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Thomas Cecil, later 1st Earl of Exeter was born on 5 May 1542,[1] in the Parish of St Mary the Great, Cambridge,[2] the only child of William Cecil, later 1st Lord Burghley, and his first wife Mary Cheke.[1][2]
Thomas was educated at home before entering Trinity College, Cambridge in 1558.[3] He was admitted to Gray's Inn on 20 January 1559-60.[4][2][5]
In 1561 Thomas's father sent him to France to round out his preparation for later life, under the oversight of Thomas Windebanke, a senior member of his father's entourage. His father issued stern instructions about regular saying of prayers, Bible-reading and confessing sins.[6] Correspondence shows that William Cecil was concerned that his son was making poor use of the opportunity: writing to Thomas Windebanke, William Cecil expressed fears that "my son's being there shall serve him to little purpose, for that he spendeth his time in idleness and not in profiting himself in learning." He showed concern about his son's extravagance in Paris, and told Thomas Windebanke to speak bluntly to his son about his faults, as this was the only way "to teach him to amend."[7] Thomas Windebanke responded that he was unable to control Thomas Cecil, who did not rise from his bed till late, and was "negligent and rash in expenses, careless in his apparel, an immoderate lover of dice and cards, in study soon weary, in game never."[8] Nonetheless Thomas Cecil appears to have made himself acceptable at the French court.[8]
In 1562 Thomas appears to have seduced a young French woman,[8] causing his father in exasperation to wonder about sending him "secretly to some sharp prison" before he caused further trouble.[6] This seduction may have precipitated Thomas's move first to Antwerp and then to Germany. He returned to England in January 1563.[8]
Thomas Cecil was elected a Member of Parliament seven times, to represent:
Thomas's interests were not primarily in parliamentary business[6] and only in the last of these Parliaments was he seriously active, moving Bills and taking part in Committees, at times in ways that were inimical to his father and his half-brother Robert.[8]
Thomas Cecil was probably more a military man than a politician. In 1569 he helped to suppress the Rising of the North,[6] in charge of a troop of 300 horse.[8] In 1573 he helped James Douglas, Earl of Morton, in the siege of Edinburgh Castle.[6]
Thomas was knighted in 1575.[6][9]
In 1585 he went with the Earl of Leicester to the Low Countries, where he was briefly a Captain of Horse and governor of Brill, a port under English control.[6] He returned fairly soon to England because of ill-health.[6][8] His father complained to the Earl of Essex that Thomas had had to draw heavily on his own funds, "so much, as he came home with £5."[8] In 1587, a Committee of the House of Commons found that "it cost Sir Thomas Cecil £5,000 in service in the Low Countries."[8]
In July 1588, during the threat of the Armada, he was appointed an army Colonel with responsibility for defending Elizabeth I herself.[6]
His final military role came in 1601, when he was a Colonel-General of the London Foot and helped his half-brother Robert suppress the rising of the Earl of Essex.[6]
Thomas was Lord of the Manor of Wimbledon from 1590. He built a substantial residence there, with a garden and vineyard, and hosted both Elizabeth I[6] and James I[8] several times.
Thomas Cecil succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Burghley in 1598.[6]
From 1599 to 1603 Thomas was Lord President of the Council of the North, under instructions to root out Catholics.[6] He seems to have gone about this with some energy. At one Northumberland Assizes, in 1601, more than 150 Catholics were condemned.[8]
Thomas was made a Knight of the Garter on 23 April 1601 for his help in putting down Essex's rebellion.[6][10]
On James I's accession, Thomas was immediately in royal favour. He was appointed a Privy Councillor and Lord Almoner for the Coronation in 1603, and was Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire from 1603 to his death.[2]
On 4 May 1605 he was made Earl of Exeter; his half-brother Robert Cecil was made Earl of Salisbury at the same time.
His name appears on The Second Charter of Virginia; May 23, 1609.
