Sir Thomas Byron

Thomas Byron was the fifth of seven sons of Sir John Byron of Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, and Anne Molyneux. The Byron family were influential land-owners in both Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, across which they owned thousands of acres of land. Byron's great-grandfather and grandfather both served as High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, while his grandfather was also a Member of Parliament for the county in 1597. The family estate lessened during his grandfather's life, as he was forced to sell off parts of it to pay off his debts.[1] Thomas married Katherine Braine, and had two children, Thomas and John, who both died in infancy.[2] Katherine outlived Byron, and was buried at Westminster Abbey in 1676.[3]

On the outbreak of the First English Civil War, Byron and his brothers were described as "all passionately the King's".[2] At the Battle of Edgehill, Byron was Colonel of the Prince of Wales' cavalry troop.[4] During the battle, he saved the life of Richard Bulstrode by shooting a Parliamentarian soldier who was attacking Bulstrode.[5] In late November 1642, during the Royalist campaign in the Thames Valley, Byron and his older brother John occupied Fawley Court, the home of Bulstrode Whitelocke. The Royalist soldiers were ransacking the house, but Byron found Whitelocke's children hidden in the estate nearby, and protected them from harm, claiming that "it were a barbarous thing to hurt the pretty, innocent children".[2]

By the following year, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, described Byron as the de facto commander of the Prince of Wales' regiment, although the position was officially held by Henry Clifford, 5th Earl of Cumberland. In March 1643, at the Battle of Hopton Heath, the Royalists' commanding officer, the Earl of Northampton, was killed leading a cavalry attack. Byron led a second charge which overran and captured the enemy artillery, while driving their cavalry from the battlefield. Byron himself was injured, taking a wound to his thigh.[2]

On 7 December 1643, Byron was attacked in Oxford by one of his own soldiers, Captain Hurst, over a pay dispute as he left his lodgings.[2] Hurst was executed the following week, while Byron died two months later, on 5 February 1644.[2] He was buried at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.[2]

• Yerby, George (2006) [2004]. "Byron, Sir Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4283. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Young, Peter (1967). Edgehill 1642, The Campaign and the Battle. Kineton: The Roundwood Press. OCLC 905631257.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)