John Wadham (died 1578)

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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 was the father of Nicholas II Wadham (1531/2–1609) who was a co-founder of Wadham College, Oxford. A mural monument to his wife survives in Branscombe Church on which appears his effigy and armorials.

Origins

John 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, of Halsway, Somerset and Bridport, Dorset.

Marriage and progeny

John married Joan Tregarthin, a daughter and co-heiress of John Tregarthin of Cornwall and widow of John Kelloway of Collumpton, Devon. After Joan's death in 1583, a mural monument in St Winifred's Church, Branscombe, was erected in her memory, which still survives. John Wadham and John Kelloway both appear on the monument, with Joan represented twice, kneeling behind each husband, Ronald Branscombe, a local historian, stating that this is "a double appearance thought to be unique in British memorial art of this period".

He had children with Joan, including a son:

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

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, and was thus ancestor of the Fox-Strangways Earls of Ilchester.
• Margaret Wadham, wife of Nicholas Martin (died 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. 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.
• Florence Wadham (died 1596), wife of Sir John Wyndham (died 1572) of Orchard Wyndham, Watchet, in Somerset, ancestor of the Wyndham Earls of Egremont of Petworth House in Sussex.

Monument at Branscombe

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Mural monument to Joan Tregarthin (died 1583) widow successively of John Kelloway and John Wadham (died 1578), 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. 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". 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

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Heraldic escutcheon from mural monument

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. they are as follows:

• 1st: Gules, a chevron between three roses argent (Wadham)
• 2nd: Or, on a chevron gules three martlets or (Chiseldon of Holcombe Rogus, referring to the heiress Margaret Chiseldon, wife of William Wadham (died 1452), John Wadham's great-great-grandfather)
• 3rd: Argent, on a chief gules two stag's heads cabosed or (Popham, referring to the heiress Elizabeth Popham, daughter of Sir Stephen Popham (died 1444), MP, of Popham, Hampshire, wife of Sir John III Wadham, John Wadham's great-grandfather)
• 4th: Gules, a chevron argent between nine bezants 3,2,1 and 2,1 (South?)(Stourton?)
• 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)
• 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)
• 7th Barry of six or and azure, an eagle displayed gules (Waleran of West Dean (13th century), an heiress of Neville)
• 8th: Per pale (wavy) azure and argent a lion rampant or and gules (Lorty of Axford, an heiress of St Martin)
• 9th: Gules a bend fusilly ermine (Redege alias Riedde of Devon).

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:

"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)
• 2nd:Argent, a chevron between three escallops sable (Tregarthin).
• 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

Family of John Wadham (died 1578)

8. John Wadham III                       4. John Wadham                             18. Stephen Popham, Sheriff of Wiltshire               9. Elizabeth Popham                       19. Margaret Reade               2. Nicholas Wadham                                   20. Thomas Stewkley               10. Hugh Stucley, Sheriff of Devon                       21. Anne Wood               5. Elizabeth Stucley                             1. John Wadham                                         24. John Hill               12. Robert Hill, Sheriff of Devonshire                       25. Cecily Stourton               6. Robert Hill III                             26. Richard Champernon, Sheriff of Devonshire               13. Margaret Champernon                       3. Joan Hill                                   7. Alice

Sources

• Pole, Sir William (died 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.), 1838, 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