Nicholas Wadham (died 1542)

Arms of Wadham: Gules, a chevron between three roses argent

Sir Nicholas Wadham (by 1472–1542), of Merryfield in the parish of Ilton in Somerset and Edge in the parish of Branscombe, Devon, was MP for Somerset in 1529.^[1]

He was also Sheriff of Devon in 1501–02 and 1514–15, Sheriff of Somerset and Sheriff of Dorset in 1498–99 and 1534–35, and Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1516–17. He was Captain of the Isle of Wight^[2] 1509–1520^[1] with residence at Carisbrooke Castle. By 1503 he was appointed an Esquire of the Body to King Henry VII (1485–1509) and was knighted in 1504.^[1] He was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.^[1]

He was the eldest son and heir of Sir John Wadham of Merryfield and Edge (who died in 1502) and Elizabeth Stucley.^[3] He married four times, firstly to Joan Hill, the daughter of Robert Hill of Halsway, Somerset. By Joan his children included John Wadham (died 1578), son and heir, of Edge and Merryfield, who became the father of Nicholas II Wadham (died 1609), the co-founder of Wadham College, Oxford. Their other children included Laurence Wadham, who married Margaret Hody and died childless; Giles Wadham; Andrew Wadham; Mary Wadham, who married Sir Richard Chudleigh;^[4] and Elizabeth Wadham, wife of Sir Edward Baumfilde (died 1528) of Poltimore, Devon.^[5]

His second marriage was to Margaret Seymour, a daughter of John Seymour (died 1491) of Wulfhall, Wiltshire, by his wife Elizabeth Darrell, a daughter of Sir John (or George) Darrell (died c. 1474).^[6][7] By Nicholas Wadham she had a son, Nicholas, who died as an infant, and two daughters.

Thirdly he married Isabel Baynham, daughter of Thomas Baynham of Clearwell, Gloucestershire and widow of Sir Giles Brydges of Coberley, Gloucestershire, and his fourth marriage was to Joan Lyte, daughter of Richard Lyte and widow of William Walton.

Notes and references

1. Virgoe
2. Per monumental brass in Ilton Church
3. Elizabeth was not daughter of Sir Hugh Stucley (1496–1559) as shown by Vivian, p.721, but of an earlier Hugh, Sheriff of Devon in 1448.
4. Vivian, p.189; Descendants given in Pole, Sir William (died 1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.255
5. Vivian, p.39; Pole, p.231
6. Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham, Magna Carta ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families (2005), p. 554
7. Arthur Collins, Peerage of England: genealogical, biographical, and historical (1812), p. 148

Sources

• Pole, Sir William (died 1635). Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p. 141, pedigree of Wadham of Egge, Branscombe
• Prince, John, (1643–1723). The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, biography of Wadham, Sir John, Knight, (died 1412), pp. 748–752
• Stevens, Hariet Weeks Wadhams. Wadhams Genealogy: Preceded by a Sketch of the Wadham Family of England, New York, 1913
• Rogers, William Henry Hamilton. Memorials of the West, Historical and Descriptive, Collected on the Borderland of Somerset, Dorset and Devon, Exeter, 1888, pp.147–173, The Founder and Foundress of Wadham
• Virgoe, Roger. Biography of Wadham, Sir Nicholas (by 1472–1542), of Merrifield, nr. Ilton, Som., Published in The History of Parliament: House of Commons 1509–1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
• Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.). The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895