John Wadham (died 1578)

John Wadham (died 1578), Detail from mural monument to his wife Joan Tregarthin (died 1583), north transept, St Winifred's Church, Branscombe

Arms of Wadham: Gules, a chevron between three roses argent

John Wadham (died 1578) of Merryfield, Ilton, Somerset and Edge, Branscombe, Devon, was a Devonshire gentleman who is chiefly remembered for having been the father of Nicholas II Wadham (1531/2-1609), co-founder of Wadham College, Oxford and for the surviving mural monument to his wife in Branscombe Church on which appears his effigy and armorials.

Origins

He was the eldest son and heir of Sir Nicholas I Wadham (by 1472-1542), of Merryfield and Edge, MP for Somerset in 1529, by his first wife Joan Hill, the daughter of Robert Hill, MP,^[1] of Halsway, Somerset and Bridport, Dorset.^[2]

Early ancestry

The ancient estate of Wadham, in the parish of Knowstone, North Devon, was according to Hoskins (1959), the original home of the Wadham family (originally de Wadham) later of Branscombe, Devon and Merrifield, near Ilton, Somerset, the most prominent of whom and the last in the male line was Nicholas II Wadham (1531/2– 1609), who with his wealthy wife Dorothy Petre was the founder of Wadham College, Oxford.^[3] It is a historical rarity as in the Domesday Book of 1086, listed as WADEHAM, it was held by Ulf, one of the Saxon thanes of King William the Conqueror, who had held it since before the Norman Conquest of 1066.^[4] In the reign of King Henry IV (1399–1413) the estates of East Wadham and West Wadham were possessed by Sir John Wadham, from whom it descended to the heirs general of Nicholas Wadham."^[5]

Marriage & progeny

He married Joan Tregarthin (died 1583), a daughter and co-heiress of John Tregarthin of Cornwall and widow of John Kelloway of Collumpton,^[6] Devon. By Joan he had progeny including:

Son

• Nicholas II Wadham (1531/2-1609), only son and heir, co-founder with his wife Dorothy Petre (d.1618) of Wadham College, Oxford.

Daughters

His daughters, later the co-heiresses of their brother Nicholas, were:

• Joan Wadham, first wife of Sir Giles Strangways (1528-1562), of Melbury Sampford, Dorset, five times MP for Dorset in 1553, 1554, 1555, 1558 and 1559,^[7] and was thus ancestor of the Fox-Strangways Earls of Ilchester.^[8]
• Margaret Wadham, wife of Nicholas Martin (d.1595) of Athelhampton, Dorset. The couple's monumental brass, showing them kneeling beneath an escutcheon with the ancient arms of FitzMartin (Argent, two bars gules) impaling Wadham, survives in St Mary's Church, Puddletown, Dorset.^[9] Nicholas Martyn, in full armour, kneels bare-headed before an altar on which is an open book. His three sons, who all predeceased him, kneel behind him. To the right is his wife Margaret Wadham, behind whom kneel their seven daughters, of whom four survived as co-heiresses.^[10]
• Florence Wadham (d.1596), wife of Sir John Wyndham (d.1572) of Orchard Wyndham, Watchet, in Somerset, ancestor of the Wyndham Earls of Egremont of Petworth House in Sussex.

Monument at Branscombe

Mural monument to Joan Tregarthin (died 1583) widow successively of John Kelloway and John Wadham (died 1578) of Merifield, Ilton, Somerset and Edge, Branscombe. North transept, Branscombe Church, Devon

The surviving mural monument in St Winifred's Church, Branscombe, was erected in memory of Joan Tregarthin some time after her death in 1583. It has suffered much neglect and has been whitewashed several times. Very few traces of colouring remain which makes identification of the armorials difficult. The relief sculpture is well executed and clear.^[11] The small kneeling effigy of Joan appears twice on the monument, kneeling behind each husband, "a double appearance thought to be unique in British memorial art of this period".^[12] A large slate tablet below the figures is inscribed as follows:

"Here lieth intomb'd the body of a virtuous & antient gentlewoman descended of the antient house of Plantagenets sometime of Cornwall namely JOAN, one of the daughters & heirs unto John Tregarthin in the County of Cornwall, Esq. She was first married unto John Kelleway, Esq., who had by her much issue. After his death she was married to John Wadham of Meryfield in the County of Somerset, Esq., & by him had several children. She lived a virtuous and godly life & died in an honourable age, ...(date never inscribed)... September in the year of Christ 1583"

Heraldry

Heraldic escutcheon from mural monument in Branscombe Church, Devon, to Joan Tregarthin (died 1583) and her two husbands, John Kelloway and John Wadham (died 1578)

The sinister escutcheon on the monument shows the arms of Wadham, of 9 quarters, impaling Tregarthin, of 6 quarters.

