(Thomas, Esq.), founder of the charterhouse, was born at Knaith in Lincolnshire, in 1532, of an an ancient and genteel family. He was educated at Eton school, and probably at Cambridge, and studied the law in Lincoln's Inn; but this profession not fitting his disposition, he travelled into foreign countries, and made a long stay in Holland, France, Spain, and Italy, as to acquire the languages of those various nations. During his absence, his father died, and left him a considerable fortune. On his return home, being a very accomplished gentleman, he became secretary to the earl of Warwick and his brother the earl of Leicester. By the former of these noblemen, in 1569, he was appointed master of the ordnance at Berwick; and distinguishing himself greatly in that situation, on the rebellion which at that time broke out in the north, he obtained a patent for the office of master-general of the ordnance for that district for life. He is named as one of the chiefs of those 1500 men who marched into Scotland, by the order of Queen Elizabeth, to the affiance of the regent, the earl of Morton, in 1573; and he commanded one of the five batteries which obliged the strong castle of Edinburgh to surrender to the English. He purchased of the bishop of Durham the manors of Gatehead and Wickham; which, producing coal-mines, became to him a source of extraordinary wealth. In 1580, he was reputed to be worth £50,000.

Soon after this, he married a rich widow, who brought him a considerable estate; and taking up the business of a merchant, riches flowed in to him with every tide. He is said to have had no less than thirty agents abroad. He was likewise one of the chief victuallers of the navy; and seems to have been master of the barque called Sutton, in the list of volunteers attending the English fleet against the Spanish armada. It is probable, also, that he was a principal instrument in the defeat of it, by draining the bank of Genoa of that money with which Philip intended to equip his fleet, and thereby hindering the invasion for a whole year. He is likewise said to have been a commissioner for prizes under Lord Charles Howard, High Admiral of England; and going to sea with letters of marque, he took a Spanish ship worth £20,000. His whole fortune, at his death, appears to have been in land £5,000 per annum; in money, upwards of £60,000; the greatest estate in the possession of any private gentleman till much later times. He lived with great munificence and hospitality; but losing his lady in 1602, he retired from the world, lessened his family, and lived in a private frugal manner; and, having no issue, resolved to distinguish his name by some important charity. Accordingly, he purchased of the Earl of Suffolk Howard-House, or the late dissolved charter-house, near Smithfield, for the sum of £13,000, where he founded the present hospital, in 1611, for the relief of poor men and children. Before he had fixed upon this design, the court endeavoured to divert him from his purpose, and to engage him to make Charles I., then Duke of York, his heir, by conferring on him a peerage; but being free from ambition, and now near his grave, the lustre of the coronet could not tempt him to change his plan. He died the 11th of December, 1611, at Suworow, Hackney, aged 79. His body was conveyed, with the most solemn procession, to Christ-church in London, and there deposited, till 1614, when it was removed to the charter-house, and interred in a vault on the north side of the chapel, under a magnificent tomb.