Sir Thomas Penyston, 1st Baronet

Thomas' portrait is now at Leeds Castle, in the "Henry VIII’s banqueting hall" and is illustrated and described in the guide book.

Thomas' mother, Mary received some money and also her jewels, including chains of gold and pearls together with a "greate dyamond" that had belonged to her father.

The next few years saw the birth of two half-brothers (including James Temple the regicide) and a half-sister, but in 1607, his mother died.

On 13 March 1606/7 he matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford (aged 15), receiving a BA degree from St Edmund Hall on 16 June 1609.

In 1611, shortly after moving to Chadwell, Sir Alexander was able to recover the manor of Leigh (in Iden in the county of Sussex) on behalf of his stepson.

[8] The position was complicated by the fact that John Powell had been underage at the time of his father's death.

[11] Hester, the daughter of Sir Thomas and Martha Penistone, was born the year after their marriage, but died shortly after.

[12] Sir Thomas Penistone was among thirty gentlemen in the retinue of Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset - "one of the seventeenth century’s most accomplished gamblers and wastrels".

[15] Martha died of smallpox in January 1620 and she was buried in the Temple's parish church at Stowe.

He claimed that Sir Thomas bullied him into marrying his guardian's daughter - Lucy Dutton.

In 1633, Sir Thomas acted as the trustee for his half-sister (Susan Thornhurst, née Temple) in the marriage settlement when Susan married Sir Martin Lister (the father of Martin Lister, the biologist).

In 1636, Sir Thomas was one of the members of the gentry who initially refused to pay the ship tax.