[2] As a student lawyer at Gray's Inn in 1613, Radcliffe was asked to contribute to the costs of masques at the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate.
[3] He attained some measure of success as a barrister, and about 1626 became the confidential adviser of Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Strafford, who was related to his wife, Anne Trappes (died 1659).
[6] Like his master, he was imprisoned in 1627 for declining to contribute to a forced loan, but he shared the good, as well as the ill, fortunes of Wentworth, acting as his adviser when he was president of the Council of the North.
[2] He remained loyal to Strafford's family, and used his extensive knowledge of his master's financial affairs to salvage something for his widow and children.
His association with Strafford, now seen as a martyr for the Royalist cause, made him a figure of some importance, and he became a confidential adviser to the future James II.
Thomas regained the family estates in County Sligo at the Restoration of Charles II, but died without issue in Dublin in 1679.
[2] His description of Strafford's much-loved second wife Arabella Holles has been described as "lyrical", and suggests that he had a romantic devotion to her memory.
[8] Veronica Wedgwood describes him as a pious man of simple tastes, not outstandingly intelligent, but courageous, thorough and a skilled lawyer.