Thomas WHARTON

(1st B. Wharton of Wharton)

Died: 23 Aug 1568, Healaugh, England

Father: Thomas WHARTON (Esq.)

Mother: Agnes (Margaret) WARCOP

Married 1: Eleanor STAPLETON 1518

Children:

2. Thomas WHARTON (2° B. Wharton)

3. Henry WHARTON (Sir)

4. Joan WHARTON

Married 2: Anne TALBOT (B. Bray / B. Wharton) 18 Nov 1561, Sheffield

He was born in Wharton, Westmorland, the eldest son of Sir Thomas Wharton of Wharton Hall and his wife Agnes, daughter of Reynold or Reginald Warcop of Smardale. His father died around 1520, and in Apr 1522 he served on a raiding expedition into Scotland. He was a Member of Parliament for Appleby 1529–1536, and for Cumberland 1542–1544; Sheriff of Cumberland Co. (Nov 1529). In 1537 he was appointed warden of the west marches toward Scotland. In 1541 he was made captain of the Carlisle Castle. In 1542 he gained some distinction in his warfare with the Scots, and for this service he was created baron by King Henry VIII in 1544, and took his seat in the House of Lords in 1545.

On 10 Feb 1524 he was placed on the commission for the peace in Cumberland, and on 20 Jun 1527 he is said to have been knighted at Windsor. To the parliament that met on 3 Nov 1529, Wharton was returned for Appleby, but on the 9th he was pricked for High Sheriff of Cumberland. On 30 Jun 1531 he was appointed commissioner for redress of outrages on the Anglo-Scottish Border. On 6 Feb 1532 he was made Justice of the Peace for the East Riding of Yorkshire, and on 19 Mar for Northumberland, and he was usually included in the commissions for Cumberland and Westmorland.

He is described as a stern masterful man, and a tyrant lord. He was constantly in a quarrel with some one of his community. In 1531 he purchased the manor of Healaugh, where he resided for the latter part of his life. Later in life he moved from Wharton Hall to Healough in Yorkshire, because he was in constant dread that some of his enemies might do him bodily or material damage. Wharton is still vilified in the vicinity of Kirkby Stephen for having demolished the town of Wharton because it marred his view of the valley.

In 1532 he appears to have been captain of Cockermouth, and, as comptroller, was associated with Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland in the government of the border marches. This followed the grant in 1530 of the hereditary lieutenancy of Cockermouth by Northumberland, part of a package of gifts designed to allow Wharton to take over military duties from the ailing Northumberland, and they would remain closely associated until his death. On 29 Jun 1534 Northumberland recommended Wharton's appointment as captain of Carlisle, and on 9 Jul he was commissioned to inquire into the ‘treasons’ of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre of Gillesland, against Northumberland; Dacre was brought to trial, but acquitted by his peers. On 22 Nov 1535 Wharton was again appointed sheriff of Cumberland.

During the northern rebellions of 1536 Wharton remained loyal to Henry VIII. In Oct 1536 the rebels marched on his house at Kirkby Stephen to force Wharton to join them, but he had escaped and joined the Duke of Norfolk, under whom he served during the troubles; he was one of the King's representatives at the conference at York on 24 Nov, with Robert Aske and his followers. His appointment as Warden of the West Marches was suggested as a reward for his services; but Norfolk instead recommended Henry Clifford, 1st Earl of Cumberland, for the post. Wharton was, however, on 28 Jun 1537 appointed deputy warden, and in the same year was acting as a visitor of monasteries in Cumberland. He was unpopular with the older nobility, being one of the new men on whom the Tudors relied; Robert Holgate, as President of the Council of the North, commented on the disdain of his neighbours. On 17 Nov 1539 he was for the third time appointed sheriff of Cumberland; on 14 May 1541 he sent Henry an account of the state of Scotland, and on 22 Oct the King ordered reprisals for the burning of some barns near Bewcastle by the Scots; two days later he added the captaincy of Carlisle to his office of deputy warden, and on 3 Jan 1542 he was returned to parliament as knight of the shire for Cumberland.

