Researching Thomas Wotton

In December 1547 employed in conveying treasure to his father, Sir Edward Wotton, at Calais, and in 1551 succeeded to his estates, his father having procured two acts of parliament ‘disgavelling’ his lands in Kent. Edward VI had intended making him K.B., but after Mary's accession the council on 19 Sept. 1553 wrote him a letter ‘discharging him from being knight of the Bath, whereunto he was once appointed and written unto’ (Acts P. C. 1552–4, p. 351). On 16 Jan. 1553–4 he was summoned before the council, and on 21 Jan. ‘for obstinate standing against matters of religion was committed to the Fleet, to remain there a close prisoner’ (ib. pp. 385, 389). Walton in his ‘Life of Sir Henry Wotton’ (Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, 1685, sig. b4) declares that the council's action was due to Nicholas Wotton, who had twice dreamt that his nephew was in danger of participating in some dangerous enterprise, apparently Wyatt's rebellion, and secured his temporary imprisonment to save him from worse perils. The date of his release has not been ascertained; but on 23 Nov. 1558, six days after Elizabeth's accession, he was made sheriff of Kent. For nearly thirty years he was regularly included in the various commissions for the county, such as those for the peace, for taking musters, gaol delivery, examining into cases of piracy, and fortifying Dover. In July 1573 he entertained Queen Elizabeth at Boughton Malherbe, when he declined an offer of knighthood, and in 1578–9 again served as sheriff. He was a person of ‘great learning, religion, and wealth,’ and a patron of learning and Protestantism in others. Thomas Becon dedicated to him his ‘Book of Matrimony,’ and Edward Dering his ‘Sparing Restraint.’ William Lambarde also dedicated to Wotton in 1570 his ‘Perambulation of Kent,’ which was published in 1576 with a prefatory letter by Wotton.

Captain John Smith praised Wilkinson for his treatment of the sick. Edward Maria Wingfield, when council president, on the other hand, criticized Wilkinson for staying aboard ship during periods of great need. Wingfield would not provide funds for Wilkinson to purchase drugs and other necessities because of his view of Wilkinson's slothfulness.

Captain Christopher Newport who brought the first settlers from England took Wotton on his journey up the James River on the Susan Constant to the falls at Richmond, Virginia before he returned to England for supplies. Wotton stayed to help care for the colonists.

In a compilation of abstracts of English wills from the 17th century, the compiler notes that Thomas Wotton, barber and surgeon, whose will was dated March 15, 1635 and proved April 28, 1638, may have been the same Thomas Wotton who accompanied the first settlers to Jamestown.