MEMOIR OF SIR THOMAS WYATT. His life for aye, of Fame the trump shall sound: ST. LEIGER. SIR THOMAS WYATT, the contemporary and friend of the Earl of Surrey, was descended from a family of some antiquity, which was settled for several generations at Southange in Yorkshire. His father Sir Henry Wyatt was a Privy Councillor to Henry the Seventh, whose favour he gained in consequence of his adherence to the house of Tudor during the reign of Richard the Third, by which monarch he was imprisoned in the Tower,* and, unless his son was misinformed, he was racked in the usurper's presence. purchased the castle and estate of Allington near Maidstone in Kent, which became his principal residence. As one of the King's executors he was brought conspicuously to the notice of his He * A traditional story is told, that whilst in the Tower a cat brought him a pigeon every day from a neighbouring dovecot, which supply saved him from starvation. † See Sir Thomas Wyatt's letter to his son. |