During 1542 both English and Scots were preparing for war, and Wharton submitted a plan for raiding Scotland and seizing the person of James V at Lochmaben; the council, however, disapproved of the idea. Wharton burnt Dumfries on 5 Oct, and on 23 Nov made another raid, doing as much damage as he could. Meanwhile the Scots had planned an extensive invasion of the west marches, of which Wharton was kept informed by spies. At supper on the 23rd he received definite information of an impending attack on the morrow: the Scots were said to be fourteen, or even twenty, thousand strong, while Wharton could only muster a few hundreds. With these he watched the progress of the Scots over the River Esk during the 24th; towards evening he attacked their left; under Oliver Sinclair, the Scots became entangled in Solway Moss at the mouth of the river. Many including nobles were taken prisoner, killed, or drowned, while the English loss was small. Before the Privy Council had heard of his victory at Solway Moss, on 30 Nov they wrote requesting Wharton to review the building works of the Moravian military engineer Stefan von Haschenperg at Carlisle. On 12 Dec 1542, the Council read his official report of the battle.

In 1543 Wharton was occupied with forays into Scotland, and with intrigues to win over disaffected Scots nobles and obtain control of the south-west of Scotland. For his services in these matters and at Solway Moss he was early in 1544 raised to the peerage as Baron Wharton, and in letters of the period was called "Lord Wharton".

In 1544, Wharton acted as a commissioner to draw up terms and bonds of assurance with the disaffected Scots for an English invasion, and the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and Prince Edward, which the Parliament of Scotland had rejected. Wharton held musters at Keswick and Penrith in Mar 1544. In Apr the Earl of Hertford gave him particular instructions to carefully entertain offers of alliance from Lord Maxwell and his heir, Robert, and Lord Fleming if these Scottish lords were to "enter". Robert Maxwell offered to hand over Lochmaben Castle and three other strongholds; Caerlaverock Castle, "Langhole" and Threave Castle. Wharton kept guard at Carlisle, as Warden of the West March, while the Earl of Hertford burnt Edinburgh in May 1544. Later in May 1544 border troops were sent to accompany Henry VIII to France, but Wharton was refused leave to join them on the grounds that he could not be spared from the marches. Wharton then helped plan a "Warden raid" on Jedburgh, which was led by William and Ralph Eure. Border forays and intrigues with Archibald Douglas, sixth Earl of Angus, Glencairn, Lord Maxwell, and other Scottish peers, who professed to desire the marriage of the Mary Queen of Scots to Edward, occupied Wharton for the rest of Henry VIII's reign.

Edward Seymour, now Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector, redoubled efforts to complete the marriage between the new king Edward VI and Mary of Scotland, and a Scottish raid in Mar 1547 provided a pretext for his invasion. On the 24th the council asked Wharton for two despatches, one giving an exact account of the raid, the other exaggerating the number of raiders and towns pillaged. The latter was intended to justify English reprisals, in the eyes of the French king, and prevent his giving aid to the Scots. In Sep, while Somerset invaded Scotland from Berwick-upon-Tweed, Wharton and the Earl of Lennox created a diversion by an incursion on the west. They left Carlisle on the 9th, with two thousand foot and five hundred horse, and on the 10th captured Milk Castle; on the following day Annan, and on the 12th Dronok, both surrendered, but on the 14th they returned to Carlisle, explaining their lack of further success by lack of supplies. Wharton was excused attendance at the ensuing session of parliament, his presence being needed on the borders.

