Sir Edward Echyngham (ante 1483 – 8 July 1527), (also Etchingham, Itchyngham, etc.), of Barsham and Ipswich in Suffolk, was a commander on land and at sea, briefly Constable of Limerick Castle, and Collector of Customs at Ipswich. He is remembered as the author of a letter to Cardinal Wolsey describing the death of Lord Admiral Howard at Brest in 1513.'76. Edward Echyngham to Wolsey', in A. Spont (ed.), Letters and Papers Relating to the War with France, 1512–1513, Navy Records Society, Vol. X (1897), pp. 145-54 (Internet Archive). From 1485 the presence of the Howard Dukes of Norfolk was felt directly along the Barsham reach of the River Waveney from their possession of Bungay Castle.
Background The Echyngham family, hereditary stewards of the Rape of Hastings during the 12th and 13th centuries, were seated at Etchingham in Sussex.N. Saul, Scenes from Provincial Life. Knightly Families in Sussex 1280–1400 (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1986).E. Searle, Lordship and Community: Battle Abbey and its Banlieu, 1066–1538 (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies) (Toronto (Canada), 1974), pp. 49-53, and pp. 201-11 Google). Their lordship descended in direct male line to Sir Thomas Echyngham (died 1444), son of Sir William de Echyngham (died 1412) and his wife, Joan Maltravers (died 1404), daughter of John FitzAlan, 1st Baron Arundel and Eleanor Maltravers. Sir William, Dame Joan and Sir Thomas were commemorated in a tripartite canopied brass with military figures in Etchingham church, which had been rebuilt by Sir William's father, an elder Sir William (died 1388).W. Slater, 'Echingham Church', Sussex Archaeological Collections, IX (1857), pp. 343-60 (Internet Archive).
Sir Thomas Echyngham had two sisters, Elizabeth (who married first Sir Thomas Hoo of Mulbarton, Norfolk (died 1420), and second Sir Thomas Lewknor of Horsted Keynes (died 1452)),D. Richardson ed. K. Everingham, Magna Carta Ancestry 2nd Edition (Salt Lake City 2011), III, p. 18; and Joan, who married John Rykhill.'503. Inquisition at Winchelsea, 1415', Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous (Chancery), VII: 1399–1422 (HMSO 1968), pp. 278-83, at p. 280 (HathiTrust).John Rykhill was son of the prominent justice William Rykhill, and became senior Master of the Linenweavers' Company of London in 1433: see R. Griffin, 'Monumental Brasses in Kent: Northfleet', Archaeologia Cantiana XXXII (1917), pp. 27-75, especially at pp. 58-64 (Kent Archaeology pdf). The Echyngham family bore the arms azure fretty argent.
The Echynghams of Barsham Sir Thomas married Margaret Knyvet by 1424. Margaret was daughter of John Knyvet, M.P. (1359–1418) (whose wife Joan Botetourt had brought Mendlesham to the family in marriage):W.A. Copinger, The Manors of Suffolk, Vol. III (Taylor, Garnett, Evans, and Co., Ltd, Manchester 1909), pp. 278-79 (Internet Archive). her grandfather was John Knyvet the Lord Chancellor. Margaret had first married Sir Robert de Tye (died 1415) of Barsham, between Bungay and Beccles in Suffolk,F.H. Suckling, 'Some notes on Barsham juxta Beccles' (first and second parts), in W.D. Selby (ed.), The Genealogist, New Series XXI (George Bell and Sons, London 1905), pp. 124-42 and pp. 243-50 (Internet Archive). and, secondly, Sir Thomas Marny of Layer Marney in Essex, whose will, made in 1417, was proved in November 1421.Will of Sir Thomas Marny of Layer Marney (P.C.C. 1421, Marche quire); see The National Archives (UK), Early Chancery Proceedings, Marny v Marny, ref. C 1/22/16 (Discovery). View original at AALT, image 0019. So Barsham came to her third husband, Sir Thomas Echyngham, who made his first presentation to the rectory there in 1424 and had two sons and two daughters with her. Their elder son Thomas (born c. 1425) inherited the Sussex estates: the manor of Barsham, with those of Kessingland and Blaunchards (in Heveningham), descended to the younger son, Richard, so establishing the Suffolk line. The sister Anne Echyngham married John Tuchet, 6th Baron Audley (died 1491).Suckling, 'Barsham juxta Beccles' (first and second parts).
