Sir Nicholas's younger son, Nicholas, who was knighted on 10 June 1603, was adopted by his uncle, Sir Francis Carew (1530–1611) of Beddington, took the name of Carew, and succeeded to the Beddington property, dying in 1643 (cf. Lysons, Environs of London, i. 52 et seq.; cf. art. Ralegh, Sir Walter, ad fin.).
Much of Throckmorton's correspondence as ambassador in France between 1559 and 1563 is printed in Patrick Forbes's ‘Full View of Public Transactions in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,’ 1740–1 (2 vols. fol.), in the ‘Hardwicke State Papers’ (1778, i. 121–62), and in the ‘Calendar of Foreign State Papers.’ His Scottish correspondence is calendared in Thorpe's ‘Scottish State Papers.’ A few of his autograph letters are at Hatfield and among the Cottonian, Harleian, Lansdowne, and Additional manuscripts at the British Museum. The mass of Throckmorton's original papers came into the possession of Sir Henry Wotton. Wotton bequeathed them to Charles I, but the bequest did not take effect. After many vicissitudes the papers passed into the possession of Francis Seymour Conway, first marquis of Hertford (1719–1794), whose grandson, the third Marquis of Hertford, made them over to the public record office, on the recommendation of John Wilson Croker, before 1842 (cf. Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iv. 455).
A portrait of Sir Nicholas, painted when he was forty-nine, is at Coughton. An engraving by Vertue is dated 1747.
[A poem called the Legend of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, consisting of 229 stanzas of six lines each, gives in a vague fashion the chief facts of his life. It professes to be spoken by Throckmorton's ghost, after the manner of the poems in the Mirrour for Magistrates. The authorship is uncertain. It was first printed from a badly copied manuscript at Coughton Court by Francis Peck [q. v.] in an appendix to his Life of Milton in 1740, and was inaccurately assigned by Peck to Sir Nicholas's nephew, ‘Sir Thomas Throckmorton of Littleton in coun. Warwick, knt.’ Apparently the person intended was Thomas Throckmorton ‘esquire’ (son of Sir Nicholas's brother, Sir Robert Throckmorton), who died on 13 March 1614–15, aged 81, and was buried at Weston Underwood, Buckinghamshire (Lipscomb's Buckinghamshire, iv. 399). The best version of the poem is that transcribed by William Cole and now in the British Museum Addit. MS. 5841; another is in Harl. MS. 6353. John Gough Nichols prepared an improved edition from these manuscripts in 1874. Browne Willis compiled in 1730, from the family papers at Coughton, a History and Pedigree of the Ancient Family of Throckmorton; this still remains in manuscript at Coughton, but was used by Miss Strickland in her Lives of the Queens of England. There is also at Coughton a ‘Gens Throckmortoniana’ assigned to Sir Robert Throckmorton (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. App. pp. 256–8). Other papers of the Throckmorton family are preserved at Buckland Court, Faringdon (see Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. No. iv. pp. 168–76). Pedigrees and accounts of the family are in Dugdale's Warwickshire, ii. 749, Lipscomb's Buckinghamshire, iv. 399, Nash's Worcestershire, i. 452, Betham's Baronetage, i. 486, and Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 359 sq. See also Froude's History; Lingard's History; Wright's Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth, passim; Fuller's Worthies, ed. Nichols, iii. 280; Strype's Annals and Memorials, passim; and the state papers and the official calendars mentioned above.]
THROGMORTON. [See Throckmorton.]
THROSBY, JOHN (1740–1803), antiquary, son of Nicholas Throsby, alderman of Leicester and mayor in 1759, by Martha Mason, his second wife, was born at Leicester on 21 Dec. 1740, and baptised at St. Martin's Church there on 13 Jan. following. In 1770 he was appointed parish clerk of St. Martin's, which office he held until his death. He early turned his attention to the study of local history and antiquities, and in 1777, at the age of thirty-seven, published his first work, ‘The Memoirs of the Town and County of Leicester,’ which was issued at Leicester in six duodecimo volumes. In 1789 he brought out a quarto volume of ‘Select Views in Leicestershire, from Original Drawings,’ containing historical and descriptive accounts of castles, religious houses, and seats in that county, and in the following year a ‘Supplementary Volume to the Leicestershire Views, containing a Series of Excursions to the Villages and Places of Note in that County.’ This was followed in 1791 by ‘The History and Antiquities of the Ancient Town of Leicester’ (Leicester, 4to). He also republished Robert Thoroton's ‘Nottinghamshire,’ with large additions (3 vols. 4to, 1790, new edit. 1797).
John Nichols [q. v.] incorporated most of Throsby's work in his ‘History of Leicestershire.’ He describes him as ‘a man of strong natural genius, who, during the vicissitudes of a life remarkably chequered, rendered himself conspicuous as a draughtsman and topographer.’ In later life Throsby was in indifferent circumstances. He attempted many expedients to maintain his family, few of which were successful, but in his later years he was assisted by friends. He died, after a lingering illness, on 5 Feb. 1803, and was
