Thomas Bekyngham

Date of Brass:

1431

Place:

Northleigh

County:

Oxfordshire

Country:

Number:

I

Style:

London E

Description

February 2026

The figure of Thomas Bekyngham (or Beckingham), esquire, is in armour and has slight damage: the upper part of the helm on which his head rests, the scabbard of his sword and a small part of his lion foot-rest. We know his identity because although the inscription is lost, two shields remain, one of them with the arms of Bekyngham.

Malcolm Norris considered this brass to be one of the finest armoured effigies of the London E series (Monumental Brasses: The Memorials I (1977), 77). Thomas' figure is very similar to that of Sir John de Braose, d.1426, at Wiston, Sussex, except that the round besagews (shoulder protection) shown at Wiston are replaced here by larger more rectangular ones. Both figures have a thin line of mail where the bevor protecting the throat overlaps the breastplate. The handle of Thomas' sword handle appears designed for two-handed use.

L S Woodger wrote of Thomas Beckingham in The History of Parliament that his origins are obscure although he was probably related to Master Thomas Beckingham, canon of Salisbury Cathedral and archdeacon of Lincoln. Our Thomas was employed by the king’s half-brother, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Lincoln, and was part of the bishop’s entourage in 1402 when he escorted Joan of Navarre from Brittany as Henry IV’s new queen.

In 1404 he became a JP in Oxfordshire and escheator of Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and in 1405 Beaufort appointed him bailiff of his episcopal estates in Berkshire after his translation to Winchester. Around the same time Thomas, as an esquire of the King, was made Keeper of Wychwood Forest.

Thereafter he continued to enhance his standing in Oxfordshire and Berkshire with other appointments and with his marriage before May 1418 to Sybil Chelrey (Childrey), daughter and co-heir of Thomas Childrey (d.1407), previously steward of the Bishop of Winchester’s estates. That marriage brought significant lands. 

The following year saw his election as MP for Berkshire. He continued to serve in Oxfordshire and Berkshire in various capacities until his death in 1431.

Woodger does not mention that from 1417 onwards Thomas was also Head Steward of the estates of John Mowbay, Erl of Nottingham and Marshal of England. He was evidently an able administrator, but it was presumably as an esquire of the king that he was represented in armour on his brass.

Copyright: Jon Bayliss, text and photos