He was the eldest son and heir of James Walsingham of Scadbury by his wife Eleanor Writtle, the daughter and heiress of Walter Writtle of Bobbingworth in Essex. Sir Edmund, according to a monumental brass formerly in the church at Scadbury, had three brothers and seven sisters, including:
Elizabeth Walsingham, who married Thomas Ayloffe, second son of William Ayloffe, a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn, by his wife Audrey Shaa, widow of John Writtle and daughter of Sir John Shaa, a London goldsmith and Lord Mayor in 1501. Thomas Ayloffe’s elder brother, William Ayloffe, married Anne Barnardiston, the daughter of Sir Thomas Banardiston of Ketton in Kedington, Suffolk, by whom he was the father of William Ayloffe.
Cecily Walsingham.
Margaret Walsingham.
Early origins
Although the Walsingham pedigree is said to date to the thirteenth century, the family is first recorded in the County of Kent in 1424, when Thomas I Walsingham purchased the manor of Scadbury. The descent was as follows:
Thomas I Walsingham a wealthy wine and cloth merchant in the City of London who served as a Member of Parliament for Wareham in 1410 and for Lyme Regis in 1413, both in Dorset. He married Margaret Bamme, daughter and heiress of Henry Bamme, of the City of London, a member of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. He purchased the manor of Scadbury in the parish of Chislehurst, to which additional land was added in 1433.
Thomas II Walsingham, son and heir, who married Constance Dryland, a daughter of James Dryland, of Davington, by whom he had a son, James Walsingham. Constance survived him and remarried to John Green, who in 1476 was Sheriff of Kent in right of his wife.
James Walsingham, son and heir, who married Eleanor Writtle, the daughter and heiress of Walter Writtle of Bobbingworth, Essex, by whom, according to a monumental brass formerly in the church at Scadbury, he had four sons and seven daughters, the eldest of whom was Sir Edmund Walsingham, the subject of this article.
Firstly he married Katherine Gounter , widow of Henry Morgan of Pencoed, Monmouthshire, and a daughter of John Gounter of Chilworth, Surrey, by his wife Elizabeth Attworth, a daughter and heiress of William Attworth, by whom he had four sons and four daughters:
Alice Walsingham, who married Sir Thomas Saunders, third but eldest surviving son of Nicholas Saunders of Charlwood, Surrey, by Alice Hungate, the daughter of John Hungate, by whom she had three sons and two daughters.
Eleanor Walsingham, who is said to have married Richard Finch, third son of Sir William Finch, Sheriff of Kent, by his first wife, Elizabeth Cromer. Eleanor Walsingham is also said to have married, as his second wife, Edward Baynard of Lackham, Wiltshire, and to have been buried at Lacock, Wiltshire, on 20 August 1559.
Walsingham died on 9 February 1550 and was buried in "a table tomb, richly ornamented with roses, acorns and foliage gilt" in the Scadbury chapel in the church of St Nicholas at Chislehurst. His son and heir, Thomas Walsingham, erected a monument to his memory in 1581; the inscription begins: A knight sometime of worthy fame, Lieth buried under this stony bower, Sir Edmund Walsingham was his name, Lieutenant he was of London Tower. His will, dated 8 February 1550, was proved on 8 November of that year.
