(529) Bedingfeld (later Paston-Bedingfeld) of Oxburgh Hall, baronets

Paston-Bedingfeld, baronets 

This family shared a common ancestry with the Bedingfields of Fleming's Hall and Ditchingham, in that both descended from Sir Peter de Bedingfield (d. 1370), of Bedingfield Hall (Suffk), in the parish from which the family took its name. The Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1400-51) with whom the genealogy below begins was either the grandson or great-grandson of Sir Peter and belonged to a branch of the family which had settled at Denham (Suffk), a few miles north of Bedingfield. As noted in my article on the Fleming Hall family, the name Bedingfield can be spelled in a bewildering variety of ways, but this branch of the family came to spell it fairly consistently without a final letter 'i', and the form Bedingfeld has therefore been adopted as standard in this article. The family's advance from minor gentry to one of the great landowning families of East Anglia resulted from the marriage of Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1400-51) to Margaret Tuddenham (d. 1475), whose family owned extensive estates around Oxburgh in Norfolk and Eriswell in Suffolk. When her brother, Sir Thomas Tuddenham (1401-62), was executed, along with the Earl of Oxford and others, for reputed complicity in a plot to murder King Edward IV, the Oxburgh and Eriswell estates passed to his sister, by then a widow, and on her death to her grandson, Sir Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1448-97). It was Sir Edmund who built the present moated quadrangular house at Oxburgh Hall, although it has been much altered since.

The connection between the family and the Earls of Oxford remained strong, and Sir Edmund fought for King Henry VII at the Battle of Stoke in 1487 as a knight in the retinue of John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, being made a knight banneret after the battle. Sir Edmund had been educated at Lincoln's Inn, and this set a pattern for successive generations of the family at a time when a legal training was the surest path to career success. Sir Edmund was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1478-1539), who was twice married but had no children, so on his death the estate passed to his younger brother, Sir Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1480-1553), who was trained as a lawyer but fought in the French wars of the 1520s and was knighted after capture of Montdidier in 1523. In the 1530s he was custodian of the divorced Queen Catherine of Aragon at Kimbolton Castle (Hunts), and when she died in 1536 he arranged her funeral procession and burial at Peterborough Abbey. By then, Henry VIII had made the break from the Roman Catholic church and set in train the Dissolution of the Monasteries, changes which were to have serious consequences for the prospects of the Bedingfelds, who remained resolutely Catholic and became subject to severe penalties in later centuries.

Sir Edmund was succeeded at Oxburgh by his eldest son, Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1511-83), kt., who was, on balance, probably a beneficiary of the religious turbulence of the 16th century. After the death of King Edward VI in 1553, he was one of the first to declare his support for the accession of the Catholic Princess Mary, and he was rewarded with a series of high-profile appointments which gave him a national prominence. One of his duties was to act as custodian (in reality, gaoler) of the queen's Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth, and when Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558 Sir Henry prudently retired from court and office to his estates in Norfolk, although his subsequent relationship with Queen Elizabeth seems to have been one of mutual respect rather than antipathy. Sir Henry was succeeded by his eldest son, Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1534-85), who did not long survive him, and then by Edmund's son, Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1560-90), who died young, leaving as heir a son, Henry, aged three. Thomas's widow, Frances (d. 1598), married as her second husband Sir Henry Jerningham (d. 1619), kt., of Costessey Hall (Norfk), who brought up his stepson after he was orphaned. Henry (1586-1657) was knighted in 1604, and after the death of his first wife spent some time travelling on the Continent, before returning to take up his place in Norfolk society and public administration. In the 1620s, however, growing anti-Catholic sentiment caused him to lose his public appointments, and he and other members of the family were consistently fined for recusancy, although he remained on good terms with King Charles I personally. At the start of the Civil War he was foremost among the East Anglian royalists who took up arms for the king, but Norfolk was overwhelmingly in Parliamentarian hands and he escaped to Holland soon after Queen Henrietta Maria went into exile in 1642. In 1646 he was pressured into returning to England by the threat of his estates being confiscated, but although he was not immediately arrested, he was taken prisoner later in the year during an engagement at Oxburgh in which part of the house was burnt down. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London until eventually released under a general pardon in 1649, and his estates were sequestrated and not finally recovered by the family until after the Restoration in 1660.

Sir Henry was twice married, and his heir was the only son of his first marriage, Col. Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1605-65), who like his father was an active Royalist in the Civil War. He was wounded and captured at the siege of Lincoln in 1643 and spent two years in prison before being sent into exile abroad. He seems to have spent the Commonwealth years largely on the Continent, but at the Restoration came home and recovered the family estates and the - now rather derelict - house at Oxburgh. As Thomas had no children, the estate passed at his death in 1665 to his half-brother, Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1613-85), 1st bt., who claimed that his family had suffered losses to the tune of £47,194 in the service of the king and his father since 1642. Charles II was in no position to repay claims of this kind, but Sir Henry was rewarded with a baronetcy. Oxburgh Hall was in too dilapidated a condition for him to occupy it, and it was left to his son, Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1636-1704), 2nd bt., to begin the process of restoring the house and making it habitable once more. Money remained tight, despite the family's large estates, because of the continuing fines and penalties the family incurred for persisting with their Catholic faith.

The 2nd baronet had spent his formative years in exile on the Continent as a companion to the king's younger son, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (d. 1660), and like many old Catholic families the Bedingfelds retained strong ties with Europe throughout the years of persecution. Two of Sir Henry's sisters were nuns in the Ursuline convent at Lier (Belgium), and his eldest son and heir, Sir Henry Arundell Bedingfeld (1689-1760), 3rd bt., was educated at Brussels and later at La Flèche (France). After the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 the family's sympathy seems to have remained with the Stuarts and Sir Henry Arundell Bedingfeld acted as an important conduit for money from Jacobite supporters in England in the run up to 'Bonnie Prince Charlie"'s invasion of 1745, although his role was only suspected and never proved at the time. He was succeeded at his death in 1760 by his son, Sir Richard Henry Bedingfeld (1726-95), 4th bt., who took little part in society after the death of his wife in 1767, and lived quietly at Oxburgh, where he demolished the medieval great hall range (to the regret of many of his successors) and employed John Tasker to make changes to modernise the rest of the house. His only son, Sir Richard Bedingfeld (1767-1829), 5th bt., spent a reputed £6,000 on the construction of a town house for his family in Bath (Som.), but ran into financial difficulties and was obliged to live abroad for several years at Ghent (Belgium), although he was able to return to Bath in his declining years.

At his death in 1829, Sir Richard was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Henry Richard Bedingfeld (1800-62), 6th bt., who was fortunate enough to marry Margaret (c.1807-87), the last heiress of the Paston family, formerly Earls of Yarmouth, who brought him sufficient property to fund a major remodelling of the house at Oxburgh in the 1830s to the designs of John Chessell Buckler. In recognition of this, Sir Henry took the name Paston-Bedingfeld in 1830, and his descendants have mostly retained this double-barrelled name down to the present day. Sir Henry was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Henry George Paston-Bedingfeld (1830-1902), 7th bt., in 1862, and the last significant addition was made to the house soon afterwards, in the form of the passage linking the south ends of the east and west wings and providing a new main entrance to the building.

In 1902 the house and estate passed to Sir Henry Edward Paston-Bedingfeld (1860-1941), 8th bt., who was the last of his line to occupy the whole house as a private residence. Perhaps surprisingly, the house was never requisitioned during the Second World War, but death duties on Sir Henry's estate compelled change. In 1950 it was announced that part of the house would become a finishing school for young women aged 16-22, but this was evidently not a success for in May 1951 Sir Edmund Paston-Bedingfeld (1915-2011), 9th bt., sold the house to an insurance company. This severing of the historic tie between Oxburgh and the Bedingfelds evidently dismayed the 8th baronet's widow, Sybil (1883-1985), and she joined with her daughter Frances (1919-2020) and a niece to repurchase the house in November 1951. A year later it was presented to the National Trust, with an endowment provided by the Pilgrim Trust, and an agreement for parts of the house to be occupied by members of the family in perpetuity. Lord Crawford, the chairman of the Trust, said he hoped the Bedingfelds would live at Oxburgh for another 500 years. Certainly they are still there now, with the larger of the two flats in  the house being occupied by the present baronet, Sir Henry Edgar Paston-Bedingfeld (b. 1943), 10th baronet.

Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk

A moated late medieval house of brick, with an impressive gatehouse tower, the seven stages of which make an unforgettable impression and are arguably the most impressive medieval brick structure in England. But although the appearance and materials of the house seem at first sight coherent and consistent, it is in fact the result of a very complex process of development over some four hundred years. 

Oxburgh Hall: the north front with its impressive gatehouse tower in the early 20th century.

Oxburgh Hall: aerial view of the house from the south-west in 2013. Image: John Fielding. Some rights reserved.

