Thomas Bendish

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Born in 1607, Sir Thomas Bendish, 2nd Bart of Steeple Bumstead, served as the English ambassador to the Ottoman sultanate in the mid-17th century.

He enrolled in Middle Temple in 1626, after earlier studying at St John's College, Cambridge. Later in life, he would donate fifty books to St John's, of which forty are still kept today.^[1]

Two decades later he was banned from Essex, had his estates seized, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London after siding with King Charles I during the English Civil War. He was released on 28 September, 1644,a fter paying a 1,000 pound fine - although he remained banned from coming within 20 miles of Essex.^[2]

On January 29, 1647, the House of Lords named him ambassador to the Ottoman Empire^[3], although upon his entrance to Istanbul he was confronted by the earlier ambassador who refused to relinquish his post, and had to be forcibly removed from office.^[4]

While in office, it is known that he personally saw to Isaac Barrow, during the latter's visit to Constantinople.^[5]

His son drowned at sea, and his wife Anne Baker died from the Bubonic Plague. He was imprisoned by the Ottomans at one point due to a commercial dispute with clerics.

Bendish was recalled from his post some time prior to 1655. He died in 1674.