ANDREWS, Thomas II (b.bef.1540), of Dover, Kent.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1571
1572

Family and Education

b. bef. 1540.

Offices Held

Chamberlain, Dover 1557, mayor 1571-2, 1572-3, 1573-4, 1582-3, 1583-Jan. 1584, jurat by 1577, water bailiff by 1581.1

Biography

Andrews was described as ‘commoner’ in 1560 when he served on an inquest which drew up a presentment of fines received for various petty offences. For his service in Parliament the town in 1581 gave him £10 ‘over and above’ what he had already received. In Parliament he was named to a committee concerned with the inning of salt marshes (6 Mar. 1576), and as burgess of Dover he could have served on a committee about ports (13 Feb. 1576).2

His local career was stormy following his introduction, as mayor, of new decrees governing the admission of freemen. These were opposed by a section of the corporation, and in the mayoral election of 1577 Andrews was defeated, despite support from the Privy Council and the lord warden. The decrees were ratified in 1579, by which time Andrews had regained much of his influence in the town. However, in 1581 he was accused of fraud as water bailiff and imprisoned until his accounts were audited.3

During these years Dover was much concerned with projects for repairing its harbour. In 1580 Andrews was asked to join with the mayor in considering the plans of a Mr. Trewe. Later that year he was associated with three county gentlemen and two townsmen in overseeing the works and regulating the grant of licences to transport grain. In 1582, as mayor, he served on a new commission headed by the lord warden. Andrews preferred Ferdinando Poyntz’s plans to those Thomas Digges and was hostile to the Romney Marsh men, whom the commissioners were employing in the work. Accused of obstruction, he was, on the authority of a letter from the Privy Council, deprived of the mayoralty and all other offices on 10 Jan. 1584. He failed to present an account for his truncated term of office and went up to court, perhaps in search of support and rehabilitation. The mayor and jurats asked the lord warden to ensure that he received no allowance for his attendance there, and shortly afterwards the Privy Council informed the corporation that any expenses incurred by him were not to be allowed. After this nothing more is heard of him.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: W.J.J.

Notes

  • 1. Dover Charters ed. Statham, 389; S.P.H. Statham, Castle, Town and Port of Dover, 167; CSP Dom. 1581-90, pp. 15, 69, 82; Add. 29620, ff. 177, 179; Egerton 2095, ff. 4, 259, 280, 289.
  • 2. Egerton 2095, ff. 4 seq., 207; 2109, f. 15; Dover Charters, 441; CJ, i. 111; D’Ewes, 247, 253.
  • 3. APC, x. 27-8; Lansd. 26, f. 54; Egerton 2095, ff. 141-2; CSP Dom. 1581-90, pp. 15, 69, 82.
  • 4. Statham, Dover , 106, 167; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 672; 1581-90, pp. 95, 109, 117, 163, 165; APC, xii. 192, 197; Lansd. 34, f. 161; Add. 29620, ff. 4, 179; Egerton 2095, f. 289; J. B. Jones, Dover Annals, 93-4, 299.