Thomas Walsingham (c. 1526 – 1584)
Thomas Walsingham (c. 1526 – 15 January 1584) was an English politician.
He was the only surviving son of Sir Edmund Walsingham of Scadbury, Lieutenant of the Tower[1] and entered at Lincoln's Inn in 1542.[2] He succeeded his father in 1550.[1]
He was described as a "country gentleman", and was a significant landowner. As well as his main estates near Chislehurst, he had property in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Surrey and London. He was a Justice of the Peace for Kent from around 1559 and was appointed High Sheriff of Kent for 1563–64.[1] He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone in 1571, probably through the influence of his cousin Francis Walsingham.[3] He was knighted at Rye in 1573, when the queen was on progress through Kent.[4]
Marriage and children
Thomas Walsingham married Dorothy Guildford (died 1584), the daughter of Sir John Guildford of Benenden[1], and had 5 sons and 8 daughters, including:
- Mary Walsingham, who married Sir Thomas Pelham (1550-1624)
- Anne Walsingham, who married Thomas Randolph (1523-1590)
- Guildford Walsingham, who married Mary Lennard.[5]
- Thomas Walsingham, who married Ethelred Shelton, and was a patron of Christopher Marlowe.[1]
He wrote his will in October 1583[6] and died the following January.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f "WALSINGHAM, Thomas (c.1526-84), of Scadbury, Chislehurst, Kent". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
- ^ Lincoln's Inn Admissions Register. Vol. 1. 1896. p. 54.
- ^ "Parliaments 1558-1603: Constituencies - Maidstone". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 1 August 2025.
- ^ Webb, Edward Alfred; Miller, G. W.; Beckwith, J. (1899). The History of Chislehurst. p. 133.
- ^ Archaeologia Cantiana, vol. 17 (London, 1887), p. 390.
- ^ Webb 1899, p. 381.