Thomas Minors
Thomas Minors (16 October 1609 – September 1677) was an English merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1660.
Minors was the only son of Robert Minors of Uttoxeter and his wife Gertrude Hunt, daughter of Edmund Hunt of Marchington. He became a draper in Lichfield and was sheriff of Lichfield from 1642 to 1643. He did not take part in the Civil War, while the city was held by the Royalists, but he was a Presbyterian and probably supported the parliamentarian cause. He was commissioner for assessment from 1647 to 1652 and was bailiff from 1648 to 1649. In 1653 he was commissioner for poor prisoners and became
In 1654, Minors was elected
In 1670 Thomas Minors founded a school for 30 poor boys to be taught to read English (Minors' school) providing a house in Bore Street, Lichfield for the purpose.[2] He continued to maintain this school until his death in 1677. In his will he left the property with land as an endowment "... a school house, wherein may be taught thirty poor boys to spell and read English until they could well read chapters in the bible, without any reward from parents or friends".[3]
He died at the age of 67 and was buried in St Mary's church, Lichfield on 30 September 1677.
Minors married firstly Sarah Burnes daughter of John Burnes, mercer of Lichfield and had a son. She died in 1667 and he married secondly Dorothy Jesson, who was the sister of William Jesson of Lichfield.[1]
References
- ^ a b c History of Parliament Online - Thomas Minors
- ^ Greenslade, M. W. "A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield". British History Online. p. 173. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
An English school for poor boys was built in 1670 by Thomas Minors
- ^ Harwood, Thomas (1806). History and Antiquities of the Church and City of Lichfield. Gloucester. p. 479.