Thomas Knyvett, 4th Baron Berners

Sir Thomas Knyvett, ca. 1565
Arms of Knyvett: Argent, a bend sable a bordure engrailed of the last

Thomas Knyvett (or Knyvet), de jure 4th Baron Berners (1539–c. 1616), was High Sheriff of Norfolk from 1579.

Thomas Knyvett was the first son of John Knyvett (1510–1561[1]) and Agnes, daughter of Sir John Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire. He was the great-grandson of Sir William Knyvett, and was a 4 times great-grandson of King Edward III through his paternal grandmother, Joan. A native of Ashwellthorpe in Norfolk, Knyvett married Muriel Parry, daughter of Sir Thomas Parry, Comptroller of the Household to Queen Elizabeth I.

He inherited the Ashwellthorpe estates from his paternal grandmother, Jane Knyvett (née Bourchier), de jure 3rd Baroness Berners (daughter and heiress of John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners), on her death in 1561/1562, along with rights to the title Baron Berners. He was knighted in 1578 and created Lord High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1579.[2]

He failed to formally claim the title Baron Berners until 1616, when the office of the Earl Marshal certified his "right and title to the Barony of Berners", but he died shortly thereafter, before the new king James I could confirm the title.[2][3]

He was buried at Ashwellthorpe on 9 February 1616/7.[4]

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