Thomas Boleyn, LL.B (c. 1400-1472), (often Master Thomas Boleyn, clerk; by some now designated Thomas Boleyn II), was the Master of Gonville Hall, Cambridge from 1454 to 1472, the seventh to hold that position.C. Nugent and L. Brooke, 'Building Gonville Court', in A History of Gonville and Caius College (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 1996), p. 27 ff. During the later 1440s, through three separate acts of foundation, he was one of the small group appointed to formulate the statutes of what became Queens' College in Cambridge.W.G. Searle, The History of the Queens' College of St Margaret and St Bernard in the University of Cambridge, 1446-1560, 2 volumes (Deighton Bell & Co./Macmillan & Co., Cambridge 1867), I, pp. 3-35, passim (Google). His brother Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, Lord Mayor of London 1457-58, was the great-grandfather of Anne Boleyn, Queen consort of England.'Thomas Boleyn' in J. Venn, Biographical History of Gonville and Caius College (Cambridge University Press 1901), III, p. 18 (Internet Archive).
Origins Thomas Boleyn was the eldest surviving son of Geoffrey Boleyn (died 1440), yeoman, of Salle, Norfolk,W.L.E. Parsons, 'Some notes on the Boleyn family', Norfolk Archaeology, XXV Part 3 (1934), pp. 386-407 (archaeology data service pdf), at pp. 396-97. and his wife Alice, daughter and heiress of Sir John Bracton of Norfolk. Geoffrey and Alice Boleyn of Salle are commemorated by a monumental brass in Salle Church, which shows the two figures frontally, standing, set side by side, with a memorial inscription beneath (referring also to their children) and a scroll flying between them with a Latin prayer, "God be merciful to us sinners"."Deus propicius esto nobis peccatoribus": S. Badham, 'Geoffrey Boleyn, 1440, and wife Alice, Salle, Norfolk' Monumental Brass Society, Brass of the Month, May 2011. Around 1730 Thomas Martin of Palgrave saw two subsidiary brass groups in the slab showing their five sons and their four daughters: these have long been missing.W.L.E. Parsons, Salle, The Story of a Norfolk Parish, its Church, Manors and People, (Jarrold & Sons Ltd., Norwich 1937), p. 42.F. Blomefield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk VIII (William Miller, London 1808), p.275. Thomas was the grandson of Thomas Boleyn I (died 1411) of Salle and his wife Agnes.E. Norton, The Boleyn Women. The Tudor femmes fatales who changed English History (Amberley, Stroud 2013), Chapter 1: Norfolk Origins.
Life Early career Thomas was ordained as deacon on 8 March 1421, and at the time of his ordination as a priest later in 1421 he was a fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.E. Norton, The Boleyn Women (Amberley Publishing, 2013), pp. 14 ff (Google). He then became rector of the church of Reepham, just south-west of Salle, from 1422 to 1429. He is titled Magister in the commission for him to attend the Council of Basle in 1434 upon the King's affairs in the suite of Edmund Beaufort,T. Rymer (ed.), Foedera, Conventiones, Literae, Et Cujuscunque Generis Acta, Vol. X (A. & J. Churchill, London 1710), p. 578 (Google). who presented him to the rectory of Hackford next Reepham in 1436. His degree of Legum Baccalaureus, or "Bachelor of Laws" indicates some grounding in both Civil and Canon Law (mainly for scholarly and philosophical purposes and not as a legal training), presumably in the University of Cambridge, and remained his identifying qualification throughout his career, although he is generally referred to as "Master", and "clerk".
Diocese of Chichester In the Chichester bishopric of Richard Praty (1438-1445), Boleyn was presented to various benefices, some of which he may have occupied for administrative purposes. On 9 May 1439 he was present at the bishop's palace at Aldingbourne to witness the resignation of Prior John Baker of Calcetto Priory near Arundel (Pynham Priory, West Sussex).'Houses of Augustinian canons: Priory of Pynham', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Sussex, Vol. 2 (London 1973),pp. 80-81 (British History Online)."Resignatio Prioris de Calceto", in C. Deedes (ed.), 'Extracts from the Episcopal Register of Bishop Praty', in Miscellaneous Records, Sussex Record Society IV (Lewes, 1905), pp. 83-221, at pp. 157-58 (Internet Archive). On 23 March 1439, "the venerable and discreet Master Thomas Boleyn LL.B" was present as witness at the profession of Abbot Thomas Shorham of the Premonstratensian Abbey of Begham (Bayham) in the Chichester diocese."Benedictio Abbatis de Begham", 'Extracts from the Episcopal Register of Bishop Praty', pp. 165-68 (Internet Archive). In February 1439, for the Commissary in the Archdeaconry of Chichester, he inducted William Daniell as a chaplain at Sefford,"Calendar of Admissions", in 'Extracts from the Episcopal Register of Bishop Praty', pp. 116-17 (Internet Archive). and was himself installed as chaplain in East Itchenor (then in the gift of Boxgrove Priory) on 26 June of that year."Calendar of Admissions", in 'Extracts from the Episcopal Register of Bishop Praty', pp. 118-19 (Internet Archive). In June of 1440 Master Thomas Boleyn LL.B and John Langport, Bachelor of Decrees, of the Norwich and Chichester dioceses, were especially summoned and requested to witness the proceedings surrounding the death of the Prior of Tortington Priory and the election of his successor."Death of the Prior of Tortyngton", 'Extracts from the Episcopal Register of Bishop Praty', pp. 168-75, at p. 173 (Internet Archive).