Sir Edmund Bedingfeld (d. 1496), kt., was granted licence to crenellate on 3 July 1482, but the licence specifically pardoned him for any works he had already carried out without licence, so it seems probable that the house was begun some years earlier; modern dendrochronology offers some support for this. Consistency in the wall thickness and plinth details of the medieval work around the house suggests, however, that it was built as a continuous operation, and not in several stages separated by years of inactivity, and we can assume that the house was finished, or nearly so, by 1487, when King Henry VII and Queen Elizabeth of York visited. The house is built on a nearly square (174 x 171 ft) quadrangular plan, closely surrounded by a wide moat, now crossed by an 18th century stone bridge but originally by a wooden drawbridge. The gatehouse stands more or less in the centre of the north range, and provided on its upper floors lodgings for high status guests; that on the first floor is known as The Kings Room, from the tradition that this was where Henry VII slept on his visit. The western tower contains a newel staircase, ingeniously constructed entirely from brick, and the turret rooms at the top of the towers have pretty ribbed brick vaults. 

Oxburgh Hall: the brick vault of one of the
gatehouse turret rooms. Image: The National Trust.

Oxburgh Hall: the brick newel staircase in the western
 tower of the gatehouse in 1929. Image: Country Life.

The hall was in the (now lost) south range, which had a small porch on the south front giving access to a second bridge across the moat. Blomefield reports that hall 'which may be justly accounted one of the best old Gothick halls in England' was 54 ft long, 34 ft wide and 54 ft high, and had a roof 'in the same style and form [as] that of Westminster [Hall]', that is, presumably, a hammerbeam roof. The dais end of the hall, on the east, had windows to both the courtyard and the moat. Family and service accommodation and lodgings lay in the east and west ranges. 

The earliest identifiable alterations date from the third quarter of the 16th century, when the north range east of the gatehouse was re-roofed to provide attics, perhaps used as a discreet chapel where the family could continue Roman Catholic worship. It was no doubt at the same time that the 'priest's hole' in the gatehouse tower was contrived. During the Civil War, the family sided with the King and the estate was sequestrated by Parliament. The southern half of the east wing was destroyed by fire in an engagement which led to the arrest of Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1586-1657) in 1646. The family recovered the estate in 1660 and were taxed on 34 hearths at Oxburgh in 1664, but restoration had to wait for another twenty years. The fire-damaged portion was then abandoned, and attention was focused on the north-west corner of the house, where two new staircases were provided, existing rooms were remodelled, and new attic rooms were created. In the second quarter of the 18th century the 3rd baronet undertook further work on a piecemeal basis, laying out a new approach drive to the house (in 1722-25), modernising the family accommodation in the west range, creating new cellars in the east range and finally reinstating the fire-damaged southern end of the east range in about 1750. This work, although now rather invisible in the fabric because of later changes, was probably quite extensive, and there are still several chimneypieces of the 1730s and 1740s in the house.

Oxburgh Hall: a ground floor plan of the house made in 1774 by F. Mackenzie and published in J. Britton, Architectural Antiquities of Britain (1809).
The room names given in the accompanying key are: (1) Arched gateway; (2), (3) Porter's lodges; (4) Laundry; (5) Dairy; (6) Woodhouse; (7) Wash-house; (8) Aviary; (9) Baths; (10) Room for persons unwell; (11) Dressing room; (12) Bedchamber; (13) Drawing room; (14) Dining room; (15) Hall; (16) China room; (17) Pantry; (18) Closet; (19) Passage; (20) Staircases; (21) Kitchen; (22) Larder; (23) Bakehouse; (24) Servants' hall; (25) Storeroom; (26) Housekeeper's room; (27) Breakfast room; (28) Bedchamber; (29) Library.

A plan of the house made in 1774 shows the disposition of rooms just before the demolition of the hall range. Although the kitchen and associated service rooms lay in their traditional position beyond the screens passage, at the south-west corner of the house, the laundry and associated functions were at the opposite corner of the house, in the north-east angle. The reception rooms were similarly split, with the drawing rooms and dining room in the south-east corner but the library and breakfast room in the north-west corner. This must have been remarkably inconvenient! In 1775, Sir Richard Henry Bedingfeld (1720-95), 4th bt., demolished the south range containing the great hall, along with the service rooms to its west and the family apartments to its east. The great hall was not replaced, but in 1775-79 the architect John Tasker, who worked very largely for Catholic families, built matching pavilions to provide tidy terminations of the east and west ranges. The south-east pavilion incorporated some elements of the previous block on the site but has been much altered since; that on the south-west has been less altered, and provided a ground-floor saloon in the neo-classical style, with a bedroom (the Fetterlock Room) and dressing room above. Further alterations in the west range included a new drawing room. Tasker also built a utilitarian flat-roofed single-storey arcade serving as a corridor along the three surviving sides of the courtyard which has since been enclosed in an ugly and irregular way to provide additional service accommodation.

Oxburgh Hall: a late 19th century view of the house from the south-west.

The house remained in this state until 1830, when Sir Henry Richard Bedingfeld (1800-62), 6th bt. and his wife, inherited her family's property and took the name Paston-Bedingfeld in recognition of the inheritance. The access of wealth enabled them to commission John Chessell Buckler in 1830 to undertake a radical remodelling of the house in the Gothic Revival style. A persistent family belief that the more famous A.W.N. Pugin was also involved appears to be without foundation. Buckler made extensive use of moulded brick windows and chimneys supplied by the Costessey brickworks to make the house look rather more medieval than it had been originally, and all the oriels, battlements and stepped gables are now his work. He added most of the parapets around the house and created the present library in the west range, the dining room in the north range, and the boudoir on the first floor of the west range. 

Oxburgh Hall: the house from the south-east, showing the tower created in the 1860s. 

Oxburgh Hall: view of the new south range of 1863 across the moat. Image: The National Trust.

Further work was done in about 1860, when the rooms in Tasker's south-east pavilion were extensively altered and the present south-east tower was raised above it. This work created a distinct suite of family rooms set apart from the principal reception rooms in the north-west corner of the house. A new single-storey south range was added in 1863 for Sir Henry George Paston-Bedingfeld (1830-1902), 7th bt. This filled the gap left by the demolition of the great hall, allowed the creation of a new formal entrance, and connected the family rooms more conveniently with the rest of the house. There have been few significant structural changes since. The hall and remaining estate were sold at auction in 1950 and were at risk of demolition in 1951, but the dowager Lady Paston-Bedingfeld and her daughter and niece managed to raise the funds to repurchase the hall and gift it to the National Trust. A major programme of repairs, chiefly to the roofs of the house, was undertaken in 2019-21.

The whole of the east wing and the upper floors of the west wing are flats occupied by members of the Paston-Bedingfeld family, so the visitor sees only a fairly small part of the house, although this includes most of the more interesting rooms. Although there are some earlier elements, the overwhelming impression given by the interiors is of work of the 1830s. The saloon, in the south-west corner, stands on the site of the medieval kitchen, and was remodelled as a picture gallery after 1780, presumably by Tasker; it is now the saloon, with a simple but elegant neo-classical cornice and fenestration altered by Buckler. The ground floor of the west range was reorganised by Buckler to provide two reception rooms (the West Drawing Room and the Library) separated by a staircase. The former was redecorated by Crace & Co. for the 7th baronet after 1870. The West Staircase is hung with a fine Spanish leather wall hanging, largely hidden beneath a densely packed collection of portraits. 

Oxburgh Hall: watercolour of the library by Matilda Bedingfeld, c.1850. Comparison with the photograph below shows how the artist has distorted the relative scale of the room and its contents to overstate the grandeur of the interior. Image: The National Trust.

Oxburgh Hall: the library today. 

The Library beyond it was also redecorated in the mid 19th century, and has a flock wallpaper, a Gothic Revival fireplace with a canopied overmantel reused from a church reredos, as well as handsome bookcases with elaborate cresting. It is perhaps the most harmonious and successful interior. Beyond it lies the dining room, which was the original library and continued to be used as such until the 1970s. On the first floor of the north range is the Marian Hangings Room (so named in 1975), where one of the great treasures of the house, a set of needlework hangings wrought by Mary Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick in about 1570 are displayed: they came to Oxburgh from Cowdray Park (Sussex) in 1761. 

Oxburgh Hall: the King's Room in the early 20th century, before the removal of the tapestries and Marian hangings. Image: Country Life.

Beyond this is the Kings Room, on the first floor of the gatehouse. Until the 1920s this was lined with tapestry panels of biblical scenes and verdure and with the needlework hangings now exhibited next door. The sale of the tapestries in the 1920s left the room bleak and largely unfurnished, but they have recently been digitally recreated to a transformative effect. The brick newel staircase in the west tower of the gatehouse leads up to the Queens Room, with a heavily beamed roof, and star vaults in brick in the garderobe tower and the the courtyard window alcoves. The house's famous priest hole is accessed from the garderobe.

The park is enclosed by a brick boundary wall of late 15th century origin but largely rebuilt in the early 19th century. Maps of 1722 and 1725 show that the house was then surrounded by formal gardens which included a spectacular formal canal over 700 ft long. This setting was later simplified or smoothed away, perhaps at the same time as the south range of the house was pulled down. The work of the 1830s included further alterations in the grounds, including the building of Church Lodge by J.C. Buckler. In 1845 a French parterre, based on a design of 1709, was laid out on the east side of the house, beyond the moat. Chapel Lodge has a 17th century stepped brick gable built into the park wall, but the rest was remodelled in the later 19th century. The kitchen garden, east and south-east of the house, has brick walls and four tall towers, probably by Buckler of c.1830-35. 

