Thomas Wenman (died 1577)

Thomas Wenman (c. 1548 – 23 July 1577) (also Waynman or Weynman) was an English country gentleman who briefly sat in the House of Commons of England, representing Buckingham.

He was the eldest son of Sir Richard Wenman, a Buckinghamshire landowner, by his marriage to Isabel, daughter and coheiress of John Williams, 1st Baron Williams of Thame, who on her father's death in 1559 inherited the manor of Thame.[1]

Wenman was briefly one of the members of parliament for Buckingham in the parliament of 1571. On his father's death in 1573 he succeeded to estates in Twyford,[2] Beaconsfield,[3] Amersham, Penn, the Chalfonts, and elsewhere in Buckinghamshire, plus the manor of Eaton, then in Berkshire.[1]

On 9 June 1572 Wenman married Jane West, a daughter of William West, 1st Baron De La Warr, at St Dunstan-in-the-West, in the City of London,[4] and in the next five years they had three sons and a daughter. Wenman died at Twyford on 23 July 1577 (perhaps of gaol fever that had broken out at Oxford), and was buried in Twyford church, where he has a monument. He left high debts, some to the Crown, having borrowed at high interest before coming into his inheritance, and some of his land had to be sold. The manor of Eaton Hastings was sold to Sir John Danvers of Dauntsey for £7,700,[1] but for various reasons the conveyance was not completed[5] and was still the subject of lawsuits at the time of Danvers's death in 1594.[6]

When Wenman died his eldest son and heir, Richard Wenman, was aged only four and the Court of Wards and Liveries made him the ward of Jane Wenman and the Earl of Leicester. Leicester sold his interest in the wardship to James Cressy, who then married Jane Wenman, but died in 1581.[1] Jane Wenman subsequently (in January 1587/88) married Thomas Tasburgh of Hawridge, Buckinghamshire,[7] who took her part in contesting the title to the manor of Eaton Hastings with Sir John Danvers. After Tasburgh's death in 1602/03 her fourth marriage was to Ralph Sheldon (1537-1613), Esquire, of Beoley, Worcestershire.[8][9][10]

In 1628 Richard Wenman was created Viscount Wenman.

Notes
  1. P.W. Hasler, 'Wenman, Thomas (c.1548-77), of Twyford, Bucks.', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (from Boydell and Brewer 1982), History of Parliament Online.
  2. 'Parishes : Twyford with Charndon and Poundon', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Buckingham, Vol. 4 (London 1927), pp. 254-59 (British History Online).
  3. 'Parishes: Beaconsfield', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Buckingham, Vol. 3 (London 1925), pp. 155-65, see Hall Farm manor at notes 54-65, and Wilton manor at notes 151-54 (British History Online).
  4. 'XIX. Extracts from the parish registers of St Dunstan's in the West, London', in F. Madden, B. Bandinel and J.G. Nichols (eds), Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, Volume V (John Bowyer Nichols and Son, London 1838), pp. 202-20, at p. 213 (Google); The Herald and Genealogist Volume 2 (1865), p. 523.
  5. 'No. 80. 13 May 1582', in M.A.E. Green (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Vol. 12: AD. 1580-1625, Addenda (Longman & Co., London 1872), pp. 58-59 (Hathi Trust)
  6. The National Archives (UK), Chancery pleadings, Tasburghe v Danvers, ref. C 2/Eliz/T6/59 (Discovery Catalogue); Chancery final decrees, Danvers v Tasburghe (1590), ref. C78/79 no. 21 (m. 43-45): View original at AALT, Imgs 0083-0087.
  7. The understanding that Thomas Tasburgh made two marriages corrects the erroneous statement in the Victoria County History that Jane was married to a second, younger Thomas Tasburgh: 'Parishes: Hawridge', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Buckingham, Vol. 3 (London 1925), 367-69 (British History Online).
  8. 'III. Ralph Sheldon (1537-1613)', in E.A.B. Barnard, The Sheldons (Cambridge University Press 1936), pp. 28-42 (Google).
  9. 'iv. Jane West', in D. Richardson, ed. K.G. Everingham, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, 2nd Edn (Salt Lake City, 2011), IV, p. 325 (Google).
  10. C.H. Cooper, 'XXVII. On Agnes Lady Wenman, translator of Zonaras', Antiquarian Communications, Cambridge Antiquarian Society (16 November 1863), pp. 327-30, at p. 330 (Internet Archive).
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