GIEAR, Thomas (d. 1646), of Weymouth, Dorset.

Thomas Giear (who spelled his name thus) was a central figure in Weymouth during the 1620s and 1630s.11Signature: Add. 36767, f. 377. He was mayor in March 1619, when he signed a letter to the master of requests, Sir Julius Caesar†, complaining of the £450 demanded from the borough to fund the proposed expedition against Algerian pirates.12Add. 36767, f. 377. Giear was elected as MP for the borough in 1624 and achieved mayoral rank for a second time in September 1630.13Weymouth Min. Bks. 18. Giear’s position in Weymouth was bolstered by his alliance with a group of burgesses which collaborated in commerce and borough politics, centred on his wife’s family, the Walthams.14E134/9 and 10 Chas.I/Hil.39. In December 1627 Giear and William Waltham were granted letters of marque for two ships operating out of Weymouth.15CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 303. When Giear was elected mayor in 1630, Thomas Waltham became one of the auditors.16Weymouth Min. Bks. 18. In 1632 Giear, ‘who by reason of his age desireth to be discharged’, relinquished his position as captain of the trained bands in Melcombe Regis to another of his wife’s relatives, Henry Waltham†.17Weymouth Min. Bks. 22. He accompanied his brother, David Giear, to the exchequer court in 1632, where they represented the borough in a dispute with the corporation of Exeter; and after David’s death in 1633 was appointed auditor of Weymouth, with custody of the keys to the town chest.18Weymouth Min. Bks. 22, 32. Giear was also on good relations with the local gentry, as can be seen in 1634, when he and Henry Waltham took control of two gifts given for the use of the town by the families of Sir John Strangways* and Sir John Browne†.19Weymouth Min. Bks. 32.

Giear’s connections also included the Dorchester merchants, James Gould* and John Blachford. Giear and Thomas Waltham were implicated in corruption allegations levelled against the two Dorchester men in the early 1630s. The original complaint had been filed in the exchequer in 1631, and in November 1634 the defendants were found guilty of transgressing the statute of labourers, ‘for working on undue times, shipping goods at unlawful hours, and in undue manner’.20Bayley, Dorset, 16; Whiteway Diary, 153. Waltham and Blachford were fined £2,000 each, while Giear was fined £3,000 and censured for his role as mayor of the town in ‘permitting such unlawful practices to be done in his house’.21Whiteway Diary, 153; Eg. 784, f. 109v. These penalties were not the end of the affair, however. In 1639, the original complainant, John Gardner, the controller of customs at Poole, petitioned the king for relief against Giear, Gould and Blachford, who were trying the ruin their accuser through vexatious litigation.22CSP Dom. Add. 1629-49, p. 604; PC2/50, p. 483.

Such shady dealings did not compromise Giear’s standing in the borough, however. When he secured election as its MP in March 1640, Giear was returned alongside Sir John and Giles Strangways, and Richard King, ‘with one general voice, assent and consent’.23C219/42/92. There is no record of Giear’s participation in the Short Parliament, and he was not a candidate for a borough seat in the Long Parliament election in the autumn. By this time, Giear may have been quite elderly, and he drew up his will in December 1642, appointing as overseers his nephews Robert and James Giear, and choosing as witnesses two of his merchant friends, Henry Rose and Thomas Waltham.24PROB11/196/467. James Giear and Henry Rose were later accused of royalism in the early stages of the civil war, but there is no indication that Thomas Giear shared their views.25CCAM 1045; Add. 29319, ff. 27-8; Weymouth Min. Bks., 73. In any case, the charges against Giear’s friends did not stick. In September 1645 Thomas Waltham, Henry Rose and James Giear were allowed to farm the petty customs, cartage, and market dues of the town, and stood surety for each other.26Weymouth Min. Bks. 54. In October, Thomas Giear and his friends were behind the election of Dr John Bond* as the new recorder of the borough, defeating the candidate put forward by a rival group of burgesses, led by Mathew Allin*.27Weymouth Min. Bks. 55. Despite their differences, Giear signed the election indenture when Allin was returned as recruiter MP for the borough in November.28C219/43/154. Giear died before June 1646, leaving his modest estate to his wife and only daughter, Rebecca. These were to pass to his nephews Robert and James if his daughter died without heirs.29PROB11/196/467. Nothing more is known of Rebecca Giear, who was 16 at the time of her father’s death.30Dorset RO, Melcombe Regis par. regs.