Descent: Sir Robert Tuddenham; to son, Sir Thomas Tuddenham (d. 1462); to sister Margaret (d. 1475), widow of Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1400-51); to grandson, Sir Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1448-97), kt.; to son, Sir Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1478-1539); to brother, Sir Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1480-1553), kt.; to son, Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1511-83), kt.; to son, Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1534-85); to son, Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1560-90); to son, Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1586-1657), kt.; to son, Col. Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1605-65); to half-brother, Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1613-85), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1636-1704), 2nd bt.; to son, Sir Henry Arundell Bedingfeld (1689-1760), 3rd bt.; to son, Sir Richard Henry Bedingfeld (1726-95), 4th bt.; to son, Sir Richard Bedingfeld (1767-1829), 5th bt.; to son, Sir Henry Richard Bedingfeld (later Paston-Bedingfeld) (1800-62), 6th bt.; to son, Sir Henry George Paston-Bedingfeld (1830-1902), 7th bt.; to son, Sir Henry Edward Paston-Bedingfeld (1860-1941), 8th bt.; to son, Sir Edmund George Felix Paston-Bedingfeld (1915-2011), 9th bt., who sold 1951 to an insurance company; sold 1951 to Sybil, Lady Paston-Bedingfeld (1883-1985), who gave it in 1952 to The National Trust.

Bedingfeld (later Paston-Bedingfeld) of Oxburgh Hall, baronets

Bedingfeld, Edmund (c.1400-51). Probably the son of Sir Thomas Bedingfeld, kt. and his wife Isobel, daughter of Sir William Ogilvy of Auchterhouse, born at Denham (Suffk) about 1400. He married Margaret (d. 1475), daughter of Sir Robert Tuddenham of Oxburgh and sister and co-heir of Sir Thomas Tuddenham (executed 1462), and had issue, possibly among others:

(1) Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1425-53) (q.v.).

He lived at Denham (Suffk). His widow came into possession of the Tuddenham family estate at Oxburgh on the execution of her brother in 1462 and bequeathed it at her death to her grandson, Sir Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1448-97).

He died in 1451 and was buried at Bedingfield (Suffk); his will was proved 20 July 1451. His wife died 15 March 1474/5, and was buried at Eriswell (Suffk); her will, dated 24 May 1474, was proved at Norwich.

Bedingfeld, Thomas (c.1425-53). Only son of Edmund Bedingfeld (d. 1451) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Tuddenham of Oxburgh, born about 1425. Educated at Lincoln's Inn (admitted by 1443). He married Anne (d. 1453), said to be daughter and heir of John de Waldegrave of Walgrave (Northants), and had issue:

(1) Sir Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1448-97), kt. (q.v.);

(2) Alice Bedingfeld (d. c.1474?); married John Fincham (c.1452-99) (who m2, Jane, daughter of John Tey of Essex, and had issue), but had no children; said to have died about 1474, probably soon after her marriage;

(3) Mary Bedingfeld (d. 1480?); married, about 1472, William de Grey (d. 1495) (who m2, Grace, daughter of Thomas Tey and widow of Francis Hethe (d. 1479) of Worlington and Feltwell (Norfk)), of Merton (Norfk); said to have died 5 April 1480 and was buried at Merton where she and her husband and his second wife are commemorated by a damaged monumental brass*.

He died at Walgrave (Northants), 12 October 1453. His wife also died in 1453.

* The brass is incomplete, but remarkably two of the missing sections have been recovered in recent years, with one section being found by a metal detectorist in a nearby field!

Bedingfeld, Sir Edmund (c.1448-97), kt. Only son of Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1425-53) and his wife Anne, daughter and heir of John de Waldegrave, probably born about 1448. His wardship was granted to his uncle, Sir Thomas Tuddenham (d. 1462) on 1 December 1454. Educated at Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1466). JP for Norfolk, 1480-96; High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, 1487-88. He was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of King Richard III, 6 July 1483 and a knight bannaret after the Battle of Stoke, 1487, where he fought under the banner of the Earl of Oxford. He entertained King Henry VII and his queen, Elizabeth of York, at Oxburgh in 1487. He married 1st, Alice (d. c.1476), daughter of Sir Rafe Shelton of Shelton (Norfk), and 2nd, c.1478, Margaret, daughter of Sir John Scott PC of Scott's Hall (Kent), Governor of Dover and Calais, and had issue*:

(1.1) Margaret Bedingfeld (c.1476-1505), born about 1476; married, c.1499, Edward Jerningham alias Jurnegan (d. 1515/6) of Somerleyton (Suffk) (who m2, c.1509, Mary (d. 1548), daughter and co-heir of the Hon. Richard Scrope of Bentley, and had issue four sons and one daughter), elder son of Sir John Jerningham (d. 1503) of Somerleyton, and apparently had issue two sons and one daughter; died 24 March 1504/5 and was buried at Somerleyton, where she was commemorated by a memorial brass;

(2.1) Sir Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1478-1539), born about 1478; inherited Oxburgh Hall from his father in 1497 and came of age about 1499; knighted at the coronation of King Henry VIII, 23 June 1509; High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, 1522-23; married 1st, Margaret Clifford, and 2nd, Alice (who m3, Thomas Burgh (d. 1550), 3rd and 1st Baron Burgh), daughter of William London and widow of Edward Rokewood of Euston (Suffk), but had no issue; died 13 March and was buried at Oxborough, 16 March 1538/9; inquisition post mortem held 1539/40;

(2.2) Rev. Robert Bedingfeld (c.1479-1540), born about 1479; educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (admitted c.1495), of which he became a benefactor; rector of Oxborough, 1512-40, Eriswell (Suffk), 1533-40 and Little Casterton (Rut.), 1537-40; died unmarried and was buried at Oxborough, 9 February 1539/40;

(2.3) Sir Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1480-1553), kt. (q.v.);

(2.4) Peter Bedingfeld, of Quidenham (Norfk); married 1st, Alice, daughter and co-heir of John Monins or Monning (d. 1526) of Greenford (Kent), and had issue three sons and one daughter; married 2nd, [forename unknown] Vaughan and had further issue one son;

(2.5) Mary Bedingfeld (d. by 1523), born before 1487; married, before 1514, Sir Edward Echyngham (d. 1527) (who m2, c.1523, Anne, daughter of John Everard of Cratfield (Suffk) and had issue two daughters) of Barsham Hall and Ipswich (Suffk); died before 1523;

(2.6) Alice Bedingfeld; married, as his second wife, Sir Philip Booth (d. 1539), kt. of Shrubland (Suffk), High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1506-07, but had no issue.

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his grandmother in 1474/76 and built the present house soon afterwards, receiving a retrospective licence to crenellate in 1482.

He died in 1496/7; his will was proved 13 January 1496/7; an inquisition post mortem was held in 1497/8. His first wife died about 1476. His widow died in 1514 and by her will established the Bedingfeld chantry in Oxborough church; her inquisition post mortem was held in 1515.

* Some sources mention an elder son by his second wife, John Bedingfeld, said to have died without issue in the lifetime of his father, and a daughter Agnes who married Christopher Browne of Stamford (Lincs), but the latter at least seems to be the result of a misreading of a statement in a book of 1908.

Bedingfeld, Sir Edmund (c.1480-1553), kt. Third (or possibly fourth) son of Sir Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1448-97), kt., and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir John Scott of Scott's Hall (Kent), Governor of Dover and Calais, born about 1480. Educated at Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1504). Knighted for his bravery after the capture of Montdidier in the French wars by Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, in 1523. JP for Norfolk from 1526 and for Suffolk from 1547; High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, 1529-30. He was custodian of Queen Catherine of Aragon at Kimbolton Castle (Hunts), 1535-36, and arranged her funeral procession to Peterborough Abbey, 1536. He married, by 1509, Grace, daughter of Sir Henry Marney KG (c.1457-1523), 1st Baron Marney, of Layer Marney (Essex), and had issue:

(1) Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1511-83), kt. (q.v.);

(2) Francis Bedingfeld (c.1512-69?), of Thorndon (Suffk); educated at Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1528); married Dorothy, daughter of John Woodhouse, and had issue four sons and one daughter; perhaps died c.1569;

(3) Anthony Bedingfeld (d. c.1575), of Holme Hale (Norfk); married Elizabeth, daughter of Rafe Danyell of Swaffham Market (Norfk), and had issue three sons and three daughters; died about 1575; inquisition post mortem held 1575;

(4) Humphrey Bedingfeld (fl. 1558), of Hestley in Thorndon (Suffk); married Mary, daughter of John Castle of Raveningham (Norfk), and had issue three sons and three daughters; living in 1558;

(5) Edmond Bedingfeld (d. 1565), of Wighton (Norfk); married Grace, daughter of John Russell of Wighton, and had issue one son and five daughters; died 5 June 1565 and was buried at Wighton;

(6) Elizabeth Bedingfeld (d. by 1541); married Sir John Sulyard (d. 1575) of Wetherden, High Laver (Essex) (who m2, by 1541, Elizabeth (d. 1548), daughter of Sir John Jerningham of Somerleyton (Suffk) and had further issue two sons and two daughters; and m3, Alice, daughter of Humphrey Kervill of Wiggenhall St Mary (Norfk) and widow of John Bedingfeld of Quidenham (Norfk)), and had issue one daughter; died in or before 1541;

(7) Margaret Bedingfeld; married 1st, Thomas Garneys (d. 1566) and had issue one son; married 2nd, Bryse Rokewood of Euston (Suffk); said to have died 13 January 1566/7.

