Edmund Pelham

Sir Edmund (or Edward) Pelham (c.1533 – 1606) was a member of the distinguished Pelham family of Laughton, East Sussex. He was a judge in Ireland who held the office of Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and was noteworthy as the first judge to hold assizes in Ulster. His career suffered due to suspicions that he was secretly a Roman Catholic. These suspicions were due partly to his marriage into a famous recusant family, and partly due to the open indifference which both he and his wife showed to the Anglican faith. Background He was the fifth son of Sir William Pelham of Laughton in East Sussex and his second wife Mary Sandys, daughter of William Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys of the Vyne and Margaret Bray. Sir William Pelham, Lord Justice of Ireland (died 1587) was his full brother, and Sir Nicholas Pelham (1517-60) was his older half-brother.