Good Evening To You, My Gentle Friends,

Sir Thomas Heneage had a very active Parliamentary career. He was on the Succession Committee ( From October 31, 1566 ), and a large number of Committees in 1571, including the Reform of Church Discipline ( On April 06, and May 25, 1571 ), the Subsidy ( April 07, 1571 ), Treasons ( April 12, 1571 ), The Order of Parliamentary Business ( April 21, 1571 ), Exchequer Reform ( April 23, And May 26, 1571 ), Anti-Catholic Legislation ( May 10, 1571 ), and Legal Matters ( May 28, 1571 ). He spoke on the Treasons Bill on April 12, 1571. At the beginning of his next Parliament, Sir Heneage was Appointed to a Committee concerning Mary Queen of Scots on May 12, 1572, the main business of the 1572 Session. No further references to any Committee Work have been found in the Journals until 1576, when he was Appointed to Committes Concerning Private Bills on February 15, 1576 and March 13, 1576, Debasing the Coinage, on February 15, 1576, The Maintenance of Colleges on March 02, 1576, Artificers, on March 05, 1576, Excess In Apparel, on March 10, 1576, The Queen's Marriage, on March 12, 1576, and London Goldsmiths, on March 13, 1576. He was one of those Appointed to examine Peter Wentworth on February 08, 1576. During the last session of the 1572 Parliament, he was Appointed to Committees Concerning The Subsidy on January 25, 1581, Counterfeit Seals, on January 26, The Clerk of the Market, on January 27, Seditious Practices Against The Queen, on February 01, The Arthur Hall Privilege Case, on February 04, Wool, on February 13, Returns, on February 24, Defence, on February 25, reported by him on March 14, Heretics, on February 27, The Queen's Safety, on March 14, and Iron Mills, on March 18. During his next Parliament, his Committee Work included Church Reform, on December 16, 1584, The Continuance of Statutes, on December 19, Woolen Cloth, on February 13, 1585, Fraudulent Conveyances, on February 15, Jesuits, on February 18, and March 09, The Subsidy, on February 24, The Government of the City of Westminster, on March 08, The Northumberland County Court, on March 15, and The Preservation of Timber in Surrey, Sussex and Kent, on March 19.

Sir Heneage is mentioned only once in the Parliamentary Journals of 1586 to 1587, in connection with the dispute over Wentworth's defence of the Liberty of Speech, on March 01:

Those Questions Puckering ( The Speaker ) pocketed up and showed Sir Thomas Heneage, who so handled the matter that Wentworth went to the Tower, and the questions not at all moved. In the Parliament of 1589, as a Privy Councillor, he played an increasing part in steering government measures. He was in charge of the tricky Purveyors Bill, handling the arrangements for the Conferences with the Lords and delivering messages to and from the Queen. He was also appointed to a large number of Committees, including those of Penal Statues, on February 08, as reported by him on February 20, The Subsidy, on February 11, The Roger Puleston Privilege Case on February 12, as reported by him on February 19, Hartlepool Pier, on March 01, Dover Harbour, on March 05, Forestallers, on March 05, Salted Fish, on March 11, Foreign Merchants, on March 12, Lincoln City, on March 15, as reported by him on March 18, Hue and Cry, on March 17, asked to be replaced on March 18, Housing, on March 18, as reported by him 9n March 20 and 21, Presentations to benefices, on March 20, Glasshouses, on March 21, and Berkshire Almshouses, on March 22. He also reported the meeting of two Committees to which he had been appointed as a Privy Councillor concerning Captains and Soldiers, on March 19, and 24, and Husbandry and Tillage on March 25, and 26. On February 20, 1589, Sir Heneage urged that Committees should be better attended, and on March 29, he was one of tose who spoke for a Declaration of War with Spain, being Appointed to the Committee the same day.

On February 19, 1593, Sir Heneage seconded the nomination of Sir Edward Coke as Speaker. Though he was in charge of the Subsidy Bill in that Parliament, he did not enjoy the confidence of the House to the same extent as had Hatton in similar circumstances. On March 06, during a debate on the Subsidy, Oliver St. John accused Sir Heneage of misrepresenting the Commons Case. Sir William Cecil intervened to extract an apology from Oliver St. John, but the incident left an impression. His involvement in the protracted negotiations over the Subsidy may explain the reduction in his committee activity in this Parliament. However, on March 19, he moved that a collection should be made among Members for the relief of maimed soldiers and mariners, each man contributing according to his Parliamentary Status. He was appointed to the Committee on a bill concerning Colchester Harbour on March 29, which he reported the next day. He also reported a Private Committee on March 26. a Legal Committee on April 05, and a Religious Committee on April 04, 06, and 07. As a Privy Councillor, he was Appointed to the following Committees: Privileges and Returns on February 26, Recusancy on February 28 and April 04, Legal Matters on March 09 and 12, The Poor Law on March 12, and April 12, Building in London and Westminster on April 06, and Letters Patent on April 07.