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his elder brother in 1539.

He died 18 March 1553; his will was proved in the PCC, 2 November 1553. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Sir Henry Bedingfeld (d. 1583), kt. 

Bedingfeld, Rt. Hon. Sir Henry (1511-83), kt. Eldest son of Sir Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1480-1553), kt., and his wife Grace, daughter of 1st Baron Marney, born 8 September 1511, according to an inscription in a missal now in the British Library. Educated at Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1527/8). In 1549 he was involved in the suppression of Kett's rebellion in Norwich, and he was knighted between 1549 and 1551. MP for Suffolk, 1553 and for Norfolk 1553, 1554 and 1557. He was among the first to declare his support for Queen Mary I in the succession crisis following the death of King Edward VI, and was rewarded by membership of the Privy Council, 1553-58, a pension of £100 a year, and a grant of some of the confiscated estates of Sir Thomas Wyatt. He was Constable of the Tower of London, 1554-55 and in that capacity was was custodian of the Queen's half-sister, Princess Elizabeth, at the Tower and at Woodstock (Oxon); he was made Lieutenant-Governor of the Tower in 1555 and was Vice-Chamberlain of the Household and Captain of the Guards, 1557-58. With the accession of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth in 1558, Sir Henry withdrew from public office and retired to Norfolk, though maintaining connections in court. Elizabeth is said to have discouraged his presence, saying "If we have any prisoner whom we would have sharply and straitly kept, we will send for you!", but they appear to have had a relationship of mutual respect and he was never banished from court; indeed the Queen is believed to have stayed at Oxburgh during her progress through Norfolk in 1578. JP for Norfolk, 1538-58 and Suffolk c.1554-58. He married, about 1531, Katherine (d. 1581), younger daughter of Sir Roger Townshend (1477-1552), kt., of Raynham Hall (Norfk), and had issue:

(1) Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1534-85) (q.v.);

(2) Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1537-1613), of Clerkenwell (Middx), born about 1537; Gentleman pensioner to Queen Elizabeth; published English translations of Cardano's Comfort (1573) and Macchiavelli's Florentine History (1595); and also wrote The art of riding (1584); said to have married Anne Bedingfeld, but had no surviving issue; buried at St James, Clerkenwell (Middx), 29 July 1613; will proved in the PCC, 2 August 1613;

(3) John Bedingfeld (fl. 1606), of Redlingfield (Suffk); a zealous Catholic and harbourer of priests; married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Sulisden and had issue at least one son; living in 1606;

(4) Nicholas Bedingfeld (c.1550-1637) of Swatshall, Gislingham (Norfk), born about 1550; married, 23 August 1595 at Bodney (Norfk), Elizabeth Downes, but had no issue; died aged 86 and was buried at Gislingham, 21 January 1636/7;

(5) Henry Bedingfeld (fl. 1636), of Sturston (Norfk); married Mary, daughter of Edmund Daniel of Acton (Suffk) and had issue three sons; living in 1636;

(6) Alice Bedingfeld (d. by 1583); married 1st, Thomas Kervile (d. 1559), eldest son of Humphrey Kerville of Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen (Norfk), and had issue one son; married 2nd, Sir Henry Seckford (d. 1610), merchant, privateer, groom of the privy chamber and keeper of the privy purse to Queen Elizabeth, and Master of the Tents, Hales and Pavilions (who m2, 3 December 1583 at St James, Clerkenwell (Middx), Helen Bird (d. 1594) and m3, Rebecca (fl. 1619), widow of John Rowe), fifth son of Thomas Seckford of Seckford Hall (Suffk); died in or before 1583;

(7) Amy Bedingfeld (fl. 1573); married, 1565 (settlement 23 November), as his second wife, Thomas Wilbraham (1531-73), recorder of London, 1569-71, attorney of the Court of Wards, 1571-73 and MP for London, 1571 and Westminster, 1572, and had issue; death not traced;

(8) Eve Bedingfeld (d. c.1631); married William Yaxley (1546-88) of Yaxley Hall (Suffk), eldest son of Richard Yaxley, and had issue four sons and four daughters; died between 1627 and 1631; will proved 12 May 1631;

(9) Katherine Bedingfeld (d. 1609); married, 1563 (licence), Walter Norton (c.1540-1609) of Chediston Hall, Halesworth (Suffk) and Mellis Manor, son of Robert Norton of Chediston (Suffk), and had issue three sons and one daughter; buried at Great Yarmouth (Norfk) on the same day as her husband, 7 September 1609;

(10) Elizabeth Bedingfeld (d. 1587); married, 1570 (licence 15 May), Edmund Richers (1547-1601) (who m2, Frances Castell, widow) of Swannington (Norfk), and had issue; buried at Swannington, 29 April 1587;

(11) Anne Bedingfeld (d. 1586?); unmarried in 1583 and was possibly the woman of this name buried at Thuxton (Norfk), 30 November 1586.

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1553.

He died 12 August and was buried at Oxburgh, 24 August 1583; his will was proved 13 November 1583 and an inquisition post mortem was held at Swaffham (Norfk), 7 April 1584. His wife was buried at Oxburgh, 7 December 1581.

Bedingfeld, Edmund (c.1534-85). Eldest son of Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1511-83), kt. and his wife Katherine, daughter of Sir Roger Townshend, born about 1534. Educated at Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1550). He married 1st, 26 November 1555 at St Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey (Surrey), Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Southwell of Hoxne (Suffk) and Mereworth (Kent), and 2nd, Anne (d. 1595), daughter and heiress of John Moulton of Huntingfield (Suffk) and widow of Nicholas Smith alias Arrowsmith of Huntingfield and John Paston, and had issue:

(1.1) Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1560-90) (q.v.);

(1.2) Edmund Bedingfeld (1567-1634) of Buxton and Lammas (Norfk), born at Denham (Suffk), 1567; educated at Halesworth, Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (admitted 1584) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1585); married, 1 September 1600 at St Saviour, Norwich, Elizabeth, daughter of John Castell of Raveningham (Norfk), and had issue four sons and two daughters; died in 1634 and was buried at Buxton;

(1.3) Anthony Bedingfeld (b. 1570), of Scot's Hall, Westleton (Suffk), born at Denham; educated at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (matriculated 1584); married, Lucy (d. 1619?), daughter of Nicholas Timperley (fl. 1624) of Hintlesham (Suffk) and had issue three sons and two daughters; living in 1610;

(1.4) Anne Bedingfeld; married Robert Skerne of Bondby (Lincs);

(1.5) Mary Bedingfeld (d. 1629); married William Cobbe (c.1563-1612) of Sandringham (Norfk) and had issue one son and two daughters; buried at Sandringham, 17 June 1629; will proved 31 July 1629;

(1.6) Nazareth Bedingfeld; married Edward Yelverton (1561-1623) of Appleton, Grimstone and Wolferton (Norfk), fourth son of William Yelverton of Rougham (Norfk); she was buried with her husband at Sandringham but her date of death is unknown.

He lived in an old moated house at Denham (Suffk) and inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1583.

He died aged 51 on 24 August and was buried at Oxburgh, 25 August 1585; his will was proved 12 February 1585/6. His first wife's date of death is unknown. His second wife died 26 June 1595 and was buried at Huntingfield, where she is commemorated by a monument.

Bedingfeld, Thomas (c.1560-90). Eldest son of Edmund Bedingfeld (c.1534-85) and his first wife Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Southwell of Hoxne (Suffk) and Mereworth (Kent), born about 1560. He married, 9 October 1580 at Somerleyton (Suffk), Frances (1562-98), daughter and co-heiress of John Jerningham of Somerleyton, and had issue, perhaps among others:

(1) Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1586-1657), kt. (q.v.);

(2) William Bedingfeld (fl. 1593); living in 1593 but perhaps died young.

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1585.

He died 9 April 1590; an inquisition post mortem was held 30 July 1590 and his will was proved November 1590. His widow married 2nd, her cousin Sir Henry Jerningham (d. 1619), kt., of Costessey Hall (Norfk), and had further issue one son; she died in 1598.

Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1586-1657), kt. 