In the autumn William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton, was appointed Warden of the East Marches, but his relations with Wharton were strained, and led eventually to a challenge from Henry Wharton to Lord Grey, though Somerset on 6 Oct 1549 forbade a duel. Their joint invasion of Scotland in Feb 1548 wa a failure. Wharton and Lennox left Carlisle on the 20th, sending on Henry Wharton to burn Drumlanrig and Durisdeer. Wharton himself occupied Dumfries and Lochmaben, but on the 23rd a body of ‘assured’ Scots under Maxwell, who accompanied Henry Wharton, changed sides, joined Angus, and compelled Henry Wharton, with his cavalry, to escape across the mountains. News was brought to Carlisle that the whole expedition had perished, and Grey, who had penetrated as far as Haddington, retreated. In reality the Scots, after their defeat of Henry Wharton, were themselves thrown back by his father; many were captured or killed, but Wharton was forced to retreat, and Dumfries again fell into Scottish hands. In revenge for Maxwell's treason, Wharton hanged his pledges at Carlisle, and so initiated a lasting feud between the Whartons and the Maxwells.

After Somerset's fall Wharton's place as warden was taken by his rival, Lord Dacre; but early in 1550 Wharton was appointed a commissioner to arrange terms of peace with Scotland and afterwards to divide the debatable land. He was one of the peers who tried and condemned Somerset on 1 Dec 1551. On 8 Mar 1552 the council effected a reconciliation between Wharton and Dacre; and when, in the following summer, Northumberland secured his own appointment as lord-warden-general, Wharton was on 31 Jul nominated his deputy-warden of the three marches.

On Edward VI's death Dacre sided at once with Queen Mary, and it was reported that Wharton was arming against him; but Mary, saying she disbelieved the accusations against him, continued him in the office of warden, while his eldest son became one of the Queen's trusted advisers. Dacre was, however, appointed warden of the west marches, Wharton continuing in the east and middle marches, and residing mainly at Alnwick. Wharton's own sympathies were conservative in religious matters; he had voted against the act of 1549 enabling priests to marry, against that of 1549 for the destruction of the old service books, and against the Second Act of Uniformity 1552, though he had acted as chantry commissioner under the Dissolution Act 1547.

In spite of advancing years, Wharton retained his wardenry throughout Mary's reign, the Earl of Northumberland being joined with him on 1 Aug 1557 when fresh trouble with the Scots was imminent (owing to the war with France). In the parliament of Jan 1558 a bill was introduced into the House of Lords for punishing the behaviour of the Earl of Cumberland's servants and tenants towards Wharton, but it did not get beyond the first reading.

In Jun 1560, the fourth Duke of  Norfolk, then lieutenant-general of the north, strongly urged Wharton's appointment as captain of Berwick-upon-Tweed, his restoration to the west marches being impossible because of his feud with Maxwell, who was now friendly to the English; but the recommendation was not adopted. He saw no further service, died at Healaugh on 23 or 24 Aug 1568, and was buried there on 22 Sep. His will was proved at York on 7 Apr 1570, and there were monuments to him at Healaugh and Kirkby Stephen.

He married first, BEF 4 Jul 1518, Eleanor, daughter of Sir Bryan Stapleton of Wighill, Yorkshire. His second marriage was to Anne Talbot, widow of John Bray, 2° B. Bray, and daughter of Francis 5th, Earl of Shrewsbury. By her he had no children. She does not seem to have had any children by her second husband, either. She could not have been the Lady Wharton at court when Queen Mary died. This was probably her second husband's first wife. He was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas.

Sources:

Wharton, Edward Ross (1898). The Whartons of Wharton Hall. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Haynes, Samuel, ed., A Collection of State Papers, vol. 1, London (1740)

HMC, Historical Manuscripts Commission, Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury, vol. 1 London (1883)

James, M.E., Change and Continuity in the Tudor North: The Rise of Thomas First Lord Wharton, Borthwick Papers no. 27 (University of York, 1965)

Davidson, Alan, 'Wharton, Thomas I (c. 1495-1568), of Wharton and Nateby, Westmorland, and Healaugh, Yorks', The History of Parliament 1509-1558 (article published 1982)

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