Wadham arms

These 9 quarters are largely the same as those depicted on the monument of Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham in the north transept of Ilminster Church, Somerset.^[13][14] they are as follows:^[15]

• 1st: Gules, a chevron between three roses argent (Wadham)
• 2nd: Or, on a chevron gules three martlets or (Chiseldon of Holcombe Rogus,^[16] referring to the heiress Margaret Chiseldon, wife of William Wadham (d.1452), John Wadham's great-great-grand-father)
• 3rd: Argent, on a chief gules two stag's heads cabosed or (Popham, referring to the heiress Elizabeth Popham, daughter of Sir Stephen Popham (d.1444), MP, of Popham, Hampshire, wife of Sir John III Wadham, John Wadham's great-grand-father)
• 4th: Gules, a chevron argent between nine bezants 3,2,1 and 2,1 (South?^[17])(Stourton?^[18])
• 5th Sable, six lioncels or (St Martin of West Dean and Steeple Langford, Hampshire, of Alvington in Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight, Hampshire and of Littlecote, Wiltshire. Sir Stephen Popham's paternal grandmother was the heiress Sibyl St Martin^[19])
• 6th: Argent, a chief indented vert (alias per fess indented vert and argent) over-all a bend gules (Neville of West Dean, an heiress of St Martin)^[20]
• 7th Barry of six or and azure, an eagle displayed gules (Waleran of West Dean (13th century), an heiress of Neville)^[21]
• 8th: Per pale (wavy) azure and argent a lion rampant or and gules (Lorty of Axford, an heiress of St Martin)^[22]
• 9th: Gules a bend fusilly ermine (Redege alias Riedde of Devon).^[23]

Tregarthin arms

The heraldry here is explicable by reference to the ancestry of Joan Tregarthin, as set out by Davies in his "Parochial History of Cornwall", concerning the parish of Goran:^[24]

"At Tregarden lived John de Tregarthyn, temp Edward I, how long before I know not, after which his posterity in this place married with the great inheritrixes of Pever, Chamberlayne and Hendower, of Court, in Branell, by which last, by the Cornwalls of that place, they were lineally descended from Richard, Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans, by his concubine Joan de Valletort, widow of Sir Alexander Oakeston".

The arms are as follows:

• 1st: Argent, two lobster's claws in saltire gules (Tregarthick)^[25]
• 2nd:Argent, a chevron between three escallops sable (Tregarthin).^[26]
• 3rd:Semee of escallops, a lion rampant (Hendower)
• 4th:A lion rampant in chief a label of three points a bordure engrailed bezantee (Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, with difference of a bordure engrailed)
• 5th:On a bend 5 (or six) roundels (Chamberlayne)
• 6th:On a chevron three fleurs-de-lys (Pever)

Ancestry

Sources

• Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, esp. p. 141, pedigree of Wadham of Egge, Branscombe
• Gilbert, Davies, (ed.), The Parochial History of Cornwall: Founded on the Manuscripts...,Volume 2, pp.109-110
• Branscombe, Ronald, A Guide to the Church of St Winifred, Branscombe: The Tombs and Gravestones within the Church
• Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries, 1907 (Vol. 4). London, pp.341-2, Article 59 by "Senex", Branscombe Monument