Bedingfeld, Sir Henry (1586-1657), kt. Elder son of Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1560-90) and his wife Frances, daughter and co-heiress of John Jerningham of Somerleyton (Suffk), born 21 May 1586. He was brought up by his stepfather, Henry Jerningham, after his father's death, and was knighted on or shortly after 21 July 1604. He obtained a licence to travel abroad (with his brother-in-law, Francis Howard of Corby Castle (Cumbld)) for three years in 1607, but returned before his second marriage in 1609. MP for Norfolk, 1614. High Sheriff of Norfolk, 1620-21; JP and DL for Norfolk by 1610-26; Captain of Horse in the army, 1624. With growing anti-Catholic feeling in the 1620s he was removed from his public offices and received licence to travel abroad for a year on health grounds in 1626. While in France he had some contact with the queen mother, Marie de Medici, who wrote to Charles I asking for him to be exempted from the recusancy laws. Whether Bedingfeld obtained the desired exemption is not known, but after sustained pressure from France he received a general warrant from the king in 1634 which afforded him ‘our favour’ when he and members of his family ‘shall stand in need thereof’. This warrant expressly acknowledged the role played by the queen mother, who had ‘often and earnestly’ intervened on his behalf. He was the leader of Catholic Royalists in Norfolk at the start of the Civil War but with Norfolk firmly in parliamentarian hands he escaped to Holland soon after Queen Henrietta Maria went abroad in 1642. He returned from exile under threat of the confiscation of his estates in 1646, and  although not immediately arrested was soon afterwards taken prisoner at Oxburgh in an engagement in which the south end of the east range was destroyed by fire. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, 1647-49, until released under a general pardon. He married 1st, about 1604, Elizabeth (probably d. by 1607), daughter of Lord William Howard of Naworth Castle (Cumbld) and 2nd, 11 July 1609, Elizabeth (c.1590-1662), daughter and co-heiress of Peter Hoghton of Hoghton Tower (Lancs) and sheriff of London, and had issue six sons and six daughters, including:

(1.1) Col. Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1605-65) (q.v.);

(2.1) Frances Bedingfeld (b. 1610), born 31 December 1610; married Michael Timperley (1584-1653) of Hintlesham (Suffk) (who m2, after 1639, Joan [surname unknown] (fl. 1653)), son of Sir Thomas Timperley (d. 1651), and had issue six sons and three daughters; died between 1639 and 1653;

(2.2) Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1613-85), 1st bt. (q.v.);

(2.3) Fr. Edmund Bedingfeld (1615-80), baptised 14 August 1615; educated at St. Omer; ordained as a RC priest at Seville (Spain), c.1644; canon of Lier, Brabant, and chaplain to the English Carmelite nuns of that place; died 2 September 1680 and was buried in the collegiate church at Lier, where he was commemorated by a monument;

(2.4) William Bedingfeld (1616-86) of Norwich, born 31 December 1616 and baptised 23 January 1616/7; trained as a soldier under the Duc de Guise in France and became a Captain in the Guards; married a widow, Susan [surname unknown]; died 28 January 1685/6; will proved 16 February 1685/6;

(2.5) Jane Bedingfeld (1618-47), born 26 April and baptised 22 May 1618; married, before 1634, Richard Martyn of Long Melford and had issue ten children; died 28 June 1647;

(2.6) Elizabeth Bedingfeld (1619-98), baptised 8 November 1619; married Col. William Cobbe (1613-65) of Sandringham, and had issue two daughters (who both became Carmelite nuns at Lier); buried at St Giles, Norwich, 1698*;

(2.7) Mary Bedingfeld (1621-79), baptised 10 May 1621; married 1st, Col. Robert Apreece (d. 1644) of Washingley (Hunts) (who was shot in cold blood after the capture of Lincoln, 7 May 1644, and who was beatified as a Catholic martyr in 1886) and had issue one son; married 2nd, 1 March 1646/7 at St James, Clerkenwell (Middx), Humphrey Orme (1620-71), MP for Peterborough, 1654, 1660-71, son of Humphrey Orme of Peterborough, and had further issue two sons and two daughters; died 1 August 1679;

(2.8) John Bedingfeld (1624-86), baptised 10 November 1624; an officer in the King's army (Capt.); he was unmarried and without issue; died 19 February 1685/6;

(2.9) Anne Bedingfeld (b. c.1625), born about 1625; perhaps died young.

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1590 and came of age in about 1608; during his minority his property was managed by his stepfather, Sir Henry Jernegan. His property was taken into sequestration on 30 October 1646 and partly sold by Parliament and not fully recovered by his son until 1660.

He died 22 November 1657 and was buried at Oxburgh. His first wife died before 1609 and probably in or before 1607. His second wife died 11 April 1662 and was buried at Oxburgh.

* One source says 1684 not 1698.

Col. Thomas Bedingfeld (c.1605-65) 

Bedingfeld, Col. Thomas (c.1605-65). Only son of Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1586-1657), kt., and his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Lord William Howard of Naworth Castle (Cumbld), born about 1605. He was evidently an army officer before the Civil War and may have seen service in the Palatinate in 1624. In 1639 he was a captain and was helping to raise 1,000 men for service in Spain. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he became a Colonel in the Royalist army, but he was wounded and captured at the siege of Lincoln, 1643, spending the next two years in captivity and then being sent into exile. He returned at or before the time of his father's death and obtained licence to go abroad again in 1658. His great-nephew, the 2nd baronet, described him somewhat enigmatically as 'a fine gentleman but a bad husband'. He married, 1625/6 (settlement 21 February), Mary (d. 1679), daughter of William Brooksby of Staunton and Shouldham (Leics), but had no issue.

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1657 and recovered possession of it at the Restoration in 1660.

He died of a stroke at Oxburgh, 26 April 1665. His widow married, about 1678, 'a young attorney called Harrison', but died 1 August 1679.

Sir Henry Bedingfeld, 1st bt. 

Bedingfeld, Sir Henry (1613-85), 1st bt. Eldest son of Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1586-1657), kt., and his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Peter Hoghton of Hoghton Tower (Lancs), born 10 May and baptised 27 May 1613. He was an officer in the Royalist army (Capt.) and is said to have been taken hostage during the siege of Kings Lynn. He was again arrested in 1655 in connection with a plot against the life of Oliver Cromwell and imprisoned at Lynn and later in London, before securing his freedom. He claimed his family's losses since 1642 amounted to £47,194, but the King was in no position to reimburse such claims and he had to be content with the reward of a baronetcy, conferred on 2 January 1660/1. He married, April 1635, Margaret (c.1619-1703), daughter and heiress of Edward Paston of Appleton (Norfk) and Horton Court (Glos), and had issue:

(1) Frances Bedingfeld (c.1635-1704); married, by 1665, Richard Caryll (d. 1701) of West Grinstead Place and Ladyholt, West Harting (Sussex), third son of John Caryll of West Harting, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 4 September 1704 and was buried at West Grinstead, where she and her husband were commemorated by a monument;

(2) Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1636-1704), 2nd bt (q.v.);

(3) Elizabeth Bedingfeld (1637-89); a celebrated beauty; married, about 1653, as his second wife, Thomas Whetenhall (1628-1706) of Hextal, East Peckham (Kent); died without issue and was buried at East Peckham, 24 February 1664/5, where she is commemorated by a monument;

(4) Mary Bedingfeld (c.1643-1710); married, as his second wife, Thomas Eyre of Hassop (Derbys) and Bures Hall (Norfk), and had issue six sons and six daughters; died 28 September 1710 and was buried at Holm-Hale (Norfk);

(5) Margaret Bedingfeld (1646-1714), born 1646; said to have been educated at an Ursuline convent in Paris; a Carmelite nun at Lier, Brabant (professed 1673 as Sr. Margaret of Jesus; according to some sources she was eventually prioress); died at Lier, 19 November 1714;

(6) Edward Bedingfeld (c.1649-1715), born about 1649; educated at Grays Inn (admitted 1667; called 1686); barrister-at-law; married Mary, fifth daughter of Thomas Fisher (d. 1681) and sister of Sir Clement Fisher, 3rd bt., of Packington (Warks), and had issue two sons (who died young) and one daughter; will proved in the PCC, 2 April 1715;

(7) Anne Bedingfeld (1650-1700), born 1650; a Carmelite nun at Lier, Brabant (professed 1670 as Sr. Anne of the Angels); died 18 February 1700;

(8) John Bedingfeld (c.1651-93), born about 1651; JP for Norfolk in reign of James II; married Dorothy, daughter and co-heiress of John Ramsay of Wickmere (Norfk), and had issue eight children; died 9 August 1693 and was buried at Wickmere.

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his half-brother in 1665, but lived at Beck Hall near Billingford (Norfk).

He died 24 February 1684/5 and was buried at Oxburgh, where he is commemorated by a monument; his will was proved at Norwich, 9 March 1684/5. His widow died 14 January 1702/3 and was buried at Oxburgh, where she also is commemorated by a monument; her will was proved in May 1703.

Sir Henry Bedingfeld, 2nd bt
Detail of portrait by Mary Beale 

Bedingfeld, Sir Henry (1636-1704), 2nd bt. Eldest son of Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1614-85), 1st bt., and his wife Margaret, daughter and heiress of Edward Paston of Appleton (Norfk), born 1636. He entered the service of King Charles II's third son, Henry Stuart (1640-60), Duke of Gloucester, while the English court was in exile on the Continent in the 1650s, and is said to have been the duke's chief favourite. He accompanied him to England at the Restoration and was probably knighted shortly afterwards. The combination of court breeding and an affable temper is said to have made him a fine gentleman, and he was remembered by his descendants for his hospitality and splendid house-keeping. He succeeded his father as 2nd baronet, 24 February 1684/5. He married 1st, about 1666, Lady Anne (c.1650-82), only surviving child and heiress of Charles Howard, Viscount Andover (and later 2nd Earl of Berkshire) and 2nd, 3 May 1684, Elizabeth (d. 1690), youngest daughter of Sir John Arundell (c.1623-1701), kt., of Lanherne (Cornw.), and had issue:

(2.1) Elizabeth Bedingfeld (1685-99), born 26 February 1684/5; died young of smallpox in Brussels, 24 December 1699, and was buried in the Augustinian convent there the same day;

(2.2) Margaret Bedingfeld (1686-1756), born 3 March 1685/6; married, 1704, Sir John Jerningham (1678-1737), 4th bt., of Costessey Hall (Norfk), but had no issue; died at Winchester (Hants), and was buried with her husband at Bath Abbey (Som.), 23 December 1756; her will was proved in the PCC, 22 January 1757;

(2.3) Frances Bedingfeld (1687-1722?), born 14 November 1687; married, 1707/8, Sir Francis Anderton (1681-1760), 6th bt., of Lostock Hall (Lancs), an active Jacobite whose estates were confiscated after the 1715 uprising, but had no issue; said to have died in 1722;

(2.4) Sir Henry Arundell Bedingfeld (1689-1760), 3rd bt. (q.v.).

