[2] He was the second son and eventual heir of Sir Andrew Luttrell (1484–1538), feudal baron of Dunster, Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset in 1528, whose monument exists in East Quantoxhead Church,[3] by his wife Margaret Wyndham (d.1580), a daughter of Sir Thomas Wyndham (d.1521) of Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk.
[4] Thomas inherited the family estates on the death of his elder brother Sir John Luttrell (d.1551), a soldier who died without male progeny.
He sold the Devon and Somerset estates, excepting Dunster Castle,[5] apparently to meet debts.
Thomas Luttrell and Margaret Hadley were related spiritually as well as by blood, as Margaret was the god-daughter of Thomas's mother, making them in the eyes of the church spiritually related as brother and sister;[11] and both were descended from Elizabeth Courtenay (d.1493), daughter of Sir Philip Courtenay (1404–1463) of Powderham.
[13] The legal difficulties encountered by the marriage are related by Maxwell-Lyte as follows:[8] It was probably the last instance in England of the remarriage of two persons who had been divorced on the score of a spiritual relationship.