By 1510 Edmund Walsingham married Katherine Gunter, daughter of John Gunter. Edmund was a "witness to the will of John Gunter of Chilworth in 1510, and thus probably by then a married man." [1]
1504-1515 "Wyntreshull v Gunter. Plaintiffs: Margaret, late the wife of Robert Wyntreshull. Defendants: Margaret, executrix and late the wife of John Gunter, of Marterhill. Subject: Dower of complainant in lands in Shalford, whereof she was deforced by the said John. Surrey." [2]
1519/20 January 27-February 3. "Final concord from the quindene of Hilary 11 Henry VIII between Richard Weston, knight, William Walsyngham, William Westbroke, Christopher More, John Gunter and John Sandes, querents, and Edmund Walsyngham, knight, and Katherine, his wife, deforciants, for the manors of Chilworth and Utworth, and eleven messuages and various lands and woods with their appurtenances in Bramley, East Shalford, West Shalford, Cranleigh, Wonersh, Dunsfold, Albury, Shere, Guildford, Stoke by Guildford and Merrow, Surrey." [3]
1538 Payments to Sir Edmund Walsingham were listed in the accounts of Henry VIII. [4]
The King's Payments. ... Quarter's wages at Lady Day:—Sir Edm. Walsingham, fee, 25l.; to him for finding of prisoners, 25l.; for wages of the yeomen of the Tower, 36l. 10s. 7d.
1542 Payments to Sir Edmund Walsingham were listed in the accounts of Henry VIII. [5]
The King's Payments.
Account of receipts and payments of Sir Brian Tuke, from 1 May to 30 Sept., 34 Hen. VIII. ...
Quarter wages for Midsummer: Sir Edm. Walsinghame, lieutenant of the Tower, 25l.; "for finding of poor prisoners," 25l.; for wages of the yeomen of the Tower, 36l. 10s. 8d.
1549/10 Edmund Walsingham died on February 10. "Walsingham made his will on 7 Feb. 1550 and died three days later; the will was proved on 8 Nov. 1550. He asked to be buried in 'the tomb within the chapel where myself have usually sitten', that is, the Scadbury chapel which had probably been built by his grandfather Thomas. He left 12s. a year to the 24 poorest householders in Chislehurst, Footscray and St. Paul's Cray, and 40s. for repairs to bridges and highways in Chislehurst. He had goods and rich estates to bequeath and his son Thomas was the main beneficiary, the remainder of the lands going to his nephew Francis. To a kinsman 'William', whose surname is left a blank but who is elsewhere referred to as William Thwaites, he left his leases of the manors of Stanground and Tyting, and he appointed his son-in-law Sir Thomas Saunders the youth's guardian, providing an annuity of £7 and profits of lands in Wales for his education and upbringing. He left the bulk of his household goods at Yokes to his wife for her lifetime with remainder to his daughters, his 'brother Ayloff's' children and his 'kinsman' William if his son should die without heirs; his wife was to keep the lease of her house in the Blackfriars and all her personal property there which she had brought to the marriage. He made bequests of money and goods to several of his servants, appointed his son Thomas his executor and named as overseers his wife and two of his son-in-law, Sir Thomas Saunders and Sir Thomas Barnardiston." [6]
1549/50 Edmund Walsingham was buried in Scadbury chantry in Chislehurst. [7]
His (James Walsingham's) eldest son Sir Edmund Walsingham became Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and continued to hold that position of high trust during twenty two years. Buried in the Scadbury chantry here, in February, 1549[/50], he is commemorated by a tomb of Bethersden marble, which was erected thirty two years after his death by his son Sir Thomas.
