14^th Great Grandfather – FFFMFFMMMFFMFMMF¹

Sir Thomas Wyndham of Felbrigg was an English sea captain and Vice-Admiral of England.

Thomas was born in about 1466 to Sir John Wyndham and Margaret Howard, daughter of John Howard, the 1st Duke of Norfolk². The Wyndhams were a prominent family in Norfolk.

Thomas’s father John was knighted³ for bravery at the battle of Stoke on 16^th June 1487⁴, but later he was implicated in the consipiracy of Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, was convicted of treason on 2^nd May 1502, and was executed on Tower Hill 4 days later⁵

The Wyndhams were associated with the de la Pole Earl’s of Suffolk from the middle of the 15^th century and Thomas’s grandfather, John Wyndham was involved with the quarells with the Pastons⁶, as was revealed in the famous Paston Letters⁷

Thomas married Eleanor Scrope, daughter and co-heir of Sir Richard Scrope, in about 1495. They had two sons and at least one daughter, Mary who married Erasmus Paston, who was a Member of Parliament for Orford⁸. Eleanor was appointed to wait on Katherine of Aragon in October 1501⁹

After Eleanor died, sometime before 1508, Thomas married Elizabeth Wentworth, the widow of Roger Darcy. Elizabeth was an aunt of the future queen Jane Seymour. Thomas and Elizabeth had further children including a son Thomas .

Thomas was a counsellor to King Hanry VIII who in 1512 appointed him Captain under his cousin Admiral Edward Howard. When war broke out in May 1512 Thomas took part under Admiral Howard in the seaborne raid at Crozon on the Brittany Coast, and he was afterwards knighted by the Admiral. He accompanied Henry as a Knight of the Body at the sieges of Therouanne and Tournay later that same year.

In 1513 he was appointed captain of the John Baptist and Fleet Treasurer and in the follwing year he was promoted to Vice Admiral of England and made captain of the Henry Grace a Dieu.

Thomas lived at Felbrigg in Norfolk. When he died in about 1522 he was buried in the Lady Chapel at Norwich Cathedral.

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