Thomas Meade’s mother was Lettice’s sister, Johan the elder and Thomas was therefore Lettice’s nephew. His mother seems to have died quite young and Thomas’ father re-married.

Thomas was educated at Cambridge and became a lawyer. He seems to have been instrumental in helping Lettice draft her will. Later in life he became a justice of the common pleas (which seems to have meant that he was a judge in legal cases which did not involve the Crown).

In 1567 Thomas purchased Lofts Hall (from Thomas Crawley, Lettice’s much younger brother, who by this time was in trouble for not going to church). He built a new manor house there which burnt down in the 1920s and was replaced by the house that still stands there today.

(Researched by Alison Meadows)