Thomas Yale (chancellor)
Thomas Yale (1525/6 – 1577) was the Chancellor and Vicar general of the Head of the Church of England : Matthew Parker, 1st Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London.
He was also Ambassador to his cousin, Queen Elizabeth Tudor, and Dean of the Arches at the Court of High Commission, during the Elizabethan Religious Settlement.
[11] As a member of the House of Corsygedol, a branch of the FitzGerald dynasty, the family had been previously given the command of Harlech Castle by Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford.
Roger Lloyd Yale of Brynglas was Secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, along with Thomas Cromwell, and was married to Katherine, a daughter of William ap Griffith Vychan, Baron of Edeirnion and Lord of Kymmer-yn-Edeirnion.
[14][15][16][17] His patron, Cardinal Wolsey, was Henry VIII's chief minister, the owner of Hampton Court Palace, and England's most powerful man, next to the King, as Lord High Chancellor, and played a major role in the English Reformation.
During the reign of Mary Tudor, in November 1556, his name occurs in the commission for the suppression of heresy within the Diocese of Ely, and he assisted in the search for heretical books during the visitation of the university by Cardinal Pole's delegates.
In the same year, he and four other leading civilians, subscribed an opinion that the commission issued by Queen Elizabeth Tudor, for the consecration of Lord Archbishop Matthew Parker, as her first head of the Anglican Church, was legally valid.
[29][30] The civilians were Lord Chancellor Robert Weston, Vice-Chancellor Henry Harvey, Bishop Nicholas Bullingham, and Master Edward Leeds.
Parker, a great friend of Lord William Cecil and Sir Nicholas Bacon, was previously the chaplain of Elizabeth during her childhood and her mother, Queen Anne Boleyn.
[34] A few years later, Parker would also be of help to the Queen and Lord Cecil regarding the legitimacy of the Earldom of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as his father John had a bigamous marriage with a mistress.
[38] As the young Edward was a ward of the Queen, none had interest of accepting the petition of Lord Windsor and Katherine de Vere, his half-sister.
He, Alexander Nowell, Richard Turner, and other Archiepiscopal commissioners, were sent to visit the churches and Dioceses of Canterbury, Rochester, and Peterborough, meeting with Dean Nicholas Wotton, a Royal envoy of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
On June 28, 1561, he was constituted for life Judge of the Court of Audience, Official Principal, Chancellor, and Vicar general to the 1st Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and in the same year obtained the Rectory of Llantrisant, Anglesey.
[45] Visitations of Dioceses and courts were necessary to prevent or punish breaches of the laws of the church, and was a matter of considerable discussion and controversy in Tudor England.
In 1566 he was one of the Masters in Ordinary of the Court of Chancery, and was placed on a commission to visit the Diocese of Bangor with Robert Weston, David Lewis, and Sir Ambrose Cave, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
[31] By a patent confirmed on July 15, 1571, he was constituted Joint-Keeper of the Prerogative court, representing the Sovereign's discretionary powers, privileges, and legal immunities.
When Master of that court, he is recorded proving the will of Sir Walter Cope's family, patron of Cuthbert Burbage, the builder of the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare played his works at the time.
[50][51][52] Joanna was previously married to Ambassador Simon Heynes, who was one of those who invalidated the marriage of Henry VIII with Anne of Cleves, and charged for treason Sir Thomas Wyatt.
Matthew Parker's successor, Edmund Grindal, 2nd Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and new Head of the Anglican Church, also appointed him Chancellor, Vicar general, Official Principal and Judge of his audience.
[58] His 170 acres residence in Ilford, East London with his wife Joan (Joanna) was Newberry or Newbury Manor, which initially belonged to Barking Abbey before Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries.
[59][51][52][53] The King granted the estate to Sir Richard Gresham, Lord Mayor of London, whose family founded the Royal Exchange and built Longleat House.
