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DYER, Sir Thomas (d.1565), of Weston, Som.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
1st s. of Alexander Dyer by his w., the da. of one Walter or Walton. m. (1) by 1539, Frances, da. of Thomas or John Darcy of Danbury, Essex, wid. of William Thornburgh of Canterbury, Kent, at least 1s. Edward 3da.; (2) aft. 1556, Joan or Jane (d.1564), da. of Thomas, 5th Lord Berkeley, wid. of Sir Nicholas Poyntz†, at least 3s. Kntd. Feb. 1547.
Offices Held
Prob. groom of chamber by 1525; sewer of chamber by Sept. 1532; j.p. Som. 1540-Feb. 1554, q. from 1559; sheriff, Dorset, Som. 1559-60.
Biography
Dyer had sufficient local influence to secure his own return at Bridgwater. He had sat in two Marian Parliaments, voting against government measures in each. His Weston property had formerly belonged to the abbey of Glastonbury. He also had estates at Greinton, Wincanton, Othery, Milton Falconbridge and elsewhere in Somerset, as well as in Devon, Dorset, Essex, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. His relations with his tenants were unfriendly, and his ill-treatment of his second wife caused her death in 1564. Dyer himself died at Weston on 14 June the next year.
Lansd. 1, f. 201; 7, ff. 30, 177; LP Hen. VIII, v. 586; xiv(1), p. 418; xix(2), p. 468; Harl. 1559, ff. 66, 84, 188; Vis. Som.(Harl. Soc. xi), 33; J. Maclean, Fam. Poyntz, i. 72; APC, ii. 451, 458; R. M. Sargent, At the Court of Queen Eliz. 1-12; Berry, Co. Genealogies, Hants, 87; CPR, 1547-8, p. 89; 1553-4, p. 23; SP11/5/6; CSP Dom. Add. 1547-65, p. 483; C142/142/64; Wards 7/10/105; PCC 22 Morrison.