Sir Thomas Darnell, 1st Baronet (died c. 1638) was an English landowner, at the centre of a celebrated state legal case in the reign of Charles I of England, often known as the 'Five Knights' Case' but to the lawyers of the period Darnell's Case.
Life
Escutcheon of Sir Thomas Darnell, 1st Baronet
Darnell was a landowner with estates in Lincolnshire. He was created a baronet, of Heyling in the County of Lincoln, at Whitehall on 6 September 1621. He was committed to the Fleet Prison in March 1627, by warrant signed only by the attorney-general, for having refused to subscribe to the forced loan of that year. Application for a habeas corpus having been made on his behalf, the writ was issued returnable on 8 November 1627. The case came on for argument on 15 November. Meanwhile, a warrant for Darnell's detention had been signed by two privy councillors, in which, however, no ground for confinement was alleged except the special command of the king.
The prisoners remained in custody until 29 January 1628, when they were released. Darnell was living in 1634, and died before 1640. By his wife Sara, daughter of Thomas Fisher, and sister of Sir Thomas Fisher, bart., he had no male issue.
