Thomas Edmondes

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"Thomas Edmunds" redirects here. For the Australian politician, see Tom Edmunds.

Sir Thomas Edmondes, holding a white staff, symbol of certain senior officers of the Royal Household
Arms of Edmonds: Or, a chevron azure on a canton of the second a boar's head couped between three fleurs-de-lys of the first[1]

Sir Thomas Edmonds (1563 – 20 September 1639) was an English diplomat and politician who served under three successive monarchs, Queen

James I and Charles I, and occupied the office of Treasurer of the Royal Household
from 1618 to 1639.

Origins

He was the fifth son of Thomas Edmonds (d.1604) of Plymouth in Devon and of Fowey in Cornwall (eldest son of Henry Edmunds of Salisbury in Wiltshire), Customer of Plymouth in 1564, by his first wife Joane de la Bere, a daughter of Anthony De la Bere of Sherborne in Dorset.[2]

Career

He is said to have been introduced at court by another namesake, Sir Thomas Edmonds,

Elizabeth I, where he received the rudiments of political education from Sir Francis Walsingham
. He was a man of small stature but formidable character: people spoke of "the little man" with respect.

In 1592 the queen appointed Edmonds as her agent in France concerning the affairs of the king of Navarre and the

ambassador at Brussels and one of the commissioners for the peace conference at Boulogne-sur-Mer. In 1601 he was appointed a clerk of the Privy Council, but returned to Paris as minister soon after. He was elected an MP for Liskeard
, Cornwall, in 1601.

He was knighted by King

ambassador to France
for seven years.

In 1616 he was appointed

ambassador to France
in 1629 to ratify a treaty.

Retirement

On his return to England he retired to Albyns in Essex, a manor he had inherited from his wife, it was said he employed the architect Inigo Jones to rebuild the house. He died on 20 September 1639.

Marriage and progeny

He married Magdalen Wood (died 1614), a daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Wood, Clerk of the Signet.

Their children included:

His second wife was Sara or Sarah Harington (1565-1628), a daughter of Sir James Harington of Exton and Lucy Sidney, and widow of Francis, Lord Hastings, Sir George Kingsmith, and Edward 11th Baron Zouche. Her portrait was painted by Isaac Oliver and by Cornelius Johnson.[5] The portraits by Johnson show her aged 63 wearing a large miniature case referring to Frederick V of the Palatinate with the Greek letter "phi". A similar miniature case was described in an inventory of a Scottish soldier.[6]

References

  • J. Palmer, A Biographical History of England (1824), 86–7.
  • M. Greengrass, 'Edmonds, Sir Thomas (d. 1639)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [1], Retrieved 12 Jan 2009
  1. ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.327
  2. ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.327, pedigree of "Edmonds of Plymouth"
  3. ^ Vivian, p.327
  4. ^ "EDMONDS, Thomas (c.1563-1639), of Albyns, Romford, Essex and Holborn, London". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  5. ^ See, Portrait of Lady Edmondes, by Cornelius Johnson, NT Hatchlands and, Portrait of Lady Edmondes, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas.
  6. ^ Athol Murray, 'Jewels Associated with the Queen of Bohemia', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 131 (2001), pp. 328, 343.
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