On 23 March 1440/41 he was inducted to the rectory of Tolyton."Calendar of Admissions", in 'Extracts from the Episcopal Register of Bishop Praty', pp. 122-23 (Internet Archive). On 17 April 1441 the Bishop of Chichester declared the parish of East Itchenor, then vacant, to be impoverished, having insufficient revenues to maintain it. The Prior and convent of Boxgrove prayed him that it might be united with Bridham, West Sussex,"Union of the churches of East Itchenor and Bridham", in 'Extracts from the Episcopal Register of Bishop Praty', pp. 212-13 (Internet Archive). where Richard Swan had been inducted as chaplain on the same 23 March."Calendar of Admissions", in 'Extracts from the Episcopal Register of Bishop Praty', 122-23 (Internet Archive). Boleyn's occupation of East Itchenor and relocation to Tolyton was therefore preparatory to this development.
Boleyn had more direct and enduring responsibilities following Bishop Praty's visitation of Easebourne Priory, a Benedictine nunnery near Midhurst, in January 1441. The prioress, who had led a profligate life, was admonished by the bishop and ordered to submit to the administrative oversight of Master Thomas Boleyn and John Lylis, Esquire. All the temporal goods of the priory were to be committed to them until the priory was free from debt, and the nuns were no longer to be compelled to manual labour. The prioress was to diminish her excessive household and to retain only those deemed absolutely necessary by the advice and assent of Thomas and John: neither was she to have any guests at her table to sojourn there without their assent. Furthermore if Thomas and John deemed it expedient that she should go out on the priory's business, she should not make lengthened stays away or incur any unnecessary expenses, and must content herself with four horses only. Her expensive fur trimmings were to be sold to defray the priory's debts.W.H. Blaauw, 'Episcopal Visitations of the Benedictine Nunnery of Easebourne', Sussex Archaeological Collections IX (1857), pp. 1-32, at pp. 7-10 (Internet Archive).
It was then on 13 July 1442 that Boleyn was inducted to the rectory of Chelsea (Chelchehethe), in the diocese of London, in the gift of the Abbot and convent of Westminster, which he received from Alexander Brown in exchange for his rectory of Tolyton (belonging to the Prior and convent of Lewes). In this transaction, in the Calendar of Admissions of Bishop Praty, Thomas Boleyn is designated M.A. (Magister in Artibus)."Calendar of Admissions", in 'Extracts from the Episcopal Register of Bishop Praty', pp. 124-25 (Internet Archive).
London and Westminster From 1441 he was prebendary of Morton Parva in the Cathedral church of Hereford,'Prebendaries: Moreton Parva', in J.S. Barrow (ed.), Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300, Volume 8: Hereford (London, 2002), pp. 50-51 (British History Online). which in 1446 he exchanged with William Saunders for the prebend of the free chapel of St Stephen's, Westminster (within the Old Palace of Westminster), holding it until his death in 1472.J. Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses I Part 1 (Cambridge University Press 1921), p. 174 (Internet Archive).Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, Vol. IV: 1441-1446 (HMSO 1908), p. 438; Edward IV. Henry VI. (HMSO 1900), p. 306 (Internet Archive). He appears to have been rector of Doddington, Cambridgeshire in 1446, when he exchanged Doddington for Chart Magna in Kent. He had also held the benefice of St Michael Abergele, Denbighshire (a prebendal church annexed to the Archdeaconry of St Asaph'Benefice of Abergele', Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliae et Walliae 1291-1292, Taxatio database (University of Sheffield).), and in 1447 he exchanged this for the London prebend of Portpool, belonging to St Paul's. It appears that in 1451 the prebendary of Portpool created a vacancy by death, but Boleyn himself may have vacated it before this since he received fresh presentations in the Bath and Wells diocese in 1449 (below).R. Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinensi (Christopher Bateman, London 1708), pp. 198-99 (Google).J. Armitage Robinson, 'Thomas Boleyn, Precentor of Wells', Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society LXI, Fourth Series Vol. I, Part II (1915), pp. 1-10, at p. 7 (Internet Archive).G. Hennessy, Novum Repertorium Parochiale Londinense (Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London 1898), I, p. xliii, notes d 182 and d 183, p. 45. It was in 1449/50 that Bishop Reginald Pecock was translated from the see of St Asaph to Chichester.
The statutes of Queens' College, Cambridge During the later 1440s Boleyn was closely involved with formulating the statutes for the foundation of Queens' College in the University of Cambridge. Henry VI had newly founded King's College, Cambridge when, in 1446, plans for a college consisting of a President and four fellows were set in motion.T.H. Horne, A Catalogue of the Library of the College of St Margaret and St Bernard commonly called Queen's College (Society of Queen's College, 1827-28), I, p. viii (Internet Archive). Land was made over to the King for this purpose in November 1446 and the charter for the first foundation of St Bernard's College, or Hall, was issued on 3 December, naming the founding President, Andrew Dokett, and the fellows, and appointing a committee of six to draw up the statutes for the college's governance.Searle, History of the Queens' College, I, pp. 3-7 (Google). This was headed by John Somerset, Chancellor of the King's Exchequer, and John Langton, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge 1428-1447 and Chancellor of the University 1436-1443, 1444-1445 and 1447, both of whom had prepared ordinances for King's College before the king dispensed with his advisors in 1443.B.P. Wolffe, Henry VI (Methuen Publishing Ltd., London 1981), p. 139. By the charter of 1446 these six, including Thomas Boleyn, were licensed to formulate, emend or alter completely the statutes by which the President and fellows were to be ruled and governed, then and in the future.Enrolled 1447: Calendar of Charter Rolls, VI: 1427-1516 (HMSO 1927), pp. 74-75, m. 33 (HathiTrust).