556 CROMWELL Master of the Jewel House 14 Apr., and Clerk of the Hanaper 16 July 1532, and Is said to have been Master of the King's Wards in the same year.(*) Chancellor of the Exchequer, Apr. 1533 and Recorder of Bristol, 1533, both till his death; Prin. Sec. to the King, Apr. 1534; Master of the Rolls, Oct. 1534 to 1536; Visitor Gen. of the Monasteries (well known as the Malleus Monachorum), Chancellor, High Steward and Visitor of the Univ. of Cambridge, 1535 till his death; Privy Seal, July 1536 till his death. On 9 July 1536, he was a: by patent (") BARON CROMWELL,(=) taking his seat on the i8th;('^) Vicar General (') and Vice Regent of THE King in Spirituals, 18 July 1536, being knighted the same day; nom. K.G. 5, and inst. 26 Aug. 1537; Warden and Ch. Justice in Eyre, North of Trent, 1537 till his death; Gov. of the Isle of Wight 1538-40. He also held ecclesiastical appointments, being May 1536, Prebendary of Sarum, and, 1537 till his death, Dean of Wells. Having been instrumental in effecting the King's marriage (6 Jan. 1539/40) with Anne of Cleve, he was (as it were in reward) cr., 17 Apr. 1540, EARL OF ESSEXjO and the noble; his temper patient and cautious; his way industrious and indefatigable." (Lloyd, 1665). J. S. Brewer calls him "clever, facile, if not unprincipled yet troubled by no stern dogmatic faith or unbending integrity." V.G. (*) The joint holders of this office (according to James Gairdner's Preface to Letters and Papers Henry Fill, vol. v, p. 7, as also in Doyle and Diet. Nat. Biog.) from 3 Nov. 1526 to 21 Dec. 1534 were Serjeant Englefield and Sir WilHam Paulet. But the statement that Cromwell held the office, or that his appointment to it was contemplated, is borne out (i) by a letter from Sir William Paulet addressed to him as "Master of the Wards" [Letters and Papers Henry Fill, vol. v, p. 574), and (2) by a letter dat. 18 Oct. [1532], from John Legh to him beginning "I am told you are Master of the King's Wards. If so I have need of a substantial favor." {Id. p. 610). V.G. C") His name appears on p. 499 of Dugdale's Summonses as last of a list of persons alleged to have been summoned to Pari. 8 June (1536) 28 Hen. VIII, by writ directed Thoma Cromwell {de JFimhIeton) Chl'r. The whole of this list is a pure fabrication, as is that on pp. 501, 502, of the same work, as to which see note "d" on following page. Dugdale's statement has no doubt gained increased currency from an old MS. in the College of Arms (printed in Summonses, p. 500), which speaks of Thomas Cromwell as being admitted a peer by "writ and patent." V.G. (<^) Patent Roll, 28 Hen. VIII, part I, m. 17. In the writ of I Mar. 1538/9 he is called Lord Cromwell of Wimbledon. There is no authority for the statement of Dugdale and others that he was cr. "Baron Cromwell of Oakham, co. Rutland," and indeed he did not acquire that estate till later in that year. V.G. () Journals of the House of Lords, vol. i, p. 10 1. V.G. (') By royal injunction, pub. by him as Vicar General, 29 Sep. 1538, the duty of keeping Parish Registers was, for the first time, imposed on the parochial clergy. (f) He had considerable property in that county, vi%. that formerly of the Monastery of St. Osyth, ^c. He had, also, Launde Abbey in Leicestershire; the Grey Friars, Yarmouth; the vast estates of the Priory of Lewes in various counties as far north as Yorkshire, is'z.; the manor of North Elmham, Norfolk, fife; a portion of the lands taken from the see of Norwich; also the Lordship of Oakham, Rutland (forfeited by the family of Stafford), C5'c. His itrw^a/ property at his death was worth ^^24,000, a very large sum for that period.
