Sir Thomas Blount of Elvaston, Derbyshire, was a younger son of Sir Walter Blount and Doña Sancha de Ayala, who inherited the family estates on the death of his brother Sir John in 1418. He served Henry VI’s French government as Treasurer of Calais and, later, Treasurer of Normandy – a continuous record of financial and administrative service that kept the family prominently placed in the Lancastrian affinity in France through the final decades of English occupation.
His principal residence was the manor of Barton Blount, and he was the father of Sir Walter Blount, 1st Baron Mountjoy.
Career
Thomas Blount succeeded to the Elvaston estates on the death of Sir John in 1418. His career lay primarily in the financial administration of the English territories in France under Henry VI. He served as Treasurer of Calais – the most strategically important English enclave in France – a role recorded in the published correspondence of the period, and subsequently held the office of Treasurer of Normandy, the largest of the English-administered French territories.
At home he was knighted between 1423 and 1424, served as Member of Parliament for Derbyshire in 1420, and held office as Sheriff of Staffordshire and justice of the peace in Derbyshire. The History of Parliament describes him as one of the powerful and wealthy members of the Derbyshire gentry. As patron of the living of Barton Blount he presented William Kelham there in 1423 before appointing later incumbents.
In 1422 he founded a chantry at the collegiate church of St Mary de Newark in Leicester in memory of his father and mother, with the financial support of Thomas, Duke of Exeter – maintaining the family’s connection to the great Lancastrian foundation that had been Sir Walter’s place of burial.
Marriage and children
Thomas married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Gresley of Gresley, Derbyshire – a match that reinforced the family’s standing in the Midlands gentry. Their son was Sir Walter Blount, later created 1st Baron Mountjoy, and other issue included a further son, Thomas, and at least one daughter, Agnes.
Thomas Blount died in 1456 and was succeeded by his son Walter, who had by that date already carved out a significant independent career as a Yorkist partisan. His precise year of birth is not established; the conventional c. 1383 (some sources prefer c. 1390) is inferred from his father’s marriage by 1374 and his elder brother’s career.