Sir Thomas Wharton, 1st Baron Wharton (1495 – 23 August 1568) was an English nobleman and a follower of King Henry VIII of England. He is best known for his victory at Solway Moss on 24 November 1542 for which he was given a barony.

Early life

He was born in Wharton, Kirkby Stephen, Westmorland, the eldest son of Sir Thomas Wharton of Wharton Hall and his wife Agnes Warcup, daughter of Reynold or Reginald Warcup of Smardale. His younger brother was the English martyr Christopher Wharton. His father died around 1520, and in April 1522 he served on a raiding expedition into Scotland.

Officer on the Scottish border

On 10 February 1524 he was placed on the commission for the peace in Cumberland, and on 20 June 1527 he is said to have been knighted at Windsor. To the parliament that met on 3 November 1529, Wharton was returned for Appleby, but on the 9th he was pricked for High Sheriff of Cumberland. On 30 June 1531 he was appointed commissioner for redress of outrages on the Anglo-Scottish Border. On 6 February 1532 he was made Justice of the Peace for the East Riding of Yorkshire, and on 19 March for Northumberland, and he was usually included in the commissions for Cumberland and Westmorland. On 29 June 1534 Northumberland recommended Wharton's appointment as captain of Carlisle, and on 9 July he was commissioned to inquire into the 'treasons' of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre of Gilsland, against Northumberland; Dacre was brought to trial, but acquitted by his peers. On 22 November 1535 Wharton was again appointed sheriff of Cumberland.

The Rough Wooing

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." Exactly how this happened was the subject of later interest.

Wharton's intelligence network included a Scottish woman, Katherine Robinson. She came to him at Carlisle Castle in February 1543, at the start of the war known as the Rough Wooing and said that the Laird of Buccleuch was willing to capture Mary, Queen of Scots and bring her to him. Wharton was worried the Scottish queen would be harmed if Buccleuch or the Earl of Bothwell kidnapped her. The Duke of Suffolk advised him to give Buccleuch a non-committal answer. Wharton also gathered intelligence from William Murray of Tullibardine and his wife Katherine Campbell. She brought Françoise d'Avantigny to Carlisle to obtain a passport.

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 March 1544. In April the Earl of Hertford gave him particular instructions to carefully entertain offers of alliance from Lord Maxwell and his heir, Robert, and Lord Fleming. 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 Angus, Glencairn, Lord Maxwell, and others, who professed to desire the marriage of the Mary Queen of Scots to Edward, occupied Wharton for the rest of Henry VIII's reign.

In December 1546 Wharton wrote to Wriothesley about gold-mining in Scotland at Crawford Moor, and offered to investigate the ground. Wharton recalled a conversation with the Scottish ambassador Adam Otterburn, who said that James IV had mines but only found loose pieces of gold or gold ore rather than a vein, and spent more on the work than he recovered. The Duke of Albany also opened mines. Wharton owned a gold medallion coined by Albany, said to be minted from Scottish gold.

War under Edward VI

With the accession of Edward VI the War of the Rough Wooing continued, with effort being made by Somerset as Lord Protector to complete the marriage, and a Scottish raid in March 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 September following, 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.

Legacy

Thomas Wharton was the founder of Kirkby Stephen Grammar School.

References

  • 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 (–1568), of Wharton and Nateby, Westmorland, and Healaugh, Yorks', The History of Parliament 1509-1558 (article published 1982) Read here.

Notes

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