BLASHEFILD, Thomas (by 1525-74), of Ludlow, Salop.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1525. ?m. 3s.1

Offices Held

Bailiff, Ludlow 1546-7, 1550-1, 1559-60, 1569-70.2

Biography

The Blashefild family was evidently of importance in Ludlow, for its members were frequently bailiffs, but Thomas Blashefild’s place in it has not been established. In 1546, during his first term as bailiff, he shared with John Allsop a grant of the reversion of the pew of John Bradshaw I in Ludlow church; there, as elsewhere, to hold one of the best pews was a mark of distinction. At the close of his second term, in October 1551, Blashefild took the ‘town book’ to London, possibly in connexion with the confirmation of the borough’s charter, and was paid 8d. for his trouble. His return to the Parliament of April 1554 along with Sir John Price, secretary to the council in the marches, answered to his standing in the town and does not imply that he held office under the council: the Thomas Blashefild described in the Shropshire visitation of 1623 as the council’s serjeant-at-arms was perhaps his son. As Blashefild was to be pronounced a ‘favourer’ of the Anglican settlement in 1564 it is also unlikely that his election was assisted by any marked sympathy with the Marian restoration.3

A witness to the will of Thomas Wheeler in 1568, Blashefild died seemingly intestate early in 1574, being buried at Ludlow on 15 Mar. It has been incorrectly stated that in 1563 he was charged at the bar of the Commons with breach of privilege for disturbing ‘by way of an appearance’ one of the Members for Ludlow, Robert Berry; the incident occurred in 1597, and the offender may have been Blashefild’s son and namesake, bailiff for the first time in 1579. Richard and John Blashefild, bailiffs in 1565 and 1583 respectively, may have been other sons.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Alan Harding

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxix), 467; Bodl. Gough Salop I, ff. 276v-77v.
  • 2. Bodl. Gough Salop 1, ff, 276v-77v.
  • 3. Ludlow Churchwardens’ Accts. (Cam. Soc. cii), 28; Salop RO, Ludlow bailiffs’ accts.; Cam. Misc. ix(3), 19.
  • 4. PCC 46 Martyn; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), vii. 14; Salop N. and Q. viii. 103; D’Ewes, Jnl. 593.