References

1. ↑ Virgoe, Roger, Biography of Wadham, Sir Nicholas (by 1472-1542), of Merrifield, nr. Ilton, Som., Published in The History of Parliament: House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
2. ↑ Rogers, William Henry Hamilton, Memorials of the West, Historical and Descriptive, Collected on the Borderland of Somerset, Dorset and Devon, Exeter, 1888, pp.147-173, The Founder and Foundress of Wadham, p.156
3. ↑ Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.422
4. ↑ Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, Part 1, 52,40
5. ↑ Risdon, Tristram (died 1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, p.303
6. ↑ Prince
7. ↑ STRANGWAYS, Sir Giles II (1528-62), of Melbury Sampford, Dorset.
8. ↑ Burke, John, The Royal Families of England, pedigree CCII, Earl of Dunraven
9. ↑
10. ↑
11. ↑ D&C N&Q
12. ↑ Branscombe, Ronald
13. ↑ Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries, 1907 (Vol. 4). London, pp.341-2, Article 59 by "Senex", Branscombe Monument
14. ↑ "The Wadham family has been treated of at large in Prince's Worthies and in subsequent books such as that of Mr. T. G. Jackson, R.A., on Wadham College"
15. ↑ Blazons in part from information sheet in Ilminster Church; several relate to successive heiresses of manor of West Dean, Hampshire, see
16. ↑ Pole, p.478
17. ↑ Rogers, p.153
18. ↑ http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/stourton-john-i-1438
19. ↑ Rogers, p.153; Victoria County History, Vol.4: Hampshire, 1911, pp.519-524, Parishes: West Tytherley with Buckholt, Manors: West Dean
20. ↑ Rogers, p.153; Victoria County History, Vol.4: Hampshire, West Dean]
21. ↑ Rogers, p.153; Victoria County History, Vol.4: Hampshire, West Dean]; not to be confused with Walrond of Bradfield, Uffculme, Devon and of Sea, Ilminster, Somerset
22. ↑ Rogers, p.153; referring to Sibyl Lorty (d.1349), wife of Laurence St Martin (d.1318) and daughter and heiress of John Lorty of Axford
23. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=lBkNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=gules+a+bend+fusilly+ermine&source=bl&ots=rYICM9g87S&sig=oyyYln293lI4BnEG92Oa7_jvc-M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ELrHVIHYG4SvyQSnzoL4DQ&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=gules%20a%20bend%20fusilly%20ermine&f=false An Armory of the Western Counties (Devon and Cornwall).: From the Unpublished Manuscripts of the XVI Century. By Sabine Baring-Gould, Robert Twigge. Published by J.G. Commin, 1898; page 40. Note: A (later?) relation's arms are blazoned, Gules, five fusils in bend ermine a bordure sable (Reade of Pole-Anthony, Tiverton, Devon, an heiress of Popham); see Rogers, p.153; Pole, pp.213-4, 499
24. ↑ Davies, Vol.2, pp.109-110, adding ref to his articles on "St Stephens in Branell"and "St Stephens in Saltash"
25. ↑ It has not been explained why the arms of Tregarthin do not appear in the 1st quarter as might be expected. D&C N&Q: "There is but scanty evidence of this family, presumably of Cornish origin, and known as Tregarthick or Tregarthyke. Papworth (p. 963) sets out the Tregarthicks (of Cornwall and Devon) as carrying 2 lobster claws (dexter over sinister) in saltire gules. Tregarthick. " In Harley MS., 1404 (which is a blazon of Ordinaries), fol. 160, Tregarthick is blazoned as 2 lobsters' claws in saltire gu., and the field is apparently argent. In C. S. Gilbert's Cornwall, ii., 348, Tregarthick is said to carry crabs' claws. But there does not seem any evidence of a connection between Tregarthin and Tregarthick to account for the 1st quartering, on the Tregarthin (half of the escutcheon) of Tregarthick. It does not appear that any other family ever carried lobsters' or crabs' claws; and a suggestion that this coat was recorded as an ancient (even then in the i6th century) cognizance of Tregarthin, does not seem supported by any actual evidence; but rather to be a surmise to explain the difficulty felt as to the quarterings on the (Tregarthin alf of the escutcheon)"
26. ↑ D&C N&Q: "The arms of Tregarthin (quite well known) are: Argent a chevron between 3 escallops sable. About this there is no doubt, but other families used the same or a similar coat. (See Papworth, p. 416, for the Tregarthin coat)"; see also Tristram Risdon's Notebook