«b»Thomas Bertie«/b» began his professional life in 1532 earning 13 shillings and 4 pence per annum maintaining the fabric of Winchester Cathedral. He was a mason and this was a time when the building trade was flourishing, primarily because the dissolution of the monasteries released vast amounts of building materials for the "new men" to build the fine houses we now so readily associate with the late Tudor reigns. Then in 1539 «u»«b»Henry VIII <http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/aboutHenryVIII.htm>«/u»«/b» decided to erect blockhouses for coastal defence and «b»Thomas Bertie«/b» as "«i»Mr Bert«/i»" was the master mason for the project. The rise of the Berties had begun, and in 1550 "«i»Thomas Bartue«/i»" was designated as Captain of Hurst Castle when he received a grant of arms in which the text noted that he had "«i»of long tyme used himself in feates of armes and good works«/i»" -Elizabethan hyperbole used when a man could afford to«i» "bear the port, charge, and countenance of a gentleman, he shall for money have a coat and arms bestowed upon him by the heralds«/i»" (who in the charter of the same do of custom pretend antiquity and service, and many gay things).«b»Thomas«/b» sent his son «b»Richard«/b» to read law at Oxford University, from which he entered the service of the «u»«b»Duchess of Suffolk <http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/CatherineWilloughby.htm>«/u»«/b» as her gentleman usher. When he married the «u»«b»Duchess <http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/CatherineWilloughby.htm>«/u»«/b» in 1552.
1516 - 1582 (65 years)
