Thomas Fanshawe (remembrancer of the exchequer)

Thomas Fanshawe (1533–1601), was the Queen's remembrancer of the exchequer and a Member of Parliament.

Fanshawe was the eldest son of John Fanshawe of Fanshawe Gate, Derbyshire, where he was born some time in the reign of Henry VIII, and probably about 1530. He studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, and became a member of the Middle Temple.

His uncle, Henry Fanshawe, took him under his protection, and procured for him the reversion of the appointment of the office of Remembrancer of the exchequer, then occupied by the elder Henry. This office was held during five tenures by members of the family. Fanshawe acquired considerable wealth in his office, to which he succeeded on his uncle's death in 1568. Besides Fanshawe Gate, which he let to his brother, he possessed the estates of Ware Park, Hertfordshire, of Jenkins, in Barking, Essex, and others. He fulfilled the duties of his office with diligence, as we find by various entries in the State Papers of Elizabeth's reign. In 1597 (29 May) he wrote to Lord Burghley that ‘by my continually attending the business of my office all the term, I have too much neglected my health and business in the country, and as my presence is urgently required there I have left all things in such a state that the duties may be as well performed without me. I hope I may repair thither and stay until the term. … If there shall be any occasion for my attendance, I will speedily return, though to my hindrance both in health and profit.’

Fanshawe sat in the parliament of 1571 for Rye, in five succeeding parliaments for Arundel, and in 1597 for Much Wenlock, Shropshire. In 1579 he established, in accordance with the will of his uncle, the free grammar school of Dronfield.

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