Thomas married twice. His first wife was Dorothy Neville, daughter of John Neville, 4th Lord Latymer and Lady Lucy Somerset. They married in Yorkshire on 27 November 1564.[2] They had five sons and eight daughters:
Dorothy (Neville) Cecil died on 23 March 1608/9 (1609 in modern reckoning) and was buried in Westminster Abbey.[2]
In late 1610 Thomas Cecil married Frances Brydges, daughter of William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos of Sudeley and Mary Hopton. She was 38 years younger than him.[2] He was said to be "gouty and diseased" and there was criticism of the match.[8] They had one child:
In June 1517 Thomas's second wife was the subject of lurid allegations of seeking to poison Ann Lake, the wife of Thomas's grandson William Cecil, Lord de Ros. Stories of adultery and incest were thrown in. King James I became personally involved in the case. In February 1619 Frances was finally cleared[6] and Ann Lake and her family were found to have invented the original accusations.[27]
Thomas died on 7 or 8 February 1622/3 (1623 in modern reckoning).[2][6][8] He was buried in the Chapel of St John the Baptist, Westminster Abbey, London.[28] His memorial has effigies of himself and his first wife Dorothy Neville. Room was left for an effigy of his second wife Frances Brydges but this was never added: she did not die until 1663 and was buried in Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire. The Latin inscription on the tomb is worded in a way which assumes that she would be buried with Thomas and Dorothy. It can be translated: "Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter, Baron of Burleigh, Knight of the Garter, Privy Counsellor to King James, with his two dearly beloved wives, Dorothy Neville, daughter and co-heir to the noble Lord Latimer, his first wife, and Frances Brydges of the noble Chandos family, his second wife. They rest under this monument in sure hope of resurrection."[29]
Burghley's Memoriæ nativitatum et aliarum rerum gestarum gives 22 September 1574 as the birth date of a daughter Elizabeth - the same date as Susanna who died in infancy.[1] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Edward Coke gives the birth date of his wife Elizabeth Cecil, daughter of the Thomas of this profile, as 1578.[19] It is conceivable that there were two daughters called Elizabeth, the first of whom died in infancy, but if so, it is curious that Burghley does not seem to have mentioned the birth of the second. He does not, though, appear to have recorded the birth of all Thomas’s children, so this is not conclusive.
It is a tight but not impossible fit to squeeze the birth of a daughter Elizabeth in 1578 between Dorothy baptised in August 1577 (with a birth date which may have been some months earlier) and Thomas born on the penultimate day of 1578: the tightness makes one wonder if the ODNB has the year wrong. Another possible explanation is that Elizabeth was a twin of Thomas - but, if so, one wonders why her grandfather Lord Burghley recorded Thomas’s birth but not hers.
The likelihood is that there was just one daughter Elizabeth, born, as her grandfather recalled, in 1574.
The closeness in the sources found so far of Mildred’s baptism date to Mary’s birth date raises obvious questions. Was Mildred born some time before her baptism? Were they twins, and if so, why wasn’t Mary baptised on the same date as Mildred? Is there a mistake in the parish register record of Mildred’s baptism?
Mildred married on 28 February 1586/7.[30] If she was born in 1573, that would make her about 13 at the time of marriage: that is quite possible for this period.
Cokayne gives his death date as 8 February 1622/3.[2] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says it was 7 February,[6] as does the History of Parliament Online.[8]
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C > Cecil > Thomas Cecil KG MP
Categories: Knights Companion of the Garter, Elizabeth I creation | Members of Parliament, Northamptonshire | Members of Parliament, Lincolnshire | Members of Parliament, Stamford | Gray's Inn | Trinity College, Cambridge
I agree the ODNB may have got Elizabeths birth date wrong, and have asked Jen Hutton, who is working with me on this profile, to join me in looking for other primary or secondary sources for her.
One marker. It is possible Grandfather William Cecil Lord Burghley may not be 100% reliable on birth dates. He gave two different years for his own birth date, one in a document in his lifetime and one in his will.
I have added a research note on Mildred and Mary.
Mildred was married to her first husband Thomas Reade on 28 Feb 1586/87 (same day as her sister Lucy) https://archive.org/details/registerofbaptis00stma/page/74 when she would have only been 13? Was she born earlier and baptised later? Or have Mary and Mildred been swapped either in the parish records or in their grandfathers manuscript?
With Elizabeth, I'm more inclined to think she was born with Susanna in 1574, rather than go with the 1578 date from Oxford DNB.
"Cissell-219 and Cecil-432 are not ready to be merged because: More research is required to see how the heirs of an English Knight became farmers in colonies."
It appears this merge has since been completed. How DID the Cecil descendants end up farmers in the colonies? Not the first. But perhaps the only descendants of one of the great spymasters in history to end up farming, that fast. I'd love to see the line...
Related topic:
If we mention a SAR/DAR application in the sources, we should give it's number and link.
Regardless, I don't see how an SAR application could be relevant here, because they don't go back through "patriot" ancestors in the revolutionary era. Do they?
Update: ironically, it's this Calvert line in Maryland! https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cissell-14
It's much more surprising and rare (than heirs of a knight becoming farmers-- relatively common in the colonies) to go so quickly from being the leading catholic "witchhunters" for Elizabeth I... to BEING the leading catholics of Maryland. That may be unique.
History is amazing!
Or, whoever did this merge is wrong, making WikiTree wrong.
(Tangent: you have to wonder if her George Calvert, uncle of bride of Cecil/Cissell-14, actually named Maryland for his French wife. Which is the official history. But she never used or liked the name Mary, preferring Henrietta. Perhaps he ACTUALLY named it for relatively-recently beheaded Mary, Queen of Scots-- whom his "in-laws" the Cecils personally entrapped into treason and beheaded, apparently contrary to the wishes of Elizabeth.)
ps. We should delete the FindAGrave sources from this profile. FindAGrave cannot ever be a source here, only a relationships hint to find real, contemporary sources. Otherwise this site inherits all the wrongness there, of which there is much.
Consolidation of biographical data is designed to be done post-merge not pre-merge.