Nat Gould

Thomas Egerton 1647-1720

Thomas Egerton was born in 1647, the son of Thomas Egerton of Adstock in Buckinghamshire.

He was educated at Balliol College in Oxford, matriculating on 23 November 1666 aged 18 years, and graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1670 (1).

He was ordained priest on 8 June 1671 at Peterborough Cathedral, and appointed Rector of Adstock on 19 December 1671 (2).

He died in 1720, and was commemorated by a white marble monument on the south wall of the chancel of Adstock church (3). Its inscription read : "This Monument is inscribed to the Memory of Thomas Egerton, the third Rector of Adstock of that Name and Family. He had Issue five Sons and two Daughters by his dear Wife Elizabeth, the Daughter of Edward Butterfeild Rector of Middle-Cleydon. His second Wife was Sarah, the Daughter of Thomas Fyge, of London, Esq. Thomas Egerton Rector 1581.- Thomas Egerton Rector 1623.- Thomas Egerton Rector 1672. Let a Man account of us, as Ministers of Christ, and Stewards of the Mysteries of God. 1 Cor. iv. 1. 1720." (4).

This description of Adstock church published in 1755 (5) also reads "On the same Account is also in the Chancel Roof this Date, Viz. 1597. Here were then put up these Arms in the Chancel Windows ... Being the Arms of Queen Elizabeth, Fortescue the Patron, and the Egertons of Leek in the County of Stafford (6); of which Family was Thomas Egerton the then Rector, who no Doubt put them up."

(1) Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 J. Foster (1891).
(2) Church of England Clergy Database http://www.theclergydatabase.org.uk Lincoln Cathedral Register 33 (Fuller) 1667-1675.
(3) The History of the Antiquities of the Town, Hundred and Deanry [[sic] of Buckingham Browne Willis (1755) page 125.
(4) The dates given for the three rectors are not however the actual years in which they were instituted to the benefice, which were 1569, 1622 and 1671 respectively.
(5) The History of the Antiquities of the Town, Hundred and Deanry [[sic] of Buckingham Browne Willis (1755) page 125.
(6) Wall Grange near Leek in Staffordshire, an estate owned by Trentham Priory, had been leased by 1484 to Hugh Egerton, and to William Egerton in 1509-1510. Their descendants were granted a forty-year lease in 1558, which was evidently renewed in 1606. The Egerton family continued at Wall Grange until it was sequestrated by the Parliamentarians between 1649 and 1654 during the Civil War: British History Online: Victoria County History: A History of the County of Stafford Volume 7 Leek and the Moorlands (1996).