Dorothy Wadham

Who was Dorothy Wadham?

Dorothy Wadham was the wife of Nicholas Wadham and, as his widow, the foundress of Wadham College, Oxford.

Wadham was the second and eldest surviving child of Sir William Petre, a civil and canon lawyer serving King Henry VIII, and his wife, Gertrude, daughter of Sir John Tyrrell. Her portrait in Wadham College gives her age as sixty in 1595. When Wadham's mother died on May 28, 1541, she was brought up by Petre's second wife, Anne, who was also a Tyrrell by her first marriage. Later in life her writing skill and knowledge of Latin was evident and it is likely she was educated at her home, Ingatestone Hall, Essex. On September 3, 1555 she married Nicholas Wadham at St Botolph, Aldersgate, London.

The couple lived at Nicholas's family home in Merrifield, near Ilton, Somerset and produced no children. Nicholas died on October 20, 1609, and between 1612–13 Wadham had her armoury confiscated and was suspected of recusancy. In 1615 she was granted a formal pardon under the 1593 act against Popish recusants.

Dorothy was the sole executor of Nicholas's will, which stated the money was "for such uses and purposes" he had "requested her and she hath assented to".