Thomas Bromley (chief justice)

After occupying important judicial posts in the Welsh Marches, he won the favour of Henry VIII and was a member of Edward VI's regency council.

[12] The first evidence of Thomas Bromley's legal career dates from May 1519, when he was suspended by the parliament of the Inner Temple for offensive behaviour toward the chief governor: His penitence was duly recorded in the Law French still widely employed by lawyers at the time: This was followed by a similar undertaking from Whiddon.

Despite his "youthful indiscretion",[2] Bromley rose fairly quickly to positions of trust and responsibility at the Inn, while presumably making a living primarily from private practice and, increasingly, public appointments to judicial posts.

In the event, Bromley did not lecture for the full term but was replaced by one of his attendants after the second week, The precise nature of his "debility" is unknown but it appears to have affected him often.

The main evidence for his sitting in the English House of Commons is a list of MPs drawn up by Thomas Cromwell, the powerful chief minister and parliamentary fixer of Henry VIII, in 1533.

It is headed by Sir George Throckmorton, a prominent religious conservative, and those on it were either of similar opinions or heavily committed to the wool trade, both groups being generally opposed to a break with the Papacy.

As there was no resident aristocracy, the Shropshire gentry were the main power in the county and also exercised considerable influence in the cloth town of Shrewsbury, where merchants and lawyers ruled.

As this carried a heavy responsibility for representing the interests of the town in London, it fitted well with his activities at the Inner Temple, requiring him to spend only a little time in Shrewsbury itself.

[30] Between 1539 and 1547, Hill invested a substantial part of his commercial wealth in great quantities of landed property in Shropshire and the neighbouring counties that had been made available by the dissolution of the monasteries[31] or the abolition of chantries and colleges.

Bromley speculated in some of Hill's deals[2] and, like other prominent lawyers, built up considerable estates in his native county, including land at Wroxeter, which became his seat.

[32] Similarly, near Stanton Long, he bought Oxenbold, partly in the parish of Monkhopton, and a former manor of Wenlock Priory, from John Jennings,[33] and in 1545 added to it the neighbouring estate of Patton.

[2] At the succession of Edward VI his importance in government reached a stage where the recordership of Shrewsbury was no longer appropriate and he relinquished it to Reginald Corbet, another Hill ally.

At about the same time, Thomas Cromwell installed Rowland Lee, the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, as Lord President of the Council in the Marches of Wales.

Significantly, another Inner Templar so-honoured at the same time was William Coningsby, an older lawyer who had also earned the hostility of Cromwell and had recently spent ten days in prison.

Hence he was one of the council of regency to Edward VI and a Privy Counsellor; but, although he succeeded in avoiding political entanglements for some time, at the close of the reign he became implicated in Northumberland's scheme for the succession of Lady Jane Grey.

The duke summoned to court Montagu, chief justice of the common pleas, Bromley, Sir John Baker, and the attorney- and solicitor-general, and informed them of the king's desire to settle the crown on Lady Jane.

Bromley presided at the trial, and allowed the prisoner such unusual freedom of speech as to provoke complaints from the queen's attorney, and threats of retiring from the prosecution.

Foss comments that "Sir Thomas Bromley cannot escape from the charge of undue severity, though probably he was complained of at the time for giving too great license to the prisoner.

The exact date, even the year, of Bromley's death was not known when the DNB account of his life was written, leaving the impression that the Queen's displeasure might have led to his disgrace and dismissal.

In his will, admittedly dating from 1552, in the reign of Edward VI, he names as executors his wife and Sir Rowland Hill, his friend and business partner, a noted Protestant.

He commends himself to God's care, "by the merits of the blood and passion of our Saviour Jesu Christ" and there are no specifically Catholic provisions, undermining Burnet's assessment of his religious beliefs.

Margaret Bromley married Sir Richard Newport, an important local landowner whose seat at High Ercall Hall lay just to the north-east of Wroxeter, in sight of the Wrekin.