Thomas Wylde

Thomas Wylde (bef.1508 – 1559) of The Commandery, Worcester, England, was a wealthy and prominent cloth merchant.

Origins He was the son of Simon Wylde of The Ford, near Dodderhill (where Thomas later acquired the manor of Impney).

Offices

Parliament He served as a Member of Parliament for Worcester. He was elected to the Parliament of 1547 in 1551 to fill a vacancy. He was re-elected in 1558. shortly before his death.

City of Worcester Chamberlain: 1545–1546 Bailiff: 1547–1548 Alderman: 1548 Bridgemaster: 1554–1555 Member of Parliament: (first elected) 1551 Member of the Twenty-Four: 1555 Auditor: 1555–1556 as the manufacture of cloth started to become a large local industry. The town was designated a county corporate, giving it autonomy from local government.

Thomas Wylde was a clothier. It is believed he made the greatest part of his fortune when the wool trade with the Low Countries was blocked by war. His business at Worcester, then a centre of cloth manufacture, was so prosperous that not long after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII he purchased the site and surviving buildings of an old religious foundation at Worcester called the Hospital or more familiarly "The Commandery". At his death his house had 31 rooms, one of them containing 20 feather beds. It was to remain in the Wylde family until 1785.

An overmantel with arched panels and Wylde heraldry (dated c. 1594) has been relocated to the north-west room of the garden wing. The principal items of architectural interest are the Great Hall (constructed in the 1470s), a notable staircase of about 1600 and in a separate wing the Solar of similar detail to the hall. A remarkable survival is a painted chamber with stencilled decoration and wall paintings of religious subjects believed to have been made about 1490 and rediscovered in 1935: ceiling – the Trinity; north wall – St Michael weighing souls; south wall – the martyrdom of St Erasmus and St Thomas Becket, with some others.

The Commandery Bought by Wylde in 1544 from Henry VIII's propagandist Richard Morrison, the complex of buildings comprising the hospital of St Wulfstan is said to have been founded in 1085, though it may have been up to two centuries later. Secondly to Eleanor Wall, a daughter and co-heiress of George Wall of Droitwich by whom he had 2 sons and 1 daughter, including: George Wylde (1550–1616), of Heryots, Droitwich, thrice MP for Droitwich.

Death Thomas Wylde died on 11 August 1559

A school house at the current Royal Grammar School Worcester is named in Wylde's honour, in response to his contributions to the school.

Other bequests His will has been lost but such portion of it which does survive within the Worcester city records includes in addition to arrangements for his widow and children and his brothers and sisters and his two fathers-in-law;

"Thomas Wylde, clothier, 1558, includes "Our blessed Lady" among the Divine Beings to whom he bequeaths his soul; desires "that there be at my burial as many prestes and clarckes to praye for my soule as may be convenyant, and a sermond made by some discrete lerned man, having for his paynes 6s. 8d.; "to twelve pore men to bear lightes at my buriall, a black gown each; "to the pore, to pray for my soule and all Christen sowles," .£13. 6s. 8d.; "lykewyse to the pore at or before my monthes mynde, "£6. 13s. 4d.

"Upon the highways between Worcester and Kempsey he orders £20 to be laid out. For "ye mariage of 20 maidens to be maryed within the cittie of Worcester within two yeares next after my deathe," £20, by 20s. each, at the discretion of the executors, "Where need shall require." He gave Little Pitchcroft and 4½ acres of meadow in Great Pitchcroft to the corporation on condition that within two years after his decease they shoidd erect and establish a free school in the city "to bringe uppe youthe in their A B, mattens, evensonge, and other lernynge, "which shall make them mete and reddie to ye Kinges gramer scole," but if not done within two years then the said lands to revert to his heirs,"if his wife married again, "then the children's portions to be put into the Chamber of the city, unless her husbande shall finde sufficient suretie for the same."

"To every one of his apprentices and journeymen he leaves a black coat and 6s. 8d., and to each of his maid servants a black gown and 6s. 8d. His wife and son Robert were appointed executors; and his father Walle, his father Ledington, and his cousin Heywood, are desired to be "overseers" of the will."

Dynasty Links to some notable descendants are highlighted. Following the sale of The Commandery in 1785 the principal line continued from Shropshire where the matrilineal name Browne was added in 1788 by letters patent to form Wylde-Browne.

Kin Edmund Wylde (1618–1695), latterly of Glazeley, Shropshire and MP for Droitwich, having no heirs, left his considerable estates to Thomas Wylde (1670–1740) of The Commandery, enabling Thomas to serve in nine parliaments (between 1701 and 1727) to no profit to himself or his family.