Family and Education

Prob. 1st s. of Richard Kirton of North Bradley, Wilts. by Alice, da. of Thomas Blanchard of North Bradley. educ. ?L. Inn, adm. 1487. ?m. at least 1s. suc. fa. 1498/1508.1

Offices Held

Biography

The dependence of the Kirton family upon the house of Seymour which is so evident from the mid 16th century cannot be traced before that time, yet it is likely that Thomas Kirton had a patron among the local magnates: the Kirtons of Somerset inter-married, probably before 1529, with the Hungerford family. To any such connexion Kirton could probably add the advantage of propinquity. If he was the Thomas Kirton who in 1518 held the reputed manor of Cutteridge in North Bradley (formerly part of Steeple Ashton), he was established within a few miles of Westbury, and was probably connected as a sheepfarmer with the town’s main industry, the making of cloth. The same man had other properties in Wiltshire, notably the manor of Warminster, which he had inherited from his mother’s family.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes

• 1. VCH Wilts. viii. 223.
• 2. HMC Bath, iv. 129 et passim; Vis. Som. (Harl. Soc. xi), 94; VCH Wilts. viii. 99, 223; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 328; LP Hen. VIII, iv; Pembroke Survey (Roxburghe Club cliv), 271.