James Nedeham

Last updated

James Nedeham or Nedham (died 1544) was an English architect who was Clerk of the King's Works for Henry VIII.

Contents

Family background

His family had Derbyshire origins and his grandfather lived at Needham Grange at Hartington Middle Quarter. He was a relation of the Elizabethan merchant and prospector George Nedham. [1]

Royal works

He became a member of the London Carpenter's Company in 1514. First serving the royal works as a carpenter, Nedeham was appointed Clerk of the King's Works on 1 October 1532. He was a successor to the Master Carpenter Humphrey Coke, and he was employed as a military carpenter at Calais in 1522, [2] and as a gunner the Tower of London in 1525. [3]

He constructed galleries around the garden of the London house of the Marquess of Exeter in 1530. [4] At Windsor Castle, he was involved in the construction of a new terrace on the north side. There were benches and Henry VIII used it as a range for his hand guns. The terrace was built on a series of brick vaults which also served to drain the water from the castle gutters. The framework of a timber arbour accessed from the terrace was painted by John Hethe with "white and fine bice and gold antique gilt". [5]

At Greenwich Palace, Nedeham constructed kennels for the king's greyhounds at the tilt yard, a cockpit for fighting birds and seats for male spectators and for Catherine of Aragon, a shelter for the king to stand in to practice with hand guns, [6]

Nedeham's account for Windsor includes refreshing the Queen's privy chamber for Anne Boleyn in June 1533. The ceiling had been decorated with mirrors, possibly for Philippa of Hainault, and 115 looking glasses were scoured at a cost of 9 shillings and 5 pence. [7]

In 1534, Nedeham asked Thomas Cromwell for a larger budget for works at the Tower of London for a new gate and bridge and major repairs to the roof of the White Tower. [8] In December 1534, he directed works at Greenwich Palace to make an artificial forest for the Lord of Misrule's boar hunt. [9]

In April 1538, Nedeham was granted leases from various former monastic properties including lands from the convent of St Mary Wymondley in Hertfordshire, and made Wymondley Priory his home. [10] In November 1538, he and colleagues Henry Johnson and Anthony Anthony advised Christopher Morris, the Master of the King's Ordnance, on the building of storehouse and workshops for artillery at the Tower of London. [11]

James Nedeham died in 1544 and was buried at Little Wymondley. The monument was later destroyed, but a drawing shows a classical structure polychromed as marble with pillars and an architrave surmounted by obelisks. [12]

His own house in London in All Hallows Lombard Street parish was adjacent to an inn called the "White Hart of the Mystery or Art of the Fishmongers". He married Alice Goodere. His son John Nedeham was heir to his property. [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry VIII</span> King of England from 1509 to 1547

Henry VIII was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage annulled. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII about such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated by the pope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Boleyn</span> Queen of England from 1533 to 1536

Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading for treason, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Cromwell</span> English statesman and politician (1485-1540)

Thomas Cromwell, briefly Earl of Essex, was an English statesman and lawyer who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charges for the execution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire</span> English nobleman, diplomat and politician

Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, 1st Earl of Ormond, 1st Viscount RochfordKGKB, of Hever Castle in Kent, was an English diplomat and politician who was the father of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, and was thus the maternal grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. By Henry VIII he was made a knight of the Garter in 1523 and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Rochford in 1525 and in 1529 was further ennobled as Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy</span> English courtier

William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, KG, of Barton Blount, Derbyshire, was an extremely influential English courtier, a respected humanistic scholar and patron of learning. He was one of the most influential and perhaps the wealthiest English noble courtier of his time. Mountjoy was known internationally as a humanist writer and scholar and patron of the arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Seymour, Lady Cromwell</span> English noblewoman

Elizabeth Seymour was a younger daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall, Wiltshire and Margery Wentworth. Elizabeth and her sister Jane served in the household of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. The Seymours rose to prominence after the king's attention turned to Jane. In May 1536, Anne Boleyn was accused of treason and adultery, and subsequently executed. On 30 May 1536, eleven days after Anne's execution, Henry VIII and Jane were married. Elizabeth was not included in her sister's household during her brief reign, although she would serve two of Henry VIII's later wives, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. Jane died 24 October 1537, twelve days after giving birth to a healthy son, Edward VI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sieges of Boulogne (1544–1546)</span> Part of the Italian War, 1542–46

The First Siege of Boulogne took place from 19 July to 14 September 1544 and the Second Siege of Boulogne took place in October 1544.

