EDEN, Thomas (c.1534-1614), of Sudbury, Suff.

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

b. c.1534, 1st s. of Thomas Eden, and bro. of Richard, educ. Trinity, Camb. 1551. m. (1) Elizabeth (d. 2 Dec. 1573), da. and h. of John St. Cleere of St. Osyth, Essex, 1s. 1da.; (2) Mary (d. 30 Oct. 1607), da. of Thomas Foljambe, wid. of Vincent Harris of Maldon, s.p. suc. fa. 1568. Kntd. July 1603.

Offices Held

J.p. Suff. from c.1591, sheriff 1596-7.

Biography

There were three Thomas Edens of Suffolk living during Elizabeth I’s reign: father, son and grandson. The 1589 Member inherited several estates in Suffolk and Essex, notably the house and lands formerly of the Black Friars in Sudbury, and Bailingdon in Essex which, in 1592 or the following year, he enfeoffed to his son on his marriage to Mary, daughter of Brian Darcy of Tiptree, Essex. Returned once for Sudbury when he was in his fifties and some 20 years after he had succeeded his father, Eden remains an obscure figure. He died 30 June 1614 at Sudbury, having made his will the previous year, when aged ‘three score and nineteen years or thereabouts, as I do suppose’. His son, who inherited all his estates, was sole executor. Lady Mary Eden, his daughter-in-law, received £100, and each of her children £20. Eden left £9 to the poor of three Sudbury parishes, and asked to be buried in All Saints church, ‘in the chapel where I have accustomed to hear divine service, where my mother, father and two of my wives lie buried’.

Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 390; Vis. Suff. i. 10, 18-19; Al. Cant. ii. 84; C142/152/134; C. F. D. Sperling, Sudbury, 173, 208-9; CPR, 1566-9, p. 375; C142/352/134; A. H. Smith thesis, 252-75; PCC 74 Lawe.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.C.H.

Notes