Sir Thomas Willys, 1st Baronet

Sir Thomas Willys, 1st Baronet (c. 1614 – 17 November 1701) of Fen Ditton in Cambridgeshire, was a Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire and Cambridge.^[1] He was also Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.

Biography

Willys was born about 1614,^[2] He was the son and heir of his father Richard Willys and succeeded to his estates on 16 October 1628.^[3]

Willys was created a baronet, of Fen Ditton by Charles I on 15 December 1641.^[4] He was M.P. for Cambridgeshire in 1659 and for Cambridge in 1660.^[5] From 1665 to 1666 he was Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.^[3] Willys died on 17 November 1701. His will was dated 13 and prorated on 25 November 1701.

Family

Sir Thomas was son and heir of Richard Willys, of Fen Ditton and Horningsey, Cambridgeshire, by Jane, daughter and heir of William Henmarsh, of Balls, in Ware, Hertfordshire. He was the elder brother of Sir Richard who was an officer in the Royalist Army during the Civil War but was shunned by the court after the Restoration for working as a double agent for Oliver Cromwell during the Interregnum.^[6]

Around 1633 Sir Thomas married Anne first daughter and coheir of Sir John Wyld, of Mystole and of St. Martin's, Canterbury, Kent, by Anne, daughter of Robert Honywood, of Charing, in that county. She, who was born at her maternal grandfather's house, at Markshall, county Essex, died 20 October 1685, aged 75.

Sir Thomas's son and heir was Sir John Willys, 2nd Baronet (c. 1635–1704) who succeed to the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1701.

Notes

1. The surname also appears as Willis (Cokayne 1902, pp. 148), and Wyllys
2. Cokayne 1902, p. 148 notes he aged about 72 at the Her. Visit, of Cambridgeshire, 1684
3. Cokayne 1902, p. 148.
4. Cokayne 1902, pp. 148 notes that the patent is not enrolled. The date here given is that in Dugdale's Catalogue. See Memorandum on p. 84. [In an dafter May 1641 down to the end of the reign of Charles I the enrolment of any patent was the exception ...]. The date of the signet bill is 13 December 1641.
5. History of Parliament Online - Willys, Sir Thomas
6. Cokayne 1902, pp. 148,234,235.

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cokayne, George Edward, ed. (1902). Complete Baronetage 1625–1649. pp. 148, 234, 235.