Sir Thomas Parr

Sir Thomas Parr (c. 1483 – 11 November 1517) was an English knight, courtier and Lord of the Manor of Kendal in Westmorland (now Cumbria) during the Tudor period. He is best known as the father of Catherine Parr, queen consort of England and the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII.

Thomas was the son of William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Kendal and Elizabeth FitzHugh. He descended from King Edward III of England through his mother, Elizabeth.

Thomas' forebears were members of a rough-and-ready northern landed gentry clan, the Parrs of Kendal. They had been, after the crown, the most influential presence in southern Westmoreland since 1381. His mother and grandmother before him were royal ladies-in-waiting, and this enabled Thomas to acquire a polished upbringing at the English court.

According to biographer Susan James, the young Thomas most likely studied under Maurice Westbury of Oxford, learning (among other things) classical Greek and Latin as well as modern languages. Westbury had been installed as a teacher by Lady Margaret Beaufort at her estate of Colyweston. It was at Colyweston that certain gentlemen, including the son of the Earl of Westmoreland, not only received an education but also gained political connections that would prove useful in their future careers. Thomas' father, the first Baron Parr of Kendal, had once been Lady Margaret Beaufort's revisionary heir to her substantial lands in Westmoreland, known as the Richmond fee. Thomas' mother's family by her second marriage to Sir Nicholas Vaux (later 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden), were also close to Margaret, enjoying a long-term relationship with her.

In adulthood, Thomas found the educative tools that he had acquired as a young man to be of considerable practical use, and he would emphasise this aspect of household management when the time came to educate his own children.

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