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1685 and made the house habitable once more.

He died 14 September 1704 and was buried at Oxburgh, where he and his two wives are commemorated by a monument; his will was proved 3 May 1705. His first wife died 19 September 1682 and was buried at Oxburgh. His second wife died 13 April 1690 and was also buried at Oxburgh.

Sir Henry Arundell Bedingfeld, 3rd bt. 

Bedingfeld, Sir Henry Arundell (1689-1760), 3rd bt. Only son of Sir Henry Bedingfeld (1636-1704), 2nd bt., and his second wife, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Sir John Arundell of Lanherne (Cornw.), born 13 April 1689. Educated with a tutor in Brussels (Belgium) from 1699 and later under the soubriquet 'Nelson' at La Flèche, 1701-05. He succeeded his father as 3rd baronet, 14 September 1704. He undertook the Grand Tour in 1710, visiting Florence and Venice and, no doubt, Rome. The baptism of some of his children in Anglican churches suggests he may have flirted with religious conformity as a young man, but later on he was a significant supporter of the Jacobite cause during the 1745 uprising, who channelled large sums of money to the exiled Stuart pretenders, although he successfully protested his innocence when he was accused of complicity in the uprising. He married, 28 August 1719, Lady Elizabeth (c.1691-1751), eldest daughter of Charles Boyle (d. 1704), 3rd Earl of Cork and 2nd Earl of Burlington (the sister of the architect Earl of Burlington), and had issue:

(1) Richard Bedingfeld (b. & d. 1720), born dead, 28 May 1720;

(2) Edward Bedingfeld (b. & d. 1721), born 28 August 1721 but died soon afterwards;

(3) Elizabeth Bedingfeld (1722-63), born 7 November and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), 15 November 1722; married, 11 June 1749, Charles Biddulph (1712-84) of Burton (Sussex) (who m2, 3 December 1764 at St Thomas, Winchester (Hants), Frances Apollonia (d. 1806), daughter of George Brownlow Doughty (d. 1743) of Snarford Hall (Lincs) and widow of Henry Wells), second son of John Biddulph of Biddulph (Staffs) and Burton, and had issue three sons and one daughter; died at Bristol, 18 June, and was buried in Bath Abbey, 21 June 1763;

(4) Henry Bedingfeld (1723-32), born 27 October 1723 and was baptised at Chiswick (Middx); educated at Norwich Grammar School, where he died, 6 September 1732; buried at Oxborough, 8 September 1732;

(5) Charles Bedingfeld (b. & d. 1724), born 17 October 1724; died in infancy and was buried at Oxburgh, 4 December 1724;

(6) Mary Bedingfeld (b. & d. 1725), died in infancy and was buried at Oxburgh, 20 September 1725;

(7) Sir Richard Henry Bedingfeld (1726-95), 4th bt. (q.v.);

(8) Edward Bedingfeld (1731-1802), born 2 February 1730/1; educated at St Omer under the pseudonym Clay; settled at York; married, 21 March 1754, Mary (1729-1809), daughter of Sir John Swinburne (1698-1745), 3rd bt. of Capheaton (Northbld), and had issue five sons and five daughters; died 14 May and was buried at Holy Trinity, Micklegate, York, 18 May 1802; will proved in the PCC, 20 September 1802.

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1704.

He died 15 July and was buried at Oxburgh, 19 July 1760; his will was proved 2 October 1760. His wife died 25 November 1751 and was also buried at Oxburgh.

Sir Richard Henry Bedingfeld, 4th bt. 

Bedingfeld, Sir Richard Henry (1726-95), 4th bt. Fifth, but eldest surviving, son of Sir Henry Arundell Bedingfeld (1689-1760), 3rd bt., and his wife Lady Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Charles Boyle, 3rd Earl of Cork, born 14 September and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), 22 September 1726. Educated at St. Omer (under the pseudonym Clay), 1737-48. He contracted smallpox in 1757 but survived. He succeeded his father as 4th baronet, 15 July 1760. After the death of his wife he retired from society and lived at Oxburgh, except for annual visits to her home at Cowdray. He married, 30 March 1761 at Cowdray (Sussex), the Hon. Mary (1733-67), daughter of Anthony Browne, 6th Viscount Montagu, of Cowdray Park, and had issue:

(1) Sir Richard Bedingfeld (1767-1829), 5th bt. (q.v.).

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1760, and was responsible for the demolition of the Great Hall in 1775 and subsequent alterations by John Tasker. In his later years he spent the winter months in Bury St. Edmunds (Suffk).

He died 27 March 1795 and was buried at Oxburgh; administration of his goods was granted to his son, 20 April 1795. His wife died at Bath (Som.) after childbirth, 17 September, and was buried at Bath Abbey, 23 September 1767, where she was commemorated by a monument.

Sir Richard Bedingfeld, 5th bt. 

Bedingfeld, Sir Richard (1767-1829), 5th bt. Only son of Sir Richard Henry Bedingfeld (1726-95), 4th bt., and his wife, the Hon. Mary, daughter of Anthony Browne, 6th Viscount Montagu, born at Bath (Som.), 23 August 1767. Educated in Hertfordshire, 1775-81, and then at the Academy in Liège (Belgium), 1781-87; he did not undertake a grand tour but in 1794 made a tour of the north of England with the Rev. Thomas Young. He succeeded his father as 5th baronet, 27 March 1795. He married, 16 June 1795 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Hon. Charlotte Georgiana (d. 1854), daughter of Sir William Jerningham, 6th bt. of Costessey Hall (Norfk), and sister of George Jerningham, 2nd Baron Stafford, and had issue:

(1) Frances Charlotte Bedingfeld (1796-1822), born 19 April, and baptised at Oxburgh, 25 April 1796; married, 2 June 1815, William Henry Francis Petre (1793-1850), 11th Baron Petre (who m2, 14 April 1823, Emma Agnes (1803-61), daughter of Henry Howard of Corby Castle (Cumbld) and had a further eight children), and had issue two sons and two daughters; died in childbirth, 29 January, and was buried at Ingatestone (Essex), 5 February 1822, but her body was later moved to Thorndon (Essex);

(2) Matilda Bedingfeld (1797-1881), born 8 April and baptised at Oxburgh, 10 April 1797; married, 30 November 1820, George Stanley Cary (1780-1858) of Follaton (Devon), son of Edward Cary (d. 1822), and had issue one son and seven daughters; died 28 January and was buried at Harberton (Devon), 2 February 1881;

(3) Agnes Mary Bedingfeld (1798-1870), born 31 August 1798 and baptised at Oxburgh on the same day; married, 3 October 1823 at Ghent (Belgium), Thomas Molyneux Seele (1792-1881) of Hurst House and Bolton Park (Lancs), and had issue one son; died 7 September 1870;

(4) Sir Henry Richard Bedingfeld (later Paston-Bedingfeld) (1800-62), 6th bt. (q.v.);

(5) Charlotte Elizabeth Bedingfeld (1802-76), born 9 January 1802 and was baptised at Oxburgh on the same day; educated at the English Augustine convent in Bruges (Belgium) from 1813 and became a nun in the same convent (professed 1824); died 17 July 1876;

(6) Charles Richard Bedingfeld (1803-70), born at Yarmouth, 5 September 1803 and baptised there on the same day; an officer in the Austrian Cuirassiers and later in the West Norfolk Militia (Capt., 1831; Maj., 1854); married, about 21 July 1840 at Fulmer (Bucks), Agnes (1802-41), daughter of C. Waterton of Woodlands (Yorks); died without issue, 3 February 1870; will proved 3 March 1870 (effects under £3,000);

(7) Edward Richard Bedingfeld (1805-23), born at Norwich, 20 January, and was baptised on 24 January 1805; a midshipman in the Royal Navy who was drowned when he fell overboard from his ship on the night of 2 October 1823;

(8) Felix William George Richard Bedingfeld (1808-84), born 12 August 1808; educated at Lincolns Inn (admitted 1830); colonial civil servant; crown commissioner of Turks Islands, 1842; master of the supreme court of Trinidad, 1849-54; colonial secretary for Mauritius, 1860-68; appointed CMG; a freemason from 1841; married, 30 April 1849 at Portsea (Hants), Mary Woodward Lightbourn (c.1818-1910), eldest daughter of Lt-Col. John Chads, Governor of the British Virgin Islands, but had no issue; died 7 December 1884; will proved 9 January 1885 (effects £8,476).

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1795. When first married he also had a house in Norwich. About 1808 he built a house (94 New Sydney Place) at Bath (Som.), reputedly at a cost of £6,000, but financial considerations obliged him to live abroad at Ghent for some years, only returning to Bath in the 1820s.

