582a; LJ v. 690a; vi. 14a, 19b; CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 191; M. Toynbee and P. Young, Strangers in Oxford (1973), 168-9.

Although May had paid his fine by 9 July 1646, a review of his case was undertaken, and in December it was reduced to the original figure of £900.54SP23/1, pp. 135, 140; SP23/176, p. 208; SP23/3, p. 276; CCC 834. Further moves to clear his name led the Commons to accept May’s account of events at Chichester and recognise his right to fair treatment after taking the Covenant. An ordinance pardoning May, and discharging his sequestration, was carried on 13 February 1647 to the Lords, who granted a restitution of all May’s lands and goods, except for his right of clerical patronage.55CJ v. 81a, 85b; HMC 6th Rep., 158; LJ ix. 15a; PA, MP 13 Feb. 1647. In December even his assessment, already reduced, was discharged, on account of the fact that he was greatly in debt, and because he had paid his one fifth in Sussex.56SP19/71, f. 67; SP19/5, pp. 294, 333; CCAM 788. Nevertheless his financial resources stretched to lending money to the local magnate, Algernon Percy, 4th earl of Northumberland, whose accounts show payments of interest, and part of the capital, during 1647.57Alnwick Castle, Northumberland MSS, U.I.6.

May had been dropped from the commission of the peace on his disablement from Parliament, although he continued to attend until October 1643. Like Sir William Morley*, he was rehabilitated by the county community in the later 1640s, and in April 1649 a dispute at East Lavant was referred to him for resolution by the justices of the peace.58Suss. QSOB 1642-1649, 1, 18, 37, 172. His activity remained minimal, however, and little more is heard of May before his death on 27 December 1655.

May was the first member of his family to be buried in the family vault in St Nicholas church, Mid Lavant.59Aldsworth, 'May family vault'. In his will, drawn up on 16 January 1649, May claimed that his ‘house was plundered, my goods wasted, consumed, carried away, lost, and embezzled’ during the wars.60PROB11/252/288. In 1655 his estate was valued, for the purpose of decimation, at only £400.61SP28/181. Although none of May’s children sat in Parliament, his cousins, Sir Algernon May†, Baptist May†, and Sir Richard May†, as well as his nephew, Thomas May†, all became MPs after the restoration of Charles II.62House of Commons 1660-1690.