Sunday 1 January 2017

Been looking at Sir Francis Nedham(Needham) of Melborne, Derbyshire & Barking, Suffolk

Birth: The Visitation of 1569/1611 shows his father was George Nedham and his mother was Claire Latte. But where was he born. I suspect it was not in Derbyshire and believe George lived in London for a period. When George was knighted he was described as Francis Needham of London. I have found a family with a son Francis f George:



Francis Nedam 22 Nov 1560 Saint Olave Old Jewry,London George esbc
Marye Nedam 28 Aug 1558 Saint Olave Old Jewry,London George esbc
Ellsibethe Nedam 25 Jun 1557 Saint Olave Old Jewry,London Georg esbc
Jone Nedam 17 Jul 1559 Saint Olave Old Jewry,London George esbc

It needs to be proved that this is the baptism of Sir Francis

Family: There  is an error in the published Lincolnshire Visitation of 1669

In the Lincolnshire Pedigrees a Sir Thomas appears as the son of George and Clare and the father of a number of children  but this is wrong. I can find no other reference to a Sir Thomas. The children listed are those of Sir Francis in the Lincolnshire Pedigree's Thomas should read Francis. Sir Francis definitely owned Barking Hall. The Derbyshire Visitation does not show Thomas as the son of George & Clare only Francis

Will:


Dated Oct 1637
Proven 11 May 1638
No mention of wife but the will is not  easy to read
Sons: Ottwell, Henry, Thomas (his heir), George
Daughters: Ann Wenham & husband John, Rebecca Wiseman & husband John, Sarah Alston & husband Peter & Elizabeth Tilney & husband Phillip plus Clare Nedham & Frances Nedham plus fiancé John N?
Grandchildren: Francis d George & Elizabeth, Ann Tilney d Philip & Elizabeth, Penelope & Thomasine Wiseman d of Rebecca & John & Thomas Wenham s Ann 7 John
Mentions servants John Yeoman, Elizabeth Silbie & Robert Pofford (?) plus John Nedham


Melborne:Leased the hall from 1592; rebuilt it in 1596 and lived there from 1598. Sold it to Sir Francis Coke in 1629.


In 1595 Sir Francis Needham of London, the current lessee, decided to make his home at Melbourne, but the house and outbuildings were by this time fallen into ‘exceeding greate decaye, especially the mansion house which is utterly ruined and nit inhabitable withoute greate and chardgable reparacions’. John Harpur of Swarkerstone and Raphe Sacheverell of Stanton by Bridge, both J.Ps, estimated that more than £200 needed to be spent on the house.

Sir Francis pulled down and rebuilt a large part of it within the next two years. The oldest surviving masonry in the house is probably of this period. The result, known from various plans and documents, was a house with much the same layout as it has today. The principal ‘Great Hall’ was aligned east-west in the area of the present Dining Room and Study, and there were east and west wings projecting to the south in the place of the present ones. As it does today, the west wing contained the kitchen and sculleries, while the east wing housed the best rooms.
The appearance of the house was, however, very different. The leaded windows had stone mullions and transoms, there were large external chimney stacks and a profusion of gables. The principal front faced south across the pool and was broadly symmetrical with a little court between the wings, closed in by a wall with an elaborate gateway. It was an irregular building that had clearly evolved slowly over time. To our eyes it would no doubt have been pleasant and quaint, but by the early 18th century it was considered an ‘eyesore’.

This was the house that confronted Sir John Coke when he purchased Sir Francis Needham’s freehold and leasehold estate at Melbourne in 1629 and made it his retirement home. Within a few months of obtaining the lease Sir John had planned substantial alterations, and in November 1629 he wrote out lengthy instructions with measurements and great attention to detail. He divided his directions under separate headings for the masons, carpenters, joiners, smiths, plumbers, glaziers, stonegetters and labourers, plasterers and pargeters, and obtained permission from the Earl of Huntingdon to quarry stone from the foundations of Melbourne Castle, which had been sold away from the Crown in 1604.

Barking Hall:In 1609 William Glover asked for a lease of the manor Of Barking in Suffolk, but he does not seem to have obtained it, as the manor and estate were sold in 1611 to Sir Francis Needham and John Yeomans and the heirs of Sir Francis, with liberty to impark 400 acres.      Sir Francis Needham in 1637 informed King James I. that he would build an almshouse in the manor.  Sir Francis Needham died in 1637, and devised the manor to his eldest son, Thomas, who married Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Jenny, of Brightwell, K.B., and sold it to Francis Theobald, son of Thomas Theobald, of Wrentham.
Copinger The Manors of Suffolk Vol 2

Knighthood:
On the morning of the 8th of November 1617, Sir John Killegrew was knighted at Whitehall. On the same day Lady Hatton, “the wife of Sir Edward Coke, quandam Lord Chief Justice, entertained the King, Buckingham, and the rest of the Peers, at a splendid dinner, not inviting her husband 9." On this occasion, his Majesty knighted, at Hatton House in Scotland, Sir Nathaniell Rich, of London; Sir Francis Needham, and Sir Peter Chapman.
“ The Lady Hatton’s feast was very magnificent, and the King graced her every way, and made four of her creatures Knights,-—Sir Peter Chapman that belongs to the Lord of Exeter; Sir Francis Needham, an old solicitor betwixt her and Sir Christopher Hatton; Sir Nathaniel Rich, a kinsman of Sir Robert; and one Witliipole, a kinsman of her own I. But the principal graces and favours lighted on the Lady Compton [Villiers] and her children, whom the King praised and kissed, and blessed all those that wished them well. “These were some errors at the Lady Hatton's feast (if it was not on purpose) that the Lord Chamberlain [the Earl of Pembroke] and the Lord of Arundel were not invited, but went away to their own dinner, and came back to wait on the King and Prince. But the greatest error was, that the good man of the house [Sir Edward Coke] was neither invited nor spoken of, but dined that day at the Temple ."

The progresses, processions, and magnificent festivities, of king james the first, his royal consort, family, and court: collected from original mss., scarce pamphlets, corporation records, parochials registers, &c., &c, volume 3; John Nichols January 1, 1828 Printed by and for Nichols/AMS Press

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