Nicholas Wadham (died 1542)

Sir Nicholas Wadham (by 1472–1542) of Merryfield in the parish of Ilton, Somerset and Edge in the parish of Branscombe, Devon was the grandfather of Nicholas Wadham (1531-1609) posthumous co-founder of Wadham College, Oxford whose wife Dorothy Wadham outlived him and, in her advanced old age, saw the project through to completion.

Originally taking their name from the manor of Wadham, Knowstone between South Molton and Exmoor in north Devon, Nicholas Wadham was descended from a West Country gentry family with a leaning towards the law. He was the eldest son and heir of John Wadham (died 1502) of Merryfield and Edge and Elizabeth Stucley, daughter of Sir Hugh Stucley of Affeton Castle and Sheriff of Devon in 1449, who had married Katherine de Affeton sole heiress of the Manor of Affeton, Nicholas Wadham's grandmother.

Sir Nicholas was Member of Parliament for Somerset as a Knight of the Shire with his kinsman Sir William Stourton, 7th Baron Stourton (c.1505-1548), in the Reformation Parliament of 1529 to 1534.

Nicholas Wadham was Esquire of the Body to King Henry VII (1485-1509) in 1503, and knighted in 1504 "at ye creacion of Prince Henry", then only thirteen years of age. He was Sheriff of Devon in 1502 and 1515, Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset in 1498 and 1534, and Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1516. He was Captain of the Isle of Wight with residence at Carisbrooke Castle from 1509-1520, and with his uncle Sir Edward Wadham was present with King Henry VIII (1509-1547) at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in 1520.

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