Thomas Murfyn

Thomas Murfyn was a native of Ely, Cambridgeshire, and son of George Murfyn. He was a member of the Worshipful Company of Skinners in the City of London, who served as Sheriff of London from 1511 to 1512, and as Lord Mayor of London from 1518 to 1519.{{sfn|Noble|1787|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=SFkUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA19 19]}}{{sfn|Beaven|1913|p=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924092684731/page/n99/mode/2up?view=theater 22]}}

Mark Noble claimed that Murfyn was probably not knighted until after his election to the mayoralty.{{sfn|Noble|1787|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=SFkUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA19 19]}} Although Murfyn is often referred to in later documents as Sir Thomas Murfyn, there appears to be no record of his knighthood.{{sfn|Beaven|1913|p=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924092684731/page/n99/mode/2up?view=theater 22], fn 30}} It became common practice after Thomas Muryfn's mayoralty for Lord Mayors of London to be knighted and this may be one reason why later documents refer to him as "Sir".{{harvnb|Noble|1787|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=SFkUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA19 19]}}: John Stow in the year 1519, observed that after that time it was usual to knight the lord mayor when elected. The misunderstanding may also be due to the translation of the form of address "Dominus" (a term of courtesy used in reference to an official) as "Sir". In his will, which was made on 2 September 1523 and proved in London on 15 October 1523, Murfyn refers to himself as "Thomas Mirfyn citizein and Alderman of the citie of London".{{harvnb|Drake|1873|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/fasciculusmervi00sirgoog#page/n136/mode/2up vi−viii]}} The memorial to the graves lost in the Great Fire of London at St Paul's Cathedral, which lists "Sir Thomas Miryfn", may be perpetuating this error rather than evidence of a knighthood.

Thomas married firstly, Alice Marshall,{{sfn|Lambarde|1931|p=99}} by whom he had thirteen children:Only four of Thomas Murfyn's fourteen children: Thomas, John, George, Thomas, John, Frances, Richard, John, Robert, Edward, Bartholomew, Margaret, Mary by Dame Alice and Frances by Dame Elizabeth, were beneficiaries of his will. See {{harvnb|Drake|1873|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/fasciculusmervi00sirgoog#page/n136/mode/2up vi-viii]}}

• Thomas
• John
• George, who became a monk
• Thomas
• John
• Frances
• Richard
• John
• Robert
• Edward (d. 1528),Will dated 3 March 1527, proved 11 May 1528. See {{harvnb|Drake|1873|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/fasciculusmervi00sirgoog#page/n138/mode/2up viii–ix]}} a wealthy London merchant who married Alice (d. 1560), widow of John Brigandine of Southampton, and daughter of Oliver Squier of Southby, Hampshire, by whom there were no surviving children. Alice subsequently married, circa 1528, Edward North.{{sfn|Carter|2015}}
• Bartholomew
• Margaret, who married a Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Champneys.{{sfn|Vere-Hodge|1953|p=30}}{{sfn|Betteridge|2006}}
• Mary, who married, by 1523,{{sfn|Drake|1873|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/fasciculusmervi00sirgoog#page/n136/mode/2up vi–viii]}} another Lord Mayor of London, Sir Andrew Judde.{{sfn|Slack|2008}}

He married secondly, sometime after 15 October 1519,{{sfn|Drake|1873|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/fasciculusmervi00sirgoog#page/n136/mode/2up vi–viii]}} Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Sir Angel Donne. alderman of London, and Anne Hawardine, of Cheshire. By Elizabeth, he had a daughter:

• Frances (c.1520/1–c.1543),{{sfn|Fitzgerald|2019}} who married Thomas Cromwell's nephew, Sir Richard Cromwell by 8 March 1534.{{sfn|Hofmann|1982}}

His last wife survived him and subsequently married, in 1524, Sir Thomas Denys{{sfn|Hofmann|1982}} by whom she had a son, Sir Robert Denys. Sir Robert married Mary, daughter of William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, by whom he had a son, Thomas Denys.

The arms of the Murfyns were, Or on a chevron sable a mullet argent; those of Donne, Azure semée of cross-crosslets or, a unicorn salient argent.{{harvnb|Noble|1787|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=SFkUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA19 19]}} cites Lives of Oliver lord protector. Chronicles of Hall, Fabian, and Grafton, Stow's survey of London, Fuller's worthies. Visitation of Huntingdonshire, in 1613, given in the Harl, M.S.S. vol. 1179.

