GURLYN (GURLIN), Thomas (1585-1644), of Page Stair Lane, King’s Lynn, Norf.

The Gurlyn family was first recorded at Wellingham, Norfolk in the late fifteenth century.16Rye, Norf. Fams. 255. Gurlyn’s grandfather was of yeoman status, but his father, William, became a successful King’s Lynn merchant and served twice as mayor. The town’s recorder and MP, Thomas Oxborough†, was a ‘loving friend and cousin’.17PROB11/103, f. 366. Thomas Gurlyn, the future MP, may have attended King’s Lynn school, where his brothers were educated, before following his father into trade. He gained his freedom by birth aged 21 when, under the terms of his father’s will, he inherited £400 and various properties, including warehouses in King’s Lynn and lands at Wellingham.18PROB11/103, ff. 365-366v.

Having served a term of office as mayor, Gurlyn was first returned to Parliament for the borough in the senior seat in 1625 and was re-elected the following year. He made little mark on either Parliament. In late 1634, during his second term as mayor, he represented the town in the negotiations between the Norfolk boroughs about how much each was to pay towards Ship Money.19Mins. Norwich Ct. of Mayoralty, 1632-1635, 188, 194-6. Elected for the third time as their MP on 13 March 1640 by the mayor, aldermen and common council but in the second seat, Gurlyn left no trace on the records of the Short Parliament.20King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, f. 52; HMC 11th Rep. III, 178.

As mayor for the third time in 1642, Gurlyn, now a comparatively old man, had the difficult task of preserving the peace of the town. By the spring of 1643 a number of Norfolk royalists, headed by Sir Hamon L’Estrange†, were attempting to raise forces for the king in and around the town. On 18 March Oliver Cromwell* informed Gurlyn that he intended to visit King’s Lynn to deal with this problem. Gurlyn wrote back the next day welcoming this and he entertained Cromwell when he arrived there on 20 March.21HMC 11th Rep. III, 181; Abbott, Writings and Speeches, i. 219; H.J. Hillen, Hist. of the Borough of King’s Lynn (Norwich, 1907), i. 350. Over the next few months Gurlyn continued to give the impression that he supported Parliament. On 11 April he was, as mayor, one of the seven men (including the two MPs, John Percival* and Thomas Toll I*) appointed by the Commons to investigate these royalist plots.22CJ iii. 39a. Later, he and the corporation wrote to Miles Corbett* seeking powers to question suspicious persons, which were duly granted by the Commons on 8 May, with those being granted specifically to counter the threat from L’Estrange and his supporters.23King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, f. 116; HMC Portland, i. 709; CJ iii. 76b-77a.

At some point, however, Gurlyn began playing a double game, which only became apparent when, on 13 August, seemingly with Gurlyn’s support, L’Estrange seized control of King’s Lynn.24Ketton-Cremer, Norf. in Civil War, 207. At the very least, Gurlyn as mayor cooperated fully with L’Estrange’s occupation of the town, which was now besieged by the 2nd earl of Manchester (Edward Montagu†).25HMC 11th Rep. III, 182; Hillen, King’s Lynn, i. 355. The royalists were able to hold out until 16 September, when they surrendered to Manchester. Gurlyn’s term as mayor was then about to end anyway and he was now succeeded by Edmund Hudson*. Parliament subsequently agreed that Gurlyn, L’Estrange and Robert Clench should be fined equally to compensate those inhabitants whose houses they had ordered should be demolished for defensive purposes during the siege.26HMC 11th Rep. III, 182.

Gurlyn died on 3 August 1644 and was buried at Snettisham.27Blomefield, Norf. x. 378. The following spring, the King’s Lynn corporation concurred with the parliamentarian commissioners (Corbett, Valentine Wauton* and Thomas Toll I*) that the compensation to be paid for the damage to property during the siege should be set at £287 1s 6d. Gurlyn’s heirs were therefore ordered to pay his one-third share.28HMC 11th Rep. III, 182. In 1648 the corporation waived any requirement for Gurlyn’s son, Thomas, to pay money that his father had owed to the hospital of St Mary’s Magdelene at Gaywood, which had been damaged during the fighting.29King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, f. 228v.