He died at the Castle Inn, Windsor, 22 November 1829, after suffering a stroke while travelling three days earlier, and was buried at Oxburgh; his will was proved February 1830 and again June 1852, and a further grant of administration was made 12 November 1864. His widow, who was a talented and indefatigable correspondent* and amateur artist, entered the R.C. convent in Hammersmith (Middx) as a boarder after being widowed, and became a Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Adelaide, 1830-49; she died 29 July and was buried in the chapel at Oxburgh Hall, 9 August 1854.

* Some of her letters and journals were published in heavily edited form in E. Castle (ed.), The Jerningham letters, 1780-1843 (2 vols., 1896) and E. Betham (ed.), A House of Letters (1905); they are now in the library of the University of Birmingham.

Bedingfeld (later Paston-Bedingfeld), Sir Henry Richard (1800-62), 6th bt. Eldest son of Sir Richard Bedingfeld (1767-1829), 5th bt., and his wife Charlotte Georgiana, daughter of Sir William Jerningham, 6th bt. of Costessey Hall (Norfk), and sister of George Jerningham, 2nd Baron Stafford, born 10 May 1800 and baptised at Oxburgh on the same day. He succeeded his father as 6th baronet, 22 November 1829 and took the additional surname of Paston by royal licence on 16 April 1830. JP and DL for Norfolk (from 1831). In 1858 he established, at considerable expense, his claim to be one of the (many) co-heirs to the barony of Grandison. He married, 30 August 1826 at Bath (Som.), Margaret Anne (c.1807-87), only child and heir of Edward Paston, the last of the Pastons of Paston, formerly Earls of Yarmouth, and had issue:

(1) Matilda Charlotte Paston-Bedingfeld (1827-1905), born in Belgium in late 1827; a talented amateur artist who made a series of views of the interiors of Oxburgh Hall c.1850; married, 2 July 1855 in the chapel at Oxburgh Hall, Capt. George Henry Nevill (1825-1906), son of Charles Nevill of Nevill Holt (Leics), and had issue one son, but her husband became mentally unstable, probably as the result of a head wound received during his military service, and she separated from him before he was confined in Coton Hill Asylum (Staffs) in 1865 and declared a lunatic in 1867; she lived latterly at Hitchin (Herts); she died 31 December 1905 and was buried in the chapel at Oxburgh Hall, 5 January 1906; administration of her goods was granted to her son, 3 October 1913 (effects £231);

(2) Sir Henry George Paston-Bedingfeld (1830-1902), 7th bt. (q.v.);

(3) Lt-Col. Raoul Stephen Paston-Bedingfeld (later Bishopp then Paston-Bedingfeld once more) (1835-1910), born in Germany, 1 April 1835; an officer in the Norfolk Artillery Militia (Capt. by 1855; Maj., 1861; Hon. Lt-Col., 1877; retired 1879); inherited a life interest in the Brailes estate (Warks) from his mother in 1887 and took the name Bishopp by royal licence, 23 September 1887, but later reverted to Paston-Bedingfeld again; lost money gambling on horse-racing and was declared bankrupt, 1889; married, 26 April 1897 at St Joseph's RC church, Roehampton (Surrey), Katherine Gregory (c.1860-1939), daughter of Edward Walker of Henbury Manor, Wimborne (Dorset) and widow of Henry Alexander Claremont Lyne-Stephens of Grove House, Roehampton, but had no issue; died 4 June 1910 and was buried in the chapel at Oxburgh Hall;

(4) Mary Geraldine Paston-Bedingfeld (1840-69), born 26 October 1840; married, 8 October 1867 at the chapel of the Bavarian Embassy in London, Lt-Col. Edward Southwell Trafford (1838-1912) (who m2, 1880, the Hon. Eleanor Mary (d. 1908), eighth daughter of William Bernard Petre, 12th Baron Petre, and had issue seven sons and five daughters), of Wroxham Hall (Norfk) and Honington Hall (Lincs), second son of Edward William Trafford of Brundall House (Norfk), but had no issue; died in childbirth, 10 August 1869;

(5) Mary Gabrielle Constance Helen Paston-Bedingfeld (c.1846-1937), born about 1846; married, 21 June 1880, Ferdinand John Eyre (c.1854-1928) of Moreton Hall, Bury St. Edmunds (Suffk), youngest son of V.A. Eyre, but had no issue; she died aged 90 on 12 January 1937.

He inherted the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1829 and employed J.C. Buckler to extensively remodel it in the 1860s. His wife inherited the Brailes (Warks) estate in 1841.

He died 4 February and was buried in the chapel at Oxburgh Hall, 11 February 1862. His wife took the surname Paston-Bishopp-Bedingfeld by royal licence, 26 March 1841, but had apparently reverted to Paston-Bedingfeld before she died in Bath, 31 January 1887; she was also buried at Oxburgh Hall.

Sir Henry George Paston-Bedingfeld, 7th bt. 

Paston-Bedingfeld, Sir Henry George (1830-1902), 7th bt. Elder son of Sir Henry Richard Bedingfeld (later Paston-Bedingfeld) (1800-62), 6th bt., and his wife Margaret Anne, only child and heiress of Edward Paston of Paston, born at Norwich, 10 May and baptised 21 June 1830. Educated at Stonyhurst. An officer in the West Norfolk militia (Capt.); DL for Norfolk; High Sheriff of Norfolk, 1882. As a young man, he served for some time with the Austrian Cuirassiers. He succeeded his father as 7th baronet, 4 February 1862. He married, 17 October 1859, Augusta Lucy (1839-1929), only child of Edward John Clavering of Callaly Castle (Northbld), and had issue:

(1) Sir Henry Edward Paston-Bedingfeld (1860-1941), 8th bt. (q.v.);

(2) Richard Henry Clavering Paston-Bedingfeld (1862-1931), born 2 January 1862; emigrated to United States, where he bought a piece of land in Wyoming in 1897, and later to Canada; died unmarried, 10 August 1931, and was buried at Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria, British Columbia (Canada);

(3) Alice Mary Paston-Bedingfeld (1863-1947), born 27 January 1863; awarded Grand Cordon of Turkish Order of Chefakat (Order of Charity); married, 1st, 12 January 1891 at the Brompton Oratory (Middx), Vice-Adm. James Lacon Hammet CVO (1848-1905) and had issue one daughter; married 2nd, 1 October 1906, Cdr. Clement La Primaudaye CVO RN (1843-1910), superintendent of police in Malta, but had no further issue; died 22 September 1947; will proved 12 November 1947 (estate £431);

(4) Charles Paston-Bedingfeld (1864-1936), born 25 July 1864; emigrated to United States, where he bought 160 acres of land in Wyoming, 1897 and raised cattle; later a gold miner; died unmarried at Sacramento, California, 13 February 1936;

(5) Mary Maud Paston-Bedingfeld (1866-1962), born 8 November and baptised at the Bavarian R.C. Chapel, Warwick St., Soho, Westminster (Middx), 19 November 1866; a nun of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus; died 26 March 1962;

(6) Mary Augusta Paston-Bedingfeld (b. & d. 1868), born about May 1868; died in infancy, 26 August 1868;

(7) Edward Arthur Paston-Bedingfeld (1870-78), born 29 August and baptised in the chapel at Oxburgh Hall, 8 September 1870; died young, 16 March 1878;

(8) William Felix Paston-Bedingfeld (1873-1911), born Jan-Mar 1873; emigrated to South Africa and worked as a wine and spirit merchant in Middleburg (Transvaal); died unmarried, 29 May 1911; administration of goods granted 9 April 1930 (effects in England, £1,007);

(9) Francis Augustus Paston-Bedingfeld (1874-1950), born 10/13 May and baptised in the chapel at Oxburgh Hall, 21 May 1874; emigrated to the Transvaal (South Africa) after his marriage; married, 1926, Dorothy Mary Hooker (1893-1932) of Kingston (Surrey) and had issue one son and one daughter; died 20 January 1950;

(10) Edith Mary Paston-Bedingfeld (1876-1972), born 29 February and baptised in the chapel at Oxburgh Hall, 3 March 1876; a nun of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus; died aged 95 in Jan-Mar 1972;

(11) Hubert Joseph Paston-Bedingfeld (1877-1956), born 24 May and baptised in the chapel at Oxburgh Hall, 29 May 1877; educated at Bayliss House, Stoke Poges (Bucks); emigrated to the United States with his brother Charles; died unmarried at Los Angeles, California (USA), 20 November 1956.

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1862 and carried out further works to the house soon afterwards.

He died in Kensington (Middx), 18 January 1902; will proved 26 April 1902 (estate £14,507). His widow died aged 89 on 2 March 1929; her will was proved 29 April 1929 (estate £2,185).

Sir Henry Edward Paston-Bedingfeld, 8th bt. 