In 1461 Richard Echyngham bequeathed Barsham Hall (with the advowson) to John, his son by Jane Picot,His first wife, stepdaughter of Sir John Prysot, for whom see R.J. Schoeck, 'Prysot [Prisot], Sir John (d. 1461)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). leaving a lifetime tenure of "The Knyghtes Chambyr" at the west end of the Hall to his mother, Dame Margaret, and the beds from the great chamber on the east side, and from the lesser chamber, to his widow Elizabeth (JerneganThe Echyngham /Jernegan marriage is evidenced in Early Chancery Proceedings, C 1/27/277: AALT image 0361, and C 1/29/36-41: AALT images 0052-0064.), John's stepmother.'Will of Richard Echyngham of Barsham', in Suckling, 'Barsham juxta Beccles' (first part), pp. 135-36 (Internet Archive).
Barsham church (its east front flushwork and tracery showing the Echyngham fretty heraldry) and its rectory stand on rising land overlooking the Waveney valley from the south.Slater, 'Echyngham Church'. The Hall was on the low ground some 600 metres to the north, at the edge of the river plain opposite Geldeston,'Notes, Letters and Sketches concerning Barsham Hall, compiled 1915/1919', in Farrer-Harris Antiquarian Collections, Suffolk Record Office (Ipswich) ref. HD 78:1671: see illustrative material in 'Barsham Old Hall' at B. Jehan's Blennerhassett Family History website. and held fishery and swannery rights downstream towards Roos Hall fleet,A.I. Suckling, The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk, 2 vols (John Weale, London 1846), I, pp. 44-46 (Internet Archive); N.F. Ticehurst, 'The Swan-Marks of Suffolk', Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology (1931), p. 139ff, at p. 142. rights which were defended at the common pleas.E.g. swan-poaching at Barsham, CP 40/888 dorses, AALT image 0735 (rot 51); CP 40/889 front, AALT image 0407 (rot 218). (1483–1484). The manor lay near the Garneys residences at Roos Hall and Redisham Hall, and the manor of Shipmeadow, an endowment of Mettingham College.'Roos or Rose Hall, Beccles', in W. Copinger (ed. H.E. Copinger), The Manors of Suffolk, vol. 7 (Taylor, Garnett, Evans & Co., Ltd., Manchester 1911), pp. 159-60; see also Barsham, pp. 153-57 (contains some inaccuracies); Redisham, pp. 203-05; and Shipmeadow, pp. 213-14.
John Echyngham married Anne Wingfield, daughter of Sir John Wingfield of Letheringham and his wife Elizabeth FitzLewis, and they became the parents of Edward Echingham of Barsham and his younger brother Francis. Among Anne's brothers were Sir Richard, Sir Robert and Sir Humphrey Wingfield. Her brother John Wingfield married Anne Tuchet (daughter of Anne Echyngham), whose son was Sir Anthony Wingfield.F.H. Suckling, 'Some notes on Barsham juxta Beccles', The Genealogist XXI (1905), pp. 249-50 and XXII (1906), pp. 52-61.J.M. Blatchly, 'The lost and mutilated memorials of the Bovile and Wingfield families of Letheringham', Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute for Archaeology and History XXXIII Part 2 (1974), pp. 168-94 & Pls XIV-XIX (Suffolk Institute pdf); see also D. MacCulloch and J. Blatchly, 'A house fit for a queen: Wingfield House in Tacket Street, Ipswich and its heraldic room', Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History XXXVIII Pt 1 (1993), pp. 13-34 (Suffolk Institute pdf). The death of Richard Echyngham's elder brother Thomas in 1483 without a surviving sonThomas, the first husband of Eleanor Hoo, died before 1472: see Early Chancery Proceedings, C 1/44/188: AALT image 0299. left John and his descendants as the principal male representatives of the Echingham name, and John sought unsuccessfully to recover the Sussex estates in 1486.Common Pleas, CP 40/895, AALT image 266 front, rot 144 and image 565 dorse, rot 13 (1486). John Echyngham's last presentation to the rectory of Barsham was in 1514, and the next was made by Sir Edward in 1516.A.I. Suckling, The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk, 2 vols (John Weale, London 1846), I, pp. 44-46 (Internet Archive).
