Thomas Frowyk

Sir Thomas Frowyk KS (c. 1460 – 7 October 1506) was an English justice.

Born at Gunnersbury, Middlesex, Thomas Frowyk was the son of a London mercer, Sir Thomas Frowyk, by his second wife, Jane Sturgeon, daughter of Richard Sturgeon. He had a sister, Isabel Frowyk, who married Sir Thomas Haute (d. 1505), and a brother, Sir Henry Frowyk. His grandfather, Henry Frowyk, was also a mercer, and an alderman and Lord Mayor of London. Frowyk was mentioned in the 1464 will of his grandmother, Isabella Frowyk.

Frowyk is said to have been educated at Cambridge. He was admitted to the Inner Temple, where he appears to have shared a chamber with Thomas Marowe (d.1505), Serjeant-at-law, author of the legal treatise, On The Peace. Frowyk and John Kingsmill, Justice of the Common Pleas, were later among those appointed as executors of Marowe's will.

At the Inner Temple Frowyk 'gave readings in the autumn terms of 1492 (Westminster II cc.6–11) and 1495 (Prerogativa regis), readings which were often cited subsequently'.

He was appointed Common Serjeant of London about 1486, Serjeant-at-law in 1495, and King's Serjeant in November 1501. At about this time he was on retainer to the Earls of Stafford and the Dukes of Buckingham. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas on 30 September 1502. In his capacity as Chief Justice he wrote 'a significant dissenting judgment in the celebrated case of Orwell v. Mortoft (1505) contributing to the development, in later years, of the action on the case as an alternative process to recover a debt'.

Frowyk was knighted in 1502. He died 7 October 1506, and was buried at Finchley with his first wife, Joan (née Bardville), where a memorial to him was erected which was later defaced. He left a will dated 13 August 1505, with a codicil dated 6 October 1506.