EDEN, Edward, of Thetford, Norf.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

?s. of George Eden of Sudbury, Suff. m. ?Bridget Calthrop.

Offices Held

Mayor, Thetford 1579-80, 1584-5, 1590-1, coroner 1581, 1586, 1592, town clerk 1601.

Biography

Little has been discovered about Eden. He was active in Thetford affairs in 1577, when accounting for ‘some money collected for the setting forth of the soldiers’. In the same year he was one of those who ‘discommunicated’ Ambrose Kent ‘for irreverent behaviour to the mayor’. The following year Eden himself was imprisoned, with two others, for his ‘absence and disobedience at Magdalen Fair, in not accompanying the mayor there’. However by the next month he was attending a corporation meeting to discuss payment for a cup to be presented to the Queen. During his second term as mayor, Eden was returned to Parliament for the borough, 30 Oct. 1584. Apparently he had not anticipated the honour, as he had written on el Oct. to Bassingbourne Gawdy, who wanted one of the seats, that

we are all fully determined to choose our recorder to be one, and we expect a letter from our very good lord, the Earl of Arundel, for the commending of one other ... and ... we cannot but grant his request.

In accordance with Thetford custom, Eden became coroner for the year following his year of office as mayor. In August 1601 he was made town clerk, an office which he could perform by deputy. Two months later, for reasons unknown, he relinquished the office, after which nothing more is heard of him.

Vis. Suff. ed. Howard, i. 8-9; Thetford hall bk. c. 1570-1622, passim; Vis. Norf. 65; Le Strange, Norf. Official Lists, 229; Blomefield, Norf. i. 465; CSP Dom. 1581-90, p. 54; Norf. Arch. Soc. Lib. Gawdy letter bk.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: G.M.C.

Notes