Mirfyn is listed as one of the graves lost in the Great Fire of London in 1666, on a monument in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, together with several other Lord Mayors.

• List of Sheriffs of the City of London
• List of Lord Mayors of London

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Beaven |first1=Alfred B. |title=The Aldermen of the City of London |volume= II |date=1913 |location=London |publisher=Corporation of the City of London |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924092684731/page/n99/mode/2up?view=theater}}
• {{Cite ODNB| last=Betteridge |first=Tom |title= Champneys, John |orig-date=First Published 2004 |date=September 2006 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/5096}}
• {{Cite ODNB|last=Carter |first=P. R. N. |title=North, Edward, first Baron North |orig-date=First Published 23 September 2004 |date=28 May 2015 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/20300}}
• {{cite book |last1=Drake |first1=William R. |chapter=Appendix I|title=Fasciculus Mervinensis, Being Notes Historical, Genealogical, and Heraldic of the Family of Mervyn |date=1873 |location=London |publisher=Privately printed |pages=vi-viii |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/fasciculusmervi00sirgoog#page/n136/mode/2up}}
• {{cite web|url=https://queenanneboleyn.com/2019/08/18/all-that-glitters-hans-holbeins-lady-of-the-cromwell-family-by-teri-fitzgerald/|title=All that Glitters: Hans Holbein's Lady of the Cromwell Family |last1=Fitzgerald|first1=Teri|date=18 August 2019|website=queenanneboleyn.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191006050006/https://queenanneboleyn.com/2019/08/18/all-that-glitters-hans-holbeins-lady-of-the-cromwell-family-by-teri-fitzgerald/|archive-date=6 October 2019 |access-date=31 January 2024}}
• {{cite book |last=Hawkyard |first=A. D. K.|year=1982 |chapter=North, Edward (c.1504-64), of Kirtling, Cambs., the Charterhouse, Mdx. and London |title=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 |editor-first=S. T. |editor-last=Bindoff |via=History of Parliament Online |chapter-url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/north-edward-1504-64 }}
• {{cite book |last=Hofmann |first=T. M. |year=1982 |chapter=Cromwell, alias Williams, Richard (by 1512-44), of London; Stepney, Mdx. and Hinchingbroke, Hunts. |title=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 |editor-first=S. T. |editor-last=Bindoff |via=History of Parliament Online |chapter-url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/cromwell-richard-1512-44}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Lambarde |first1=Fane |title=Sir Andrew Judde |journal=Archaeologia Cantiana |date=1931 |volume=43 |pages=99–102 |url=https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/sites/default/files/archcant/1931%2043%20Sir%20Andrew%20Judde%20Lambarde_1.pdf |publisher=Kent Archaeological Society}}
• {{cite book |last1=Noble |first1=Mark |author-link=Mark Noble (biographer) |year=1787 |edition=3rd |title=Memoirs of the Protectorate-house of Cromwell: Deduced from an Early Period, and Continued Down to the Present Time... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SFkUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA19|volume=1 |location=London |publisher=C. G. J. and J. Robinson}}
• {{Cite ODNB|last=Slack |first=Paul |title=Judde, Sir Andrew |orig-date=First Published 23 September 2004 |date=3 January 2008 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/37622}}
• {{cite book |last1=Vere-Hodge |first1=H. S. |title=Sir Andrew Judde, Lord Mayor of London 1550-1551, Mayor of the Staple of Calais, Six Times Master of the Skinners Company, Founder of Tonbridge School 1553 |date=1953 |publisher=Tonbridge School Shop}}
• {{cite journal |last=Wadmore |first= J. F.|title=Some Account of the History and Antiquities of the Worshipful Company of Skinners, London |journal=Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society |date=1881 |volume=5 |pages=92−182 |location=London |publisher=J. H. & J. Parker |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510022069413&view=2up&seq=190&size=175 |access-date=12 May 2020}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://archive.org/stream/fasciculusmervi00sirgoog#page/n136/mode/2up Will of "Thomas Mirfyn citizein and Alderman of the citie of London"]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murfyn, Thomas}}

Category:People from Ely, Cambridgeshire

Category:15th-century English people

Category:16th-century lord mayors of London

Category:Sheriffs of the City of London

Category:15th-century births

Category:Year of birth unknown

Category:1523 deaths

Category:Burials at St Paul's Cathedral