John Nedham

John Nedham (or Needham) of Staple Inn in London was Receiver General and Solicitor to Westminster Abbey from 1662 to 1705. He died aged 75 on 10th February 1706 and was buried in the south aisle of the nave in the same grave as Elizabeth Knipe. But he seems not to have had any inscribed gravestone and he has no monument. 

He was descended from the Nedham family of Adderley in Shropshire and held estates at Bacton and Wiverston in Suffolk. It is possible his father was the John Nedham who attended Oriel College Oxford, and his mother was Elizabeth (Coombes). His wife was Jane, daughter of Samuel Gabrey of Lambeth. She was buried on 7th April 1708, also in the nave near the door into the cloister.

They had several children including two who died young, Elizabeth and Katherine, and were buried in the Abbey. Daughter Jane married Charles Knipe in the Abbey on 5th December 1682 (three of their children were baptized in the Abbey and two buried). A second daughter called Elizabeth was baptized in 1668 and married Charles Battely (again several children were baptized at the Abbey). Margaret married the Reverend William Nedham (died 1727) in the Abbey on 15th July 1691. She died in 1693 and was buried at Alresford in Hampshire where William was rector (their daughter Jane married William Pigott). Anne was born in 1672 and married in the Abbey on 8th July 1702 Robert Swann.

When he died John left many papers at the Abbey concerned with his private clients, notably Sir Andrew King, merchant of London and Jamaica. These are now in the Abbey archives together with family papers and a copy of his marriage settlement and his will.