Thomas Soulemont

Thomas Soulemont, Soleman, or Solme (–1541) was French secretary to Henry VIII. A native of Jersey, he entered Henry VIII's and then Cromwell's service, and was clerk of the parliaments in 1540. He was also a learned antiquary.

Life

Thomas Soulemont, a member of a prominent Guernsey and Jersey family, is said to have been born at Guernsey, but was more probably a native of Jersey. He was born in or before 1500. and on 25 April 1537 to the prebend of Knaresborough in York Cathedral. On 5 January 1538–9 Thomas Wriothesley (afterwards first Earl of Southampton) received license to alienate to Soulemont the manors of Forwood and Fowey, Cornwall. On 13 July 1539 he was granted a lease of some buildings on the site of Greyfriars, London, and on 13 December following he received the nunnery of Canonleigh, with the tithes of Hokeforde rectory and Burlescombe church, Devonshire. but neither it nor The Acts and Ghests of St. Thomas of Canterbury, also attributed to Soulemont, is known to be extant or to have been printed. Leland has verses to Soulemont in his Encomia Principum et Illustrium Virorum. Soulemont has invariably been confused with Thomas Some or Solme.