Thomas Owen was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons

House of Commons of England

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

  between 1624 and 1640. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

.

Owen was the son of Edward Owen of Shrewsbury, and entered Shrewsbury School

Shrewsbury School

Shrewsbury School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 13 to 18, founded by Royal Charter in 1552. The present campus to which the school moved in 1882 is located on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England...

 in 1589. He became town clerk of Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...

 in or before January 1610. In 1624, Owen was elected Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Shrewsbury was a parliamentary constituency in England, centred on the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire.It was founded in 1290 as parliamentary borough, returning two members to the House of Commons of England until 1707, then of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and of the...

. He was re-elected in 1625 1626 and 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.

In April 1640, Owen was re-elected MP for Shrewsbury in the Short Parliament

Short Parliament

The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....

. He followed the royalist side in the Civil Wars, although he acted as a witness against Archbishop Laud. He acted as deputy to Sir Thomas Gardiner, Recorder of London, during the reign of Charles I and after Gardiner's death the King had given him an order for a grant of the office of Prothonotary

Prothonotary

The word prothonotary is recorded in English since 1447, as "principal clerk of a court," from L.L. prothonotarius , from Greek protonotarios "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the Byzantine Empire, from Greek protos "first" + Latin notarius ; the -h-...

of South Wales . The grant was never executed, and the order itself was destroyed by a fire in the lodgings of Sir Edward Herbert, the Attorney-General. He remained as town clerk until 1645, when the parliamentary forces captured the town. He was taken prisoner and dismissed from his position as town clerk as a delinquent on 17 November.

After the Restoration, Owen petitioned the King to grant him the office of Prothonotary of South Wales. He also petitioned to be restored to his post as town clerk. However the matter was referred to Lord Carberry who ruled in favour of a rival claimant.

Owen died in May 1661 and was buried at St Chads in 25 May.