Family and Education

b. c.1554, 1st s. of Thomas Bedingfield of Fleming’s Hall by Mary, da. of William Methwold of Langford, Norf. educ. Christ’s, Camb. 1571, L. Inn 1575, from Furnival’s Inn, called 1583. m. Dorothy, da. of John Southwell of Barham, Suff., 5s. 3da. suc. fa. 1571.

Offices Held

?J.p. Suff. from 1584; pens. L. Inn 1597; assoc. bench 1603; steward of duchy of Lancaster lands in Norf., Suff., Camb. from Apr. 1604.

Biography

There were several branches of the Bedingfield family in Norfolk and Suffolk, and at least three Thomases living in 1586. One, a gentleman pensioner to Queen Elizabeth, who died in 1613, is unlikely to have sat for Eye as his will shows no Suffolk connexions; another, of Flemworth Hall, Suffolk, was of a Catholic family. It is likely that the Eye burgess was Thomas Bedingfield of Fleming’s Hall, a lawyer. Bedingfield held this manor of the honour of Eye, and his manor of Netherhall was at least partly in Eye. At the time of his death he was living at Darsham, which he had bought from Edward Honing. There he was buried. He made his will 28 Sept. 1635, proved 26 Nov. 1636. Bedingfield left Fleming’s to his eldest son Philip and his wife Anne, the daughter of Edward Bacon, together with the reversion of other estates. The executors were his sons Thomas and Anthony. Bedingfield hoped his children would ‘live lovingly and peaceably, one with the other, and one to be ever kind and helpful to the other in what conveniently they may’.

W. A. Copinger, Suff. Manors, ii. 56, 542; iv. 20; Burke, Commoners, iii. 508; Lansd. 121, f. 65; L. Inn Black Bk. ii. 52, 78, 148, 150, 156; PRO Index 6801; Blomefield, Norf. iii. 366; K. Bedingfield, Bedingfields of Oxburgh, passim; C142/544/5; CPR, 1560-3, pp. 382, 386; PCC 109 Pile.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.H.

Notes