Sir Thomas Pelham, MP,1st Baronet

Family and Education 2nd s. of Sir Nicholas Pelham†, and bro. of John. educ. Lewes g.s. 1557; Queens’, Camb. 1561; ?G. Inn 1566. m. Mary, da. of Sir Thomas Walsingham of Chislehurst, Kent, 1s. 1da. suc. nephew Oliver Pelham 1585. cr. Bt. 1611.1

Offices Held

J.p.q. Suss. from c. 1583; sheriff, Surr. and Suss. 1589-90; dep. lt. Suss. from 1601.2

Biography Pelham succeeded to the lordship of the hundred of Shiplake in Sussex, the manors of Laughton and Colbrands and other lands in Laughton and Ripe. He also inherited the reversion of Hawksborough, Shoyswell and Baldslow hundreds in the same county, of Burwash, Bevilham and Crowhurst manors and of the messuage called ‘Halland’ in East Hoathly, in all of which Oliver’s mother, Judith Pelham, had an interest until her death in 1607.3

He was returned through his local standing for Lewes in 1584, his estate at Laughton being less than five miles distant. In 1586 he was elected for the county seat when his rival, Sir Thomas Shirley I, was in the Netherlands.4

He held his full share of local offices and was regularly a justice of the quorum. When the list of justices was overhauled in 1587 he was reported to be a good justice ‘as well in respect of religion as of the commonwealth’ but since he was ‘full of infirmity’, a fresh appointment was recommended. If in fact his name was removed it was replaced by 1591. Pelham successfully concluded the long struggle (begun in the lifetime of John Pelham) between his family and Anthony Smyth, the Crown’s lessee, for possession of the Dicker common, comprising some 450 acres in Hellingly, near Laughton. This went on in the duchy of Lancaster court, the Star Chamber and Queen’s bench and, during the minority of Oliver Pelham, in the court of wards. After 1585, Thomas Pelham defended his family’s cause both in the duchy court and in Queen’s bench, where a special jury of Sussex men found for him and against the Crown. There is much evidence of Pelham’s prosperity in the later years of Elizabeth. For the Armada loan he was assessed at £100, the highest rate known in Sussex; in 1589 he bought the manor of Foxhunt for £780 and both built and endowed Cuckfield school; and two years later he bought the castle, lordship and rape of Hastings from Henry, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon. Meanwhile he was building a new residence, Halland Place, in East Hoathly, to which he moved from Laughton in 1595. A principal source of his wealth may have been his ironworks at Waldron. In 1610 the Earl of Sussex had asked Salisbury for the wardship of Pelham’s son, in the event of the father’s early death, thinking him a suitable match for his younger daughter, and in the following year Pelham was one of the first to buy himself a baronetcy.5

Pelham died 2 Dec. 1624. In his will, made in April 1620, he asked to be buried in St. Michael’s, Lewes. His lands, he said, had been divided into three parts in 1615, at the time of his son’s marriage: the first, including the manors of Laughton and Colbrands, was then settled on his son and daughter-in-law; the second, including the mansion house of Halland, the manors of Bishopstone, Foxhunt and Cowden, and property in Lewes, was reserved to the use of his ‘loving wife’; and the third, including three manors and hundreds in the rape of Hastings as well as sundry ironworks and woods for their maintenace, was to enable his son, the executor, to pay debts and legacies.6

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603 Author: J.E.M. Notes 1. J. Comber, Suss. Genealogies, Lewes Centre, 207-8; Add. 33142, f. 1; VCH Suss. vii. 16; DNB, (Walsingham, Sir Francis, Walsingham, Sir Edmund); C142/206/24; GEC Baronetage, i. 8. 2. PRO Assizes, 35 S.E. Circuit, Suss. 27-32, 37-44; APC, xxxii. 400; PRO Index 4208, f. 220; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 78. 3. GEC Baronetage, loc. cit.; Suss. Rec. Soc. xiv. 182; VCH Suss. ix. 79. 4. Add. 33142, ff. 79, 85v; Suss. Rec. Soc. xxxiv. 10, 11; PCC 27 Clarke; C142/311/110. 5. APC, 1615-16, p. 145; C66/1435, 1468, 1482, 1493, 1523, 1549, 1594; Suss. Arch. Colls. i. 32, 37 et passim; ii. 59; iii. 228; xiii. 89; xiv. 234-5; xxxvii. 44; xlii. 44; xliii. 7; Add. 33084, f. 5; 33187, ff. 134-48, 168 seq.; 33188, ff. 1-59; 33058 passim; PCC 27 Clarke, 46 Arundel; Stowe 570, f. 104; Lansd. 152, f. 16; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 609. 6. Suss. Rec. Soc. xiv. 182; PCC 27 Clarke

• 'Sir Thomas Pelham, 1st Bt. was born circa 1540.1 He was the son of Sir Nicholas Pelham and Anne Sackville.2 He married Mary Walsingham, daughter of Sir Thomas Walsingham and Dorothy Guildford, in 1590.3 He died on 2 December 1624.4
• ' Sir Thomas Pelham, 1st Bt. held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Lewes from 1584 to 1585.3 He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Sussex between 1586 and 1590.3 He held the office of Sheriff of Surrey in 1589.3 He held the office of Sheriff of Sussex in 1589.3 He was created 1st Baronet Pelham, of Laughton, co. Sussex [England] on 22 May 1611.3 He lived at Laughton, Sussex, England.1
• 'Children of Sir Thomas Pelham, 1st Bt. and Mary Walsingham
  • 1.Judith Pelham+1 b. 21 Jun 1590, d. Oct 1629
  • 2.Sir Thomas Pelham, 2nd Bt.+5 b. 22 Sep 1597, d. c Aug 1654
• Citations
• 1.[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume IV, page 445. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• 2.[S15] George Edward Cokayne, editor, The Complete Baronetage, 5 volumes (no date (c. 1900); reprint, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1983), volume I, page 8. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Baronetage.
• 3.[S37] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 771. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.
• 4.[S15] George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Baronetage, volume I, page 9.
• 5.[S37] Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p362.htm#i3612
• ----------------------------------------
• 'A biographical peerage of the empire of Great Britain: in which ..., Volume 1 By Sir Egerton Brydges Pg.365
• http://books.google.com/books?id=svJsAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA364&lpg=PA364&dq...
• Son of Nicholas Pelham d. 1560. Thomas Pelham d. 1624 m. ?, children: Thomas d. August 28, 1654
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Thomas_Pelham,_1st_Baronet

Sir Thomas Pelham, 1st Baronet

Sir Thomas Pelham, 1st Baronet (died 2 December 1624) was an English politician.

He was the younger son of Sir Nicholas Pelham and educated at Lewes Grammar School (1557), Queens’ College, Cambridge (1561) and studied law at the Inns of Court (1566). He succeeded his nephew Oliver Pelham in 1585.

He was elected a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Lewes in 1584 and Sussex in 1586. He served as a Justice of the Peace for Sussex from c. 1583 and was appointed High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex for 1589-90. He was a deputy-lieutenant of Sussex from 1601 and was created a baronet in 1611.

He married Mary, the daughter of Sir Thomas Walsingham of Chislehurst, Kent,with whom he had 1 son and 1 daughter.[1]

References

"PELHAM, Thomas (d.1624), of Laughton; later of Halland Place, Suss.". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 8 June 2013.