The Tudor Society

Sir Thomas Paston, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber

On this day in Tudor history, 4th September 1550, Sir Thomas Paston, a gentleman of the privy chamber under Henry VIII and Edward VI, died.

He was, of course, a member of the Pastons of Norfolk, a family famed for the Paston Letters, a treasure trove of family correspondence from the 1400s into the 1500s, which give us a vivid, everyday view of gentry life at the time.

Find out more about Sir Thomas Paston in my video, as I trace his journey from younger son to royal insider:

  • Gentleman of the privy chamber (daily access to the king)
  • Keeper of the armoury at Greenwich (1541)
  • Steward & constable of Castle Rising (1542)
  • French campaign with Henry VIII and knighthood after Boulogne (1545)
  • Local authority & Parliament: steward of estates, MP for Norfolk, J.P.
  • Crisis manager: helped quell Kett’s Rebellion (1549)
  • Family life: marriage to Agnes Leigh; heir Henry (aged 4 at Thomas’s death), with Agnes pregnant with Edward

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Sir Thomas Paston, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber