Thomas Bury

Thomas Bury (1655–1722) was an English judge. He took part in the decision regarding the 1704 Aylesbury election. King George I raised Bury to the position of Chief Baron of the Exchequer.

Early life and education Bury was born in 1655, the youngest son of Sir William Bury, knight, of Linwood, Lincolnshire. In February 1667, Bury earned a bachelor's degree at Lincoln College, Oxford, and entered Gray's Inn as a student the following year.

Career He was called to the bar in 1676, and after some years' practice became a serjeant-at-law in 1700. Later, on 26 January 1701, when Sir Littleton Powys was removed to the King's Bench, he was made a Baron of the Exchequer. Regarding this appointment, his epitaph says that he "by his Great Application to the Study of the Law, raised himself to one of the highest Degrees in that Profession." Speaker Onslow, in his notes to Bishop Burnet's History, affirms 'that it appeared from Bury's book of accounts' that he gave Lord-keeper Wright a bribe of £1000 for elevating him to the bench. He was knighted the same year. For fifteen years he continued to discharge the duties of a puisne judge.

He died on 4 May 1722, suddenly, having been engaged in the discharge of his judicial duties until within a few hours of his death. He was buried, with a handsome tomb, in the parish church of Grantham, Lincolnshire. He never married and left no issue, and his estates at Irby, near Wainfleet, passed to his grandnephew, William Bury, of Lyndwood Grange, Lincolnshire. There is a portrait of him, engraved in mezzotint by Smith, after a picture by J. Richardson dated 1720.