James Scudamore

Political activities Sir James Scudamore became the deputy lieutenant of Herefordshire on 25 August 1600. He was also made High Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1601, and a member of Parliament for the Herefordshire in 1601 and for several years thereafter. He was appointed to the council of the Welsh Marches on 12 November 1617, and subscribed £30 to the Virginia Company.

Scudamore was originally a Catholic, but he later renounced this religion, along with his father, soon after the turn of the century. After his conversion he became a fervent anti-Catholic and made efforts to curtail the practice of Catholicism. On 19 June 1605, he and three other county officials made a thirty-mile sweep along the border between Herefordshire and Monmouthshire to flush out Catholics. Accompanied by an armed band of men, they made a house by house and village by village search that lasted all night and into the next day. They found "altars, images, books of superstition, relics of idolatry" but no Catholics since they had fled west and south into Wales.

Personal life

In March 1597, Scudamore was married to Mary Houghton, the daughter and co-heiress of Peter Houghton, a London alderman. Mary (she is listed as Anne in some sources) was the only daughter of Sir Thomas Throckmorton of Coss Court, by his second wife. By her first husband, Mary had one son, Hannibal (5 April 1597 – 1668). Research suggests that his marriage with Lady Mary Scudamore was turbulent. For reasons that are uncertain, she was disliked by the Scudamore family, and Sir James's relatives pressured them to end the marriage. They separated in 1604. Scudamore tried to claim wardship of Hannibal Baskerville and Mary's dower, but by 1621, the case had finally been settled in Hannibal's favour.

Scudamore and his second wife had three sons, John (1601–1671), James (1606–1631), and Barnabas (1609–1652).

Scudamore was close with his father John; the two lived together at Holme Lacy for the entirety of Sir James's life, where they trained horses together and hosted such cultural figures as Bodley, scientist John Dee, the polymath Samuel Hartlib and the mathematician Thomas Allen. He was therefore privy to many significant scientific developments of the time. In one memorable incident, Thomas Allen was visiting the Scudamores at Holme Lacy, and was demonstrating his pocket watch to his hosts – at that time, an extremely uncommon and novel device. Frightened by the loud ticking sound of the watch, a maid seized the timepiece and tossed it into a nearby stream. The suits of armour were subsequently purchased by J. P. Morgan and given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where they underwent extensive restoration and had those pieces that were missing altogether replaced with replicas made by Daniel Tachaux. They remain on display today.