| Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Ardglass | |
| Birth Name: | Thomas Cromwell |
| Birth Date: | 11 June 1594 |
| Death Place: | Tickencote, Rutland |
| Resting Place: | St Peter's Church, Tickencote |
| Tenure: | 1645–1653 |
| Other Titles: | 1st Viscount Lecale 4th Baron Cromwell |
| Known For: | English nobleman |
| Nationality: | English |
| Wars And Battles: | Wars of the Three Kingdoms |
| Successor: | Wingfield Cromwell, 2nd Earl of Ardglass |
| Spouse: | Elizabeth Meverell |
| Issue: | Wingfield Cromwell, 2nd Earl of Ardglass (1624-1668) Vere Essex Cromwell, 4th Earl of Ardglass (1625-1687) Mary Cromwell (died 1676) |
| Parents: | Edward Cromwell, 3rd Baron Cromwell Frances Rugge |
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Ardglass, 11 June 1594 to 20 November 1653, was an English nobleman, son of Edward Cromwell, 3rd Baron Cromwell and his second wife Frances Rugge.
Thomas Cromwell was born on 11 June 1594, the eldest son of Edward Cromwell, 3rd Baron Cromwell (1560-1607) and his second wife Frances Rugge (1563-1631). He had two sisters, Frances (1595-1662) and Anne (1597-1639), as well as a half-sister from his father's first marriage, Elizabeth (born before 1593).
Thomas Cromwell's father Edward escaped punishment for his role in Essex's Rebellion of 1601 but debt forced him to exchange his estates in England for lands in Ulster which had been confiscated after the end of Tyrone's Rebellion and relocate his family to the Kingdom of Ireland. Thomas succeeded as 4th Baron Cromwell in the Peerage of England after his father died in Downpatrick on 24 September 1607 and was further created 1st Viscount Lecale in the Peerage of Ireland, on 22 November 1624.
A supporter of Charles I of England during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, he was Colonel of Lord Cromwell's Troop of Horse, raised as part of the Royal Irish Army in 1640.[1] In return for his service, he was created 1st Earl of Ardglass, in the Peerage of Ireland, on 15 April 1645; he was subsequently fined £460 by the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents set up by Parliament. This allegiance placed him in an opposing camp to his distant cousin Oliver Cromwell.
He married Elizabeth Meverell (died 1651), daughter and heiress of Robert Meverell of Ilam, Staffordshire, and of Throwley Old Hall, Staffordshire (died 5 February 1627/1628) and Elizabeth Fleming, both buried at Blore, Staffordshire, the daughter of Sir Thomas Fleming, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and had three children:
He and his wife both died in 1653 and were buried at St Peter's Church, Tickencote, Rutland, and his last will, dated 26 March 1653, was probated in 1661.
| Escutcheon: | Quarterly per fess indented Or and Azure four Lions passant counterchanged |
| Crest: | On a Chapeau Gules turned up Ermine a Pelican Or guttée Azure vulning herself proper |
| Supporters: | On either side a Bull Gules winged Argent crined and hoofed Or |
| Motto: | Semi mortuus qui timet [2] |