By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 259 



These young- men proved afterwards the picklocks o£ the cabinet 

 councils of foreign princes : no king having better intelligence 

 than Henry from beyond seas." 



Sir Thomas Smith was one of the personal staflP of the Duke 

 of Somerset when made Protector of England, in which situation 

 he became the intimate friend of Sir John Thynne, the founder 

 of Longleat. In a defence of himself, written to the Duchess of 

 Somerset, he refers to Sir John Thynne as one familiar with his 

 affairs and witness to the falsehood of certain charges that had 

 been brought against him. (See Archaeologia, above referred to, 

 pp. 1£1, 122.) He was appointed Secretary of State, 14th April, 

 1548; dismissed, 10th October, 1549, sent to the Tower with 

 Thynne, Stanhope, and other supporters of the Protector, fined 

 and released. During Queen Mary's reign he lived in retirement. 

 On Queen Elizabeth coming to the throne, he was employed on 

 various great duties, and again made Secretary, 13th July, 1572. 

 He died 12th August, 1577, in his 65th year. In the account 

 of his family in "Burke^s Baronetage '^ it is stated that '' the 

 Patriarch John," the father of Sir Thomas, spelled his name in 

 the peculiar form of " Smijth." If this was so, Sir Thomas 

 himself does not seem to have paid much attention to the " patri- 

 archal " eccentricity, for — as shewn by his signature to all the 

 following letters — he was content with the ordinary spelling of 

 his name. Two of the letters at Longleat have their seals perfect. 

 The arms are the same as those engraved beneath the portrait of 

 Sir Thomas in Strype^s Life, viz,, a fess dancettee between three 

 lioncels, quartering Charnock. 



It was at Sir Thomases house, in Canon Row, Westminster, 

 that the learned men and divines met, on the accession of Elizabeth, 

 to settle the reformation of religion. Sir Thomas appears to have 

 had two houses in Canon Row : one, " a little house," let by him 

 to Sir William Paget, the Comptroller, at 305. a year. At Long- 

 leat is a copy of the lease to Sir Thomas of this house, which had 

 been part of the possessions of the Abbey of Hulme, Co. Norfolk, 

 united by King Henry VIII. to the see of Norwich. His other 

 house, in which, probably, the divines met, was larger, and had 



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