residence serviceyears death_date parliament children birth_place constituency_mp religion battles birth_date term_start spouse rank article_title term_end name occupation alma_mater
ham house -lrb- 1610 -- 1620 -rrb- 1584 -- 1591 1620 1584 1586 1589 4 sons , 2 daughters yorkshire wootton bassett wootton bassett malmesbury catholic arnhem 1585 , netherlands 1587 1560 1584 1586 1589 mary dodge captain thomas vavasour -lrb- knight marshal -rrb-
 1586 1589 1589 thomas vavasour knight marshal caius college , cambridge
thomas vavasour -lrb- knight marshal -rrb-

thomas vavasour -lrb- 1560 -- 1620 -rrb- came from a family long established in yorkshire .
his grandfather was william vavasour and his father was henry vavasour of copmanthorpe , yorkshire .
his mother , margaret , was the daughter of sir henry knyvet of charlton , wiltshire .
thomas was educated at eton and caius college , cambridge where he was a fellow commoner .
in 1576 he married mary , daughter and heiress of john dodge of copes , suffolk , widow of peter houghton , alderman of london .
they had four sons and two daughters .
he became involved in court scandal and rivalry through the actions of his elder sister , anne .
he was member of elizabethan parliaments for wootton bassett in the 1584 and 1586 parliaments , and member for malmesbury in the 1589 parliament .
in august 1585 he fought in the netherlands as captain of also foot from yorkshire , retaining this command until 1591 .
he distinguished himself on two occasions , once in an attack on a sconce near arnhem in october 1585 , and again in 1587 with lord willoughby to fight the marques del guasto .
he is thought to have been knighted before august 1595 , though the record is unclear .
following military service he was a gentleman pensioner until the death of the queen at richmond palace in march 1603 .
following the accession of james i , vavasour was made butler of the port of london , earning him # 1,000 compensation .
in 1604 he was appointed knight marshal of the household , a role confirmed to him for life in 1612 but , according to john chamberlain , he sold the right for # 3,000 , in 1618 , two years before his death .
he returned to parliament in 1604 to represent boroughbridge after the death in office of sir richard gargrave and was re-elected in 1614 to represent horsham .
vavasour 's wealth and connection to the court allowed the construction of ham house in 1610 .
he died in 1620 .
