Background
In December 1547 employed in conveying treasure to his father, Sir Edward Wotton, at Calais, and in 1551 succeeded to his estates, his father having procured two acts of parliament ‘disgavelling’ his lands in Kent.
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Thomas Wotton
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Career
Edward VI had intended making him Knight Bachelor, but after Mary"s accession the council on 19 September 1553 wrote him a letter ‘discharging him from being knight of the Bath, whereunto he was once appointed and written unto’ (Acts P C 1552-1554, p 351). On 16 January 1553-1554 he was summoned before the council, and on 21 January
‘for obstinate standing against matters of religion was committed to the Fleet, to remain there a close prisoner’ (ib pp 385, 389).
The date of his release has not been ascertained. But on 23 November 1558, six days after Elizabeth"s accession, he was made sheriff of Kent.
Foreign nearly thirty years he was regularly included in the various commissions for the county, such as those for the peace, for taking musters, gaol delivery, examining into cases of piracy, and fortifying Dover. In July 1573 he entertained Queen Elizabeth at Boughton Malherbe, when he declined an offer of knighthood, and in 1578-1579 again served as sheriff.
Thomas Becon dedicated to him his ‘Book of Matrimony,’ and Edward Dering his ‘Sparing Restraint.’ William Lambarde also dedicated to Wotton in 1570 his ‘Perambulation of Kent,’ which was published in 1576 with a prefatory letter by Wotton.
The son of Sir Edward Wotton. He died on 11 January 1586-1587, and was buried at Boughton Malherbe (Inquisitio post mortem, Elizabeth, volume ccxv Number 263). First wife: Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Rudston, by whom he had issue:
Edward, first baron Wotton
Robert Wotton;
Sir John Wotton, who travelled widely, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and died young after giving some promise as a poet (cf his two contributions to England"s Helicon of 1600, ed A H Bullen, 1899, pp xviii, 65, 82)
James Wotton (d 1628), who served in Spain and was knighted on the field in 1596 near Cadiz
Thomas Wotton
Second wife: Eleanor, daughter of Sir William Finch and widow of Robert Morton, Wotton was father of:
Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639), the diplomatist and poet.