Paston-Bedingfeld, Sir Henry Edward (1860-1941), 8th bt. Eldest son of Sir Henry George Paston-Bedingfeld (1830-1902), 7th bt., and his wife Augusta Lucy, only child of Edward John Clavering of Callaly Castle (Northbld), born 29 August 1860. JP for Norfolk. An officer in the 3rd battn, Liverpool Regiment (2nd Lt., 1880; Lt., 1880; Capt. by 1895; Maj., 1902; retired 1904), who served in the Boer War. He succeeded his father as 8th baronet, 18 January 1902. He married, 21 June 1904, Sybil (1883-1985), eldest daughter of Henry Alexander Claremont Lyne-Stephens of Grove House, Roehampton (Surrey), and had issue:

(1) Margaret Mary Anastasia Paston-Bedingfeld (1905-93), born 24 April 1905; died unmarried, 3 September 1993; will proved 26 October 1993 (estate under £125,000);

(2) Henry Stephen Augustus Paston-Bedingfeld (1906-17), born 5 June and baptised in the chapel at Oxburgh Hall, 10 June 1906; died young, 27 February 1917;

(3) Elizabeth Marie Gabrielle Paston-Bedingfeld (b. & d. 1910), born 7 December and died in infancy, 9 December 1910;

(4) Anthony Raoul Ferdinand Paston-Bedingfeld (1912-14), born 22 October 1912; died in infancy, 10 May 1914;

(5) Sir Edmund George Felix Paston-Bedingfeld (1915-2011), 9th bt. (q.v.);

(6) Frances Mary Theresa Paston-Bedingfeld (1919-2020), born 13 June 1919; founded the 'Breadline Africa' charity in 1993; married 1st, 18 October 1949, as his second wife, Frank Douglas Playford (1888-1956), engineer, eldest son of Frank Lumley Playford (1855-1931), stockbroker; married 2nd, 1957, Maitland Gardner Nimmo (from 1947 Maitland-Nimmo) (1907-77), farmer, younger son of Sir Adam Nimmo (1866-1939), kt., coal owner, and had issue one son and one daughter; married 3rd, 25 February 1978, Philip James Greathead (c.1920-97) of Cape Town (South Africa); died aged 100 in Cape Town, 22 January 2020.

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1902. His widow repurchased the house in 1951 and presented it to The National Trust in 1952, on condition that the family retained the right to occupy parts of the house in perpetuity.

He died 18 May 1941; his will was proved 16 July 1941 and 25 June 1942 (estate £55,437). His widow died aged 101 on 13 May 1985; her will was proved 14 August 1985 (estate under £40,000).

Sir Edmund Paston-Bedingfeld, 9th bt. 

Paston-Bedingfeld, Sir Edmund George Felix (1915-2011), 9th bt. Third, but eldest surviving, son of Sir Henry Edward Paston-Bedingfeld (1860-1941), 8th bt., and his wife Sybil, eldest daughter of Henry Alexander Claremont Lyne-Stephens, born 2 June 1915. Educated at The Oratory School and New College, Oxford. An officer in the 5th battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment (2nd Lt., 1935; Lt., 1938) and Welsh Guards (Lt., 1939; Capt. 1946; retired as Hon. Maj., 1947), who served in the Second World War (mentioned in despatches; wounded). He succeeded his father as 9th baronet, 18 May 1941. Under-Sec. in Agricultural Division of Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, 1966-69; managing director, Handley Walker (Europe) Ltd., 1969-80. A Freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Bowyers Co. President of the Suffolk Heraldry Society, 1993-2011. He married 1st, 6 June 1942 (div. 1953), Joan Lynette (d. 1965), daughter of Edgar George Rees of Llanelli (Carms.); 2nd, 31 May 1957, Agnes Kathleen Susan Anne Danos (1926-74), daughter of Miklos Gluck of Budapest (Hungary); 3rd, 20 November 1975, Peggy Rose (1925-91) of Fort Victoria (Zimbabwe), daughter of Roy S. Davey of Holsworthy (Devon), surveyor and sanitary inspector, and formerly wife of Eric Gordon Hannaford-Hill (1924-2000); and 4th, 15 February 1992 at Oxburgh, Sheila Finlayson (1924-2017), eldest daughter of John Douglas of Edinburgh and widow of Maj. Ronald William Riddell (1913-84), pathologist, and had issue:

(1.1) Sir Henry Edgar Paston-Bedingfeld (b. 1943), 10th bt.;

(1.2) Alexandra Winifred Mary Paston-Bedingfeld (b. 1947), born 3 September 1947; married, 1st, 16 May 1970 (div. 1977), James Michael Yearsley (b. 1937), and had issue one son and two daughters; married 2nd, Jan-Mar 1978, Jack L. Pemberton, and had issue two sons and one daughter.

He inherited the Oxburgh Hall estate from his father in 1941 but sold it in 1950. In 1951 it was repurchased by his mother and given to the National Trust. He subsequently lived chiefly in London.

He died 24 May 2011; his will was proved 8 September 2011. His first wife married 2nd, 1953 (div. by 1963), Richard Dewar Neame (1927-2002) and 3rd, 4 April 1963, the Hon. David John Coulson Fellowes (1915-98), son of the Hon. Coulson Churchill Fellowes and half-brother of Ailwyn Edward Fellowes, 3rd Baron de Ramsey, and died 22 January 1965. His second wife died 5 June 1974; her will was proved 9 September 1974 (estate £13,718). His third wife died 13 May 1991; her will was proved 19 July 1991 (effects under £125,000). His widow died 19 June 2017; her will was proved 19 October 2017.

Sir Henry Paston-Bedingfeld, 10th bt. 

Paston-Bedingfeld, Sir Henry Edgar (b. 1943), 10th bt. Only son of Sir Edmund George Felix Paston-Bedingfeld (1915-2011), 9th bt., and his first wife, Joan Lynette, daughter of Edgar George Rees of Holmesleigh, Llanelli (Carms), born 7 December 1943. Educated at Ampleforth. Fellow of the Institute of Auctioneers, 1968 and of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, 1970. An officer of the College of Arms (Rouge Croix Pursuivant, 1983; York Herald, 1993; Norroy & Ulster King of Arms, 2010; retired 2014); Secretary of the Standing Council of the Baronetage, 1984-88 and a member of the executive committee since 2012 (Chairman, since 2019); Knight of Honour and Devotion in Soverign Military Order of Malta. A Freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Scriveners' Company (Master, 2012-13) and Bowyers' Companies. President of the Norfolk Heraldry Society since 2006, and Cambridge University Heraldic and Genealogical Society and Suffolk Family History Society; a member of the council of the Heraldry Society, 1976-85, 1990-99 and of the Royal Society of St. George. Author of Oxburgh Hall: the first 500 years, (1982), and (jointly) of Heraldry (1993). Patron of the Breckland Society since 2003. He succeeded his father as 10th baronet, 24 May 2011. He married, 7 September 1968, Mary Kathleen, elder daughter of Brig. Robert Denis Ambrose CIE, OBE, MC (1896-1974) of Bugibba (Malta), and had issue:

(1) Katherine Mary Paston-Bedingfeld (b. 1969), born 4 October 1969; educated at St Mary's School, Cambridge and Bath Univesity (BSc, BArch); architect; married, 14 February 2000, Roger William Howard Watts BSc BArch RIBA (b. 1969), architect, son of Alan Howard Watts of New Ash Green (Kent) and had issue two sons and one daughter;

(2) Charlotte Alexandra Paston-Bedingfeld (b. 1971), born 6 May 1971; educated at St Mary's School, Cambridge and Westminster University (BA); married, 27 August 1999 (div. 2018), Edward John Dominic Tucker BSc MRICS, son of Charles Tucker MA FCA of Hindringham Hall (Norfk), and had issue two sons and one daughter;

(3) Richard Edmund Ambrose Paston-Bedingfeld (b. 1975), born 8 February 1975; educated at Ampleforth and Manchester University (BA); a Roman Catholic priest; a member of the Community of St John, Princeville, Illinois (USA) with the name in religion of Fr. Bernard;

(4) Thomas Henry Paston-Bedingfeld (b. 1976), educated at Ampleforth and Bath University (BSc) and Metropolitan University of London (Dip.Arch); married, 24 August 2001, Sonia Ann BSc (b. 1977), only daughter of Robert Rooks of Whitchurch (Hants), and has issue two sons and two daughters.

He lives at Oxburgh Hall.

Now living. His wife is now living.

Principal sources

Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 2003, pp. 3067-68; F. Blomefield, An essay towards a topographical history of the county of Norfolk, vol. 6, 1807, pp. 168-97; K. Bedingfield, The Bedingfelds of Oxburgh, 1912; P. Miles, 'A French parterre in Norfolk: the garden of Oxburgh Hall', Country Life, 26 June 1980, pp. 1480-82; National Trust guidebook to Oxburgh Hall, 1982; C. Wainwright, 'Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk', Country Life, 9 December 1993, pp. 40-43 and 16 December 1993, pp. 48-51, and related correspondence, 13 January 1994, p. 73; Sir N. Pevsner & B. Wilson, The buildings of England: Norfolk 2 - North-West and South, 2nd edn., 1999, pp. 584-88; A. Menuge, Oxburgh Hall: a survey and investigation of the moated house, English Heritage, 2006; Sir J. Baker, The Men of Court, 2012, vol. 1, pp. 291-93.

Location of archives

Bedingfeld (later Paston-Bedingfeld) family of Oxburgh Hall: deeds, estate, family and household papers, 13th-19th cents [Private Collection]; deeds and estate maps, 1617-1845 [Norfolk Record Office BRA2524]

Coat of arms

Quarterly, 1st and 4th, ermine, an eagle displayed gules; 2nd and 3rd, argent, six fleurs-de-lys, three, two and one azure, a chief indented or.

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide portraits of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
• If anyone can offer further information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 26 November 2022 and updated 6 December 2022.