Family and Education

b. 1523/24, 1st s. of William Timperley of Hintlesham by Margaret, da. (prob. illegit.) of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk; bro. of William^†. m. (1) by 26 Sept. 1557, Audrey, da. of (Sir) Nicholas Hare of Bruisyard, Suff., 2s. 7da.; ?(2) Catherine. suc. fa. 1 Apr. 1528.1

Offices Held

Comptroller, the household of Thomas, 4th Duke of Norfolk by 1569; receiver, Suff., for 4th Duke of Norfolk by 1572, for Philip, 13th Earl of Arundel by 1589.2

Biography

When Thomas Timperley’s father died in 1528 he became the ward of his maternal grandfather the 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Thenceforward his fortunes mirrored those of the Howard family. He had scarcely come of age and succeeded to his patrimony when disaster struck that house, and he presumably spent the next six years in obscurity on his Suffolk estates. In 1551 he came to the Exchequer to show proof that his ancestors had held a court leet at Hintlesham since the reign of Edward I.3

In July 1553 Timperley was one of those who rallied to Queen Mary at Framlingham, and he was later to receive an annuity of £20 from the crown. His return to the Queen’s first Parliament he owed to Norfolk, who promptly reasserted control at Bramber; the other Member was the duke’s friend (Sir) John Baker I. Timperley might have been expected to sit again under Mary, especially in view of his marriage to a daughter of the master of the rolls, the duke’s old follower Sir Nicholas Hare: his failure to do so is perhaps a measure of the competition for places at the disposal of the new duke.4

Timperley’s career under Elizabeth was to be impaired by his own and his children’s recusancy but he was still a prosperous landowner when he died on 13 Jan. 1594.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: R. J.W. Swales

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from age at fa.’s i.p.m., C142/49/15. G. H. Ryan and L. J. Redstone, Timperley of Hintlesham, tables i, ii; Vis. Suff. ed. Metcalfe, 38; Copinger, Suff. Manors. vi. 55-57; PCC Maynwaryng.
• 2. Add. 19152, f. 53v; Arundel castle ms G1/7; Egerton 2074, f. 84.
• 3. LP Hen., VIII, iv; Ryan and Redstone, 31; N. Williams, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, 106; A. H. Smith, County and Ct. 25, 38.
• 4. APC, iv. 429-32; E405/121/64.
• 5. Ryan and Redstone, 37; PCC 60 Dixy.