1550 The IPM for Edmund Walsingham states, [8]
Inquisition taken at the Guildhall, 14 May, 4 Edward VI [1550], before Rouland Hill, knight, Mayor and escheator, after the death of Edmund Walsingham, knight, by the oath of John Morreys, Thomas Peycocke, John Leylond, Thomas Petit, Thomas Dyxill, Christopher Jackson, Thomas Jurden, Richard Pagett, George Forman, Roger Tindall, John Metheringham, William Bessewicke, Thomas Michell, Benedict Burton and William Morreis, who say that Long before the death of Edmund Walsingham, King Henry VIII was seised of 8 messuages or tenements late in the several tenures of Thomas Abram, John Edwardes, John Warner, John Thomson, John Henyam, John Lincolne, Bartholomew Mawger and John Skynner, situate in the parish of the Blessed Mary of Bow in the ward of Chepe, and which belonged to the late Monastery or Priory of Newarke in the county of Surrey, now dissolved; and 1 other messuage late in the tenure of William Clerke, in the parish of St. Nicholas Coldabbey in the ward of Quenehyve, London, to the said Monastery belonging. So seised, the said King by Letters Patent dated at Beerechurche 22 July, 31 Henry VIII [1539], for the faithful service rendered to him by the said Sir Edmund granted to him all the said premises: to hold to him and the heirs male of his body. All the said premises are held of the King in chief by the service of the 20th part of a knight's fee, and paying therefore yearly to the said King and his heirs £4 11s. 4d. at Michaelmas, and are worth per ann., clear, £40 6s. 8d.
Edmund Walsingham died 10 February last past; Thomas Walsingham, esq., is his son and next heir, and is now aged 24 years and more.
Inq. p.m., 4 Edward VI, p. 2, No. 30.
Research Notes:
"Walsingham, Sir Edmund (b. in or before 1480, d. 1550), soldier, was the eldest son of James Walsingham (1462-1540), landowner, of Scadbury, in Chislehurst, Kent, and his wife, Eleanor (b. before 1465, d. after 1540), daughter of Walter Writtle of Bobbingworth, Essex. His pedigree traces family ancestors to thirteenth-century Walsingham, Norfolk, but his earliest documented forebears were London citizens: Alan Walsingham (fl. 1415), a cordwainer; Thomas Walsingham (d. 1457), a vintner, who bought Scadbury in 1424; and Thomas Walsingham (1436-1467), his grandfather. Edmund Walsingham's brother William (d. 1534), was the father of Sir Francis Walsingham (c.1532-1590)." Edmund married "Katherine (b. before 1495, d. c.1526), daughter of John Gunter of Chilworth, and widow of Henry Morgan of Pen-coed, Monmouthshire, by 1510 ... The couple had four sons, including Sir Thomas Walsingham (1526-1584), father of Sir Thomas Walsingham (1560/61-1630), and four daughters. ... Between 1535 and 1543 Walsingham married Anne Drury (d. 1559), daughter of Edward Jerningham of Somerleyton, Suffolk, and his wife, Mary. She had been widowed four times. The couple had no children. Walsingham died on 10 February 1550. His will was dated 7 February and requested burial at Chislehurst 'within the chapell there, where myself have usually sitten' (Webb, Miller, and Beckwith, 378)." [9]
A biography of Sir Edmund Walsingham was published in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1899. [10]
[1] S.T. Bindoff, ed., The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1509-1558 (Boydell & Brewer, 1982), [History of Parliament Online].
[2] The National Archives of the United Kingdom Catalog, C 1/371/8, Chancery pleadings addressed to William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury as Lord Chancellor, [UKNationalArchives].
[3] The National Archives of the United Kingdom Catalog, WARD 2/54A/181/44, [UKNationalArchives].
[4] J. S. Brewer, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII., Vol. 13, part 2 (London: HMSO, 1893), 527, [HathiTrust].
[5] James Gairdner, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII., Vol. 17 (London: HMSO, 1900), 478, [HathiTrust].
[6] S.T. Bindoff, ed., The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1509-1558 (Boydell & Brewer, 1982), citing PCC 25 Coode; C142/91/30, [History of Parliament Online].
[7] William Archibald Scott Robertson, "Chislehurst and its Church," Kentish Archaeology, Vol. 4, section 6 (London: Mitchel and Hughes, 1880), 7, [GoogleBooks].
[8] George S. Fry, ed., Abstracts of Inquisitiones Post Mortem Relating to the City of London, Part 1, 1485-1561 (London: London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, 1896), 88, [GoogleBooks].
[9] William B. Robison, "Walsingham, Sir Edmund (b. in or before 1480, d. 1550)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, rev. January, 2008), [Oxford_Dictionary_National_Biography], [OxfordDNB(UM)].
[10] Sidney Lee, ed., Dictionary of National Biography, Wakeman-Watkins, Vol. 59 (London: Smith Elder & Co, 1899), 228, [HathiTrust].