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Birth:          1397 of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
Death:          Nov 1461 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Parr_(d.1461)
Sir Thomas Parr (1407 – November 1461[1][2] or 24 November 1464[3]) was an English 
landowner and elected Member of Parliament six times between 1435 and 1459. He 
was great-grandfather of Queen Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII.
Ancestry[edit]

The Parr family originally came from Parr, Lancashire. Sir Thomas's grandfather, Sir 
William de Parre (died 1405), son of Sir John de Parre, lord of Parr; married, in 1383, 
Elizabeth, daughter of John de Ros, and granddaughter and heiress of Sir Thomas de 
Ros, Baron of Kendal.

Biography[edit]

Sir Thomas was the son of Sir John Parr and Agnes Crophull (or Crophill) (c.1371/72-3 
February 1438).[3] By his mother's previous marriage to Sir Walter Devereux of 
Weobley, he was the maternal half-brother of Elizabeth and Walter Devereux, Esq., 
the great-grandfather of Anne Devereux who married William Herbert, 1st Earl of 
Pembroke (1468 creation).[3] His father died before 6 October 1407[3] and when his 
mother remarried to John Merbury, Esq.[3] he was made the ward of Sir Thomas 
Tunstall of Thurland Castle, Lancashire. Sometime around 1413 [4] he married Alice 
Tunstall, the daughter of Sir Thomas.[4]

Within a year of his coming of age Thomas was escheator of Cumberland and 
Westmorland, and was knighted about the same time. He was elected Member of 
Parliament for Westmorland five times (in 1435, 1449, 1450, 1455 and 1459) and once 
for Cumberland (1445). He was actively involved in local administration and law 
enforcement, and became very influential. In 1435 he acted as the Under-sheriff for 
Thomas, 8th Baron Clifford, the hereditary sheriff of Westmorland.

He became involved in a long-running feud with Sir Henry Bellingham, another local 
landowner, which came to a head in 1445 when he was attacked in London by 
Bellingham's men when attending Parliament, which caused a Parliamentary outcry.

By the time of the War of the Roses, Parr had formed close links with leading Yorkist 
Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury and when hostilities began joined him at the 
Battle of Ludford Bridge near Ludlow in 1459. After a Yorkists were defeated, he was 
forced to flee to Calais with Salisbury and was attainted in Parliament, but returned to 
fight at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460.

He died in 1461.

Descendants[edit]

He left three sons and six daughters. His eldest son, William became elevated as 
Baron Parr and married a granddaughter of the Earl of Salisbury, Hon. Elizabeth 
FitzHugh, and by her was grandfather of Queen Catherine, wife of Henry VIII; his 
second son, Sir John Parr was made sheriff of Westmorland for life in 1462. His third 
son, Thomas, was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471. His daughters all married 
members of prominent northern families. Mabel married Humphrey Dacre, 1st Baron 
Dacre; thus becoming the first female Parr to marry into the peerage and be given a 
title.[2] The accession of the Yorkist King Edward IV in 1461 had saved most of Sir 
Thomas's estates from confiscation.

Legacy[edit]

Through his son William, the family continued in favour with the culmination of his 
granddaughter, Catherine, becoming Queen consort of England and Ireland to King 
Henry VIII in 1543. His other grandchildren and the siblings of Queen Catherine would 
be raised by being created Marquess of Northampton and Earl of Essex; while a 
granddaughter, Anne, would become Countess of Pembroke as the wife of William 
Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke of the 1551 creation. Anne's descendants to this day 
hold the title of Earl of Pembroke among other prominent titles.

Parents
PARR John (ABT 1383 - BEF 6 Oct 1407)
CROPHULL Agnes (ABT 1372 - 3 Feb 1438)

Siblings
PARR Thomas (1397 - Nov 1461)

Marriage To TUNSTALL Alice (ABT 1415 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
TUNSTALL Thomas (ABT 1358 - 1415)
HARINGTON Isabel (ABT 1374 - )

Children by TUNSTALL Alice ABT 1415 - 
PARR William (1434 - 1483)

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