Thomas Fisher

Thomas Fisher or Hawkins (died 1577), was an English politician. Early life He was of obscure origin and was usually known by the name of Fisher, because his father was a fishmonger in Warwick. His ability recommended him to John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, who took him into his service, and on 4 May 1542 constituted him high steward and bailiff of his manor of Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire. For his exercise of that office during life Fisher had an annuity granted to him, which was confirmed in the reign of Mary I. He became one of the two Members of Parliament for Warwick. Dissolution of the monasteries He contrived to accumulate a vast estate in monastery and church lands. In 1546 he obtained the site of St Sepulchre's Priory, Warwick, with the lands adjacent, and proceeded to pull the monastery to the ground, raising in the place of it a house Hawkyns-nest, or Hawks-nest, also the 'Priory'; now the estate is Priory Park. In 1547, Bishop's Itchington, Warwickshire, being alienated to him from the see of Coventry and Lichfield, he made an 'absolute depopulation' of that part called Nether Itchington, and demolished the church for the purpose of building a large manor-house on its site. He also changed the name of the village to Fisher's Itchington. Secretary to Somerset and Scottish war Fisher, who was now the chief citizen of Warwick, was secretary to the Duke of Somerset, protector of England. There is a tradition that he was colonel of a regiment in the English army at the battle of Pinkie, on 10 September 1547.