Thomas Blanke

Sir Thomas Blanke (died 1588) was an English politician who served as Lord Mayor of London.

He was the son of a London haberdasher, also named Thomas Blanke, and the brother-in-law of James Altham, one of the Sheriffs of London in 1557.[1][2] Like his father, Thomas Blanke followed the trade of a haberdasher. He became an alderman in 1572 and served as one of the Sheriffs of London in 1574.[3]

He was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1582. He had the misfortune to be elected during a severe outbreak of the plague;[4] due to the pestilence, there was no pageant celebrating his election, and he was not presented to the queen until the next May.[5]

Much of his mayoralty was spent dealing with the effects of the plague, and his efforts earned him the appellation of "The Good Knight".[6] He died in 1588, at the age of 74, and was buried at St Mary-at-Hill;[7] his wife lived until 1596, being buried in the same tomb.[8] As he had died without issue, his estate at Abbott's Inn passed into the Altham family, who retained it until it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London.[9]

  1. ^ Burke, Bernard, and Burke, Ashworth Peter [1] "A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. I" pg. 248
  2. ^ [2] "The Visitations of Essex" pg. 538
  3. ^ City of London Corporation [3] "Analytical Index to the Series of Records Known as the Remembrancia" pg. 153
  4. ^ Radcliffe, John Netten [4] "The Pestilence in England: An Historical Sketch" pg. 37
  5. ^ Withington, Robert [5] "English Pageantry: An Historical Outline, Vol. II" pg. 22
  6. ^ [6] "The European Magazine and London Review, Vol. 52" pg. 12
  7. ^ Thornbury, George Walter, and Valford, Edward [7] "Old and New London" pg. 41
  8. ^ Targoff, Ramie [8] "Posthumous Love: Eros and the Afterlife in Renaissance England" pp. 25 - 26
  9. ^ [9] "Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity" pp. 408 - 410