Sir Richard Lee (1513–1575) was a military engineer in the service of Henry VIII of England, Edward VI and Elizabeth I. He was a commander of Henry VIII and appointed surveyor of the King's works. Lee was member of parliament for Hertfordshire in 1545. He was the first English engineer to be knighted.

Elsyng Palace was a Tudor palace on the site of what are now the grounds of Forty Hall in Enfield, north London. Its exact location was lost for many years until excavations were carried out in the 1960s.

Events from the 1530s in England.

Sir William Boleyn, KB of Blickling Hall in Norfolk and Hever Castle in Kent, was a wealthy and powerful landowner who served as Sheriff of Kent in 1489 and as Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1500. He was the father of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, whose daughter was Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII.

Sir Thomas Clere was a successful poet at the court of Henry VIII. He is commemorated in several poems by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, with whom he had a very close friendship. He was engaged to Mary Shelton, a former mistress of the King's, in 1545, but died before their love match could be made into a marriage.

Alice Clere was the third daughter of Sir William Boleyn and his wife Margaret Ormond, the daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond. Alice was thus the sister of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and the aunt of King Henry VIII's second Queen, Anne Boleyn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Coffin (courtier)</span>

Sir William Coffin was a courtier at the court of King Henry VIII of England. He was a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Henry VIII and Master of the Horse to Queen Jane Seymour. He was elected MP for Derbyshire in 1529.

The More was a 16th-century palace in the parish of Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England, where Catherine of Aragon lived after the annulment of her marriage to Henry VIII. It had been owned by Cardinal Wolsey. It lay at the northeast corner of the later More Park estate on the edge of the Colne flood plain. The Treaty of the More was celebrated here by Henry VIII and the French ambassadors. In 1527, the French ambassador, Jean du Bellay, thought the house more splendid than Hampton Court. Nothing now remains above ground. The site is a scheduled ancient monument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Otterburn</span> Scottish lawyer

Sir Adam Otterburn of Auldhame and Redhall was a Scottish lawyer and diplomat. He was king's advocate to James V of Scotland and secretary to Mary of Guise and Regent Arran.

Dr Richard Gwent was a senior ecclesiastical jurist, pluralist cleric and administrator through the period of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. Of south Welsh origins, as a Doctor of both laws in the University of Oxford he rose swiftly to become Dean of the Arches and Archdeacon of London and of Brecon, and later of Huntingdon. He became an important figure in the operations of Thomas Cromwell, was a witness to Thomas Cranmer's private protestation on becoming Archbishop of Canterbury, and was Cranmer's Commissary and legal draftsman. He was an advocate on behalf of Katherine of Aragon in the proceedings against her, and helped to deliver the decree of annulment against Anne of Cleves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stefan von Haschenperg</span>

Stefan von Haschenperg was a military engineer employed by Henry VIII of England in the 1540s.

Sir Arthur Hopton of Cockfield Hall in Yoxford, Suffolk was an English knight, landowner, magistrate, and Member of Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galyon Hone</span> Glazier from Bruges

Galyon Hone was a glazier from Bruges who worked for Henry VIII of England at Hampton Court and in other houses making stained glass windows. His work involved replacing the heraldry and ciphers of Henry VIII's wives in windows when the king remarried.

References

  1. ↑ Walter C. Metcalf, Visitation of Hertfordshire (London, 1886), p. 77.
  2. ↑ J. S. Brewer, Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, 3:2 (London, 1867), p. 1101 no. 2587 (26).
  3. ↑ Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 3:1 (London: HMSO, 1975), pp. 30, 406, 408.
  4. ↑ Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 3:1 (London: HMSO, 1975), p. 30.
  5. ↑ Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 3:1 (London: HMSO, 1975), pp. 315–316.
  6. ↑ Howard Colvin, The History of the King's Works, 4:2 (London: HMSO, 1982), p. 106.
  7. ↑ Howard Colvin], History of the King's Works, 3:1 (London: HMSO, 1975), p. 317.
  8. ↑ Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 3:1 (London: HMSO, 1975), p. 268.
  9. ↑ Natalie Grueninger, The Final Year of Anne Boleyn (Pen & Sword, 2022), p. 39.
  10. ↑ James Gairdner, Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, 13:1 (London, 1892), p. 327 no. 886 (13).
  11. ↑ Edward Basil Jupp, An Historical Account of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters of the City of London (London, 1887), p. 176.
  12. ↑ Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 3:1 (London: HMSO, 1975), plate 1.
  13. ↑ Abstracts of Inquisitiones Post Mortem Relating to the City of London, 1 (London, 1896), p. 157: Calendars of the Proceedings in Chancery, Queen Elizabeth, 2 (1830), p. 275.
  14. ↑ Visitation of Hertfordshire, p. 77.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.