in the woods. On 5 Dec. 1485 he was placed on a commission to meet and treat with the inhabitants of various places in Devonshire, and to receive their allegiance. In 1487 he was sheriff of Devonshire. He brought aid to the royal forces at the battle of Stoke, and, going on with the king to Newcastle, was sent with Fox, bishop of Winchester, to Scotland to treat for a peace, and arranged a truce of seven years. In November of the same year he was again sent to Scotland to treat for marriages between Katherine, third daughter of Edward IV, and the Marquis of Ormonde, and between Edward's widow, Elizabeth, and James III. In June 1488 Edgcumbe went to Ireland with a force of three hundred men to take the oaths of allegiance of the nobility, gentry, and commonalty. Among the Cotton MSS. (Titus B. xi. ff. 332–77) is preserved a very full and minute diary of this embassy, which was believed by Anstis to have been written by Edgcumbe himself. The expedition lasted from 23 June to 8 Aug., and 300l. was allowed by the king for expenses. At a chapter held 16 Nov. 1488, Edgcumbe was nominated a knight of the Garter, and was strongly supported, but Sir John Savage was chosen. In December he was appointed ambassador with Dr. Henry Aynsworth to treat with Anne, duchess of Brittany, for the truce which was concluded in the following April. Whether he ever returned to England is not certain, but in 1489 he was sent to Charles VIII to offer Henry VII's mediation between him and the Duke of Brittany, and while engaged on this mission he died at Morlaix 8 Sept. 1489. He was buried in the church of the Friars-preachers in that town before the high altar, and a handsome monument was erected to his memory. Edgcumbe married Joan, daughter of Thomas Tremayne of Collacombe, by whom he had a son Piers, and three daughters, Margaret, Agnes, and Elizabeth.
Sir Piers Edgcumbe, his son, was one of the twenty knights of the Bath created by Prince Arthur on the eve of St. Andrew, 1489. He was sheriff of Devonshire in 1493, 1494, and 1497. He formed one of the expedition to France in 1513, and was made a knight-banneret for his valuable services at the battle of Spurs. He married Jane, daughter and heiress of Stephen Durnford, who brought into the Edgcumbe family the large estate of East and West Stonehouse, and who died in December 1553. By her he had three sons, Richard [see Edgcumbe, Sir Richard, 1499–1562], John, and James, and three daughters, Elizabeth, Jane, and Agnes. Secondly he married Catherine, daughter of Sir John St. John of Bletsoe, and widow of Sir Griffith Ryce, but by her he left no issue. He died on 14 Aug. 1539.
[Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges, v. 306–21; Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 344 (ed. 1810); Polwhele's Hist. of Cornwall, iv. 47, 49; Pole's Devon Collection, pp. 295, 596; Fuller's Worthies (ed. 1662), pp. 270, 271; Westcote's View of Devonshire in 1630, p. 494; Boase and Courtenay's Bibl. Cornub. p. 130; Ware's Hist. of Irish Writers, ed. Harris, bk. ii. 323; Stow's Annals, p. 474; Anstis's Order of the Garter, i. 364, ii. 231; Rymer's Fœdera, xii. 348, 355, 356, 357; Oliver's Monast. Dioc. Exon.; Add. Suppl. p. 20; Carew's Survey of Cornwall, ii. 114.]
EDGCUMBE, or EDGECOMBE, Sir RICHARD (1499–1562), country gentleman, was the eldest son of Sir Piers Edgcumbe [see under Edgcumbe, Sir Richard, d. 1489]. His grandson, Richard Carew [q. v.], says that he studied at Oxford, but of this there is no other record. He was among the knights created by Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, 18 Oct. 1537, and two years later he succeeded to his father's estates. On a portion of the Stonehouse property, which had come into the family through his mother, and which Sir Piers had already emparked, he built the house named by him Mount Edgcumbe, which was completed in 1553. He was sheriff of Devon in 1543 and 1544, and in 1557 he was named commissioner of muster in Cornwall to call out and arm three hundred men. A very pleasant picture of the knight is presented in ‘A Friendly Remembrance of Sir Richard Edgcombe,’ written by Carew, and found among his manuscripts, which has since been printed in various publications. From this paper it appears that Edgcumbe in his youth dabbled in astrology, and caused doubts to be cast upon his orthodoxy, which were dissipated only by his keeping afterwards a private chaplain. He was possessed of some literary skill, and was complimented by Cromwell on the lucidity of the reports which he sent up from quarter sessions. He prided himself on his housekeeping, taking care to always have in hand two years' provision of all things necessary for himself and his family, and he kept in a chest for current needs a sum of money which he never allowed to fall below 100l. His hospitality earned him the name of ‘the good old knight of the castle.’ He died on 1 Feb. 1561–2, as is shown by the inquisition on his will, and was buried in Maker Church under a tombstone, the inscription on which states that he died 1 Dec. 1561. He was married first to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Arundell, who left no issue; and secondly to Winifred, daughter of William Essex, by whom he had four sons and four daughters. Piers (or Peter) Edgcumbe, the eldest son (1536–1607), was sheriff of Devon in 1566, and represented Cornwall county in the parliaments
