Samborne, Thomas

two documents signed by CHARLES II (one as Prince of Wales) and three documents signed by JAMES II as Duke of York, relating to Samborne's position as collector of royal sea prize money in Brittany, 15 January 1647/8 to 22 September 1651, papered seals, two on parchment; copy of a petition to the King requesting a pension for his service to the royal family and a related account of expenses amounting to nearly £800 incurred by his wife, Margaret (née Gosfright) "a[u]nt to my lord duk of mounemouth for him self and his sister In their Infancy, for their mother and Grandmother", including "For my Imprisonment neere t[h]ree months ... for having hidden the said Duke", signed by her and three witnesses, 4 March 1671/2; three letters by the Earl of St Albans to Samborne as Deputy Harbinger, ordering him to provide lodgings and attend on the King on forthcoming visits, and one further related letter, 16 April 1672 to 15 May 1673; four other letters and documents, including letters signed by the Duke of Ormonde and the Earl of Manchester; altogether 15 items, 1648-1674, some damp damage including loss to one royal signature
 

Presumably by descent to Rebecca (née Samborne-Le Bas), who married Simon, First Earl Harcourt, in 1735; thence by descent

These papers reveal Thomas Samborne to have been a committed royalist with strong personal connections to the exiled court. He was commissioned to collect monies on behalf of the royalists when living in the Breton port of Morlaix in the late 1640s, and gained a more intimate connection to the royal family when he married Margaret, sister of Lucy Walter, who had been the mistress of Charles II and mother of his eldest illegitimate child, James, later Duke of Monmouth. Margaret provided crucial support for Monmouth in the later 1650s, having "preserved him in the time of the late Rebelion for which she suffered a tedious Imprisonment; and disburst for him, his mother, sister, and grandmother, in their greatest necessity". Samborne duly found favour at the Restoration. In 1667 he was appointed Marshal of Ceremonies, and when he lost this post to a cousin in 1673 he petitioned the King for a pension. It seems likely that his appointment as Deputy Harbinger was made in response to this petition.