Thomas Blagrave

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Thomas Blagrave (died 18 June 1590) was Acting Master of the Revels (1573–79) and Surveyor of the Queen's Works (1578–90) under Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Thomas came from Uttoxeter in Staffordshire and had at least three siblings, William, John and Mary. Burke's Landed Gentry states, "John Blagrave, of Uttoxeter, County Stafford, was father, with a son Richard, who was father of Thomas Blagrave, Master of the Queen's Revels, who rf. 18 June 1590, leaving by his wife, Joane, daughter of William Bellame, a daughter Mary, married to William Lodge, son and heir of Sir Thomas Lodge, of London, and a son and heir, John, who married Joane Bodenham, of Gloucester." These Blagraves, distantly related, married into the family of Blagrave of Calcot Park, near Reading, Berkshire.^[1]

Thomas Blagrave started his career at court as assistant to Sir Thomas Cawarden, Master of the Revels, and in his will of 1559 he left Blagrave two geldings and a colt. Acting as Master of the Revels from 1573 to 1579 he was assisted by John Drawater, a servant of the Earl of Oxford, with whom he had a court battle in the early 1590s. He owned land at Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, where he built the manor house.^[2]