Actions in 1512–1514 Edward Echyngham was already an experienced and trusted naval captain during his father's lifetime, before he inherited the lordship of Barsham. At the onset of Henry VIII's hostilities with the French, "Echyngham" supplied 9 soldiers for war in May 1512.'1176.3 List of soldiers', Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, Vol. I Pt 1, p. 553 (HathiTrust). After Lord Admiral Sir Edward Howard had harried the coasts of Brittany, and scoured those of Normandy, he lay off the Isle of Wight while "diverse shippes kept the North seas, under the conduite of sir Edward Ichyngham, Ihon Lewes, Ihon Louedaie, which diligently skowred the seas." The King armed his navy as ships of war, "and then caused soldiers mete for the same shippes, to muster on black Hethe, and he appointed captaines for that tyme, sir Anthony Oughtred, sir Edward Ichyngham, William Sidney, whiche shortly shipped and came before the Isle of Wight."'The IIIJth Yere of King Henry the VIIJ', in Hall's Chronicle containing the History of England (J. Johnson, F.C. and J. Rivington, etc., London 1809), pp. 533-34 (Internet Archive).
The King reviewed the navy at Portsmouth, making captains of Thomas Knevet and John Carew (for the Regent) and Charles Brandon and Henry Guildford (Soveraigne), and gave a banquet for all the captains, who swore before the king to defend and comfort one another.Hall's Chronicle, p. 534. After Knyvet and Carew were lost with the Regent in August 1512, in September Echyngham was appointed to captain The Lizard, with Sir Weston Browne in The Great Bark and others, to keep the seas northerly for the winter.'1413. Navy', Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, Vol. I Pt. 1 (1920), pp. 644-45 (HathiTrust). In February 1513 he was assigned to The Germyne with portage of 100, 10 men of his own, 10 of Sir Robert Lovell's and 40 of Sir Thomas Lovell's retinue, and 40 mariners:Spont, Letters and Papers, p. 84 (Internet Archive). but by a further reassignment he captained the Second new Spaniard, of 280 tonnes, with the men of Coventry and of Sir Thomas Greynfeld, portage 198.' 1661 , Navy: .3 and .4 ', Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, Vol. I Pt. 1, pp. 749-53 (HathiTrust).
The engagement at Brest By March 1513 a French fleet had assembled at Brest, and Lord Admiral Howard, sailing from the Thames on 10 March, left Plymouth with his fleet on 3 April to blockade them there, not waiting for supplies. Echyngham, taking his own ship, came out of Queenborough on 13 April 1513.'1812. William Gonson to Wolsey', Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, Vol. I Pt 2, 2nd Edition (HMSO 1920), pp. 831-32 (HathiTrust). Having pursued three French men of war to Fécamp Abbey, on 19 April he convoyed the supply ships safely past companies of French sail to the King's great army, which lay in the waters at Brest. Three days later the navy was attacked by 6 French galleys and 4 foysts, which then made up to White Sand Bay north of Le Conquet. The Admiral's plan to land 6000 men on 24 April was abandoned with the arrival of William Sabine of Ipswich, as the captains were engaged in victualling.