Sir Heneage tried, not always successfully, to use his local positions at Salisbury, Colchester, and Hull to obtain Parliamentary nominations. He lacked finesse. "So shall you ease the town of half your charge, and make ( me ) beholding unto you for his courtesy", he wrote to the corporation of Salisbury in 1593, asking for a nomination, which was refused. Elsewhere, he clearly intended to make full use of the patronage attaching to his office as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1593, he asked the Corporation of Leicester for the nomination of both burgesses, claiming, incorrectly, that this had been regularly granted to his predecessors. The tone of his letter may have been responsible for the electors' prompt choice of two townsmen. Nevertheless, his hand can be detected in a number of returns to this Parliament: among them, his brother Michael's at Wigan'; William Twyeden'shis granddaughter's husband, at Clitheroe; John Audley's at Stockbridge; and probably Edward Hubbard's at Monmouth, a duchy borough, until this time generally free from the Chancellor's influence. Hul, wherer Sir Heneage was High Steward, returned his servant Peter Proby. In at least one County Election, that for Essex in 1588, he almost certainly played a decisive part, persuading the Council to intervene to suppress Lord Rich's campaign against Sir Henry Gray, Sir Heneage's fellow Deputy Lieutenant, for the Junior Seat.

Sir Heneage's advance in this county was almost entirely due t the Queen. Quite early in his career he found, like other Courtiers, that the life was too expensive for him, and he began to rely increasingly on Crown Grants. One of these, the Office of Receiver and Treasuer of one-tenth of the profits of a salt monopoly, was doubtless highly lucrative. Most of his Grants were of land or offices. In 1564, he received the Manor of Copt Hall, where four years later, he entertaine Elizabeth; between 1572 and 1577, he added the Manors of Epping, Ulting Hall and Bretts in West Ham to his lands in the county; in 1576 the Colchester Magistrates leased land to him at the express wish of the Queen; while the rangership of Waltham Forest was another profitable sinecure.

By 1584, he was Senior Knight of the Shire for Essex, and soon afterwards Deputy Lieutenant to his friend and patron, Leicester. Among his intimates in the county was the martyrologist, John Foxe, who lived for some time at Waltham, near Copt Hall.

Sir Heneage's personality remains eluive; Camden saw him "as a man for his elegancy of life and pleasantness of discourse, born, as it were, for the court". Most of his surviving correspondence deals with official business, and there is little information about his domestic life. He quarrelled bitterly with his daughter's husband, Sir Moyle Finch, whom he described to Burghley as "an unkind and injurious son-in-law". At times, like other Courtiers, he found it difficult to reconcile the Queen's demands for attendance with his domestic commitments:

He wrote to Hatton in July of 1581:

"It appeareth that Her Majesty is neither well pleased with my absence nor in any wise contented I should come over soon. My wife's sickness and lameness, so as she could not stir out of her bed, was the cause I could neither in reason nor honesty come out from my house till she were better mended".

After 1590, Sir Heneage lived sometimes at Copt Hall, and sometimes at Savoy House, from where he transacted much of the duchy business. Elizabeth visited him there in 1594, although earlier in the year he had been out of favour for supporting Essex's efforts to get the Solicitor-Generalshio for Francis Bacon. He seems to have taken a genuine interest in the administration of his new office. Among proposals which he made "to improve the state of religion" in the duchy was one to pay the Receiver-General two hundre pounds a years out of the profits of seized recusants' lands, in order to augment livings in the county palatine.

Sir Thomas Heneage died on October 17, 1595, and he was buried in St. Paul's.

A large part of Sir Heneage's Will, which was made on July 22, 1595, is taken up with ensuring that an earlier conveyance of Copt Hall and Epping to his second wife, the Countess of Southampton, the sole Executrix, should be honoured by his daughter and heiress, Lady Finch and her husband. He asked Sir John Fortescue, the Overseer, to have a jewel made, to the value of one thousand French Crowns, for the Queen, "my most gracious and dear mistress, who above all other earthly creatures I have thought most worthy of all my heart's love and reverence". Fortescue himself received one hundred pounds, and a codicil to the Will left legacies to a number of other friends. As Treasurer of te Chamber, Sir Heneage owed the Crown over one thousand three hundred pounds of which his widow, by December, 1596, had paid about four hundred pounds.