Goddard Oxenbridge

Sir Goddard Oxenbridge, KB (died 1537) was an English landowner and administrator from Sussex. Origins Prominent in East Sussex for generations, the family's home in Brede, which he improved and extended, had been built in the 14th century. Probably born in the 1470s, he was the son and heir of Robert Oxenbridge (died 1487), of Brede, and his wife Ann Livelode (died 1494). His unmarried brother was John Oxenbridge (died 1522), a Canon of Windsor, and his sister Magdalen (died 1544) was the mother of the courtier Sir Nicholas Carew. Life As a major landowner, both by inheritance and by his first marriage, he had extensive estates to manage but his status also made him eligible for public duties. In 1506 he served his first spell as sheriff of Surrey and Sussex, being selected again in 1512 and 1519. On 23 June 1509, in honour of the coronation of King Henry VIII, he was made a Knight of the Bath. In 1511 and 1512 he was appointed to Commissions of the Peace. On 24 May 1522, he was one of the knights summoned to join the Papal legate, Cardinal Wolsey, at Canterbury and then to proceed to Dover to greet the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Dying on 10 February 1531, he was buried at Brede and his tomb, now in the church of St George, bears his armoured effigy. Landholdings His will, proved on 27 October 1531, disposed of his property which included manors, advowsons and lands, most rural but some urban, in Beckley, Brede, Brightling, Burwash, Catsfield, Crowhurst, Etchingham, Ewhurst, Guestling, Hastings, Icklesham, Northiam, Ockham, Peasmarsh, Playden, Rye, Salehurst, Snailham, Southwark (including the White Horse inn), Ticehurst, Udimore and Winchelsea. Several of these manors had descended to him by marriage from the Echyngham family patrimony, and Sir Goddard was unsuccessfully challenged for title to them by Edward Echyngham of Barsham, Suffolk, the surviving male heir of the elder Sir Thomas Echyngham (died 1444), during the early 1520s.