Edward Maria Wingfield, sometimes hyphenated as Edward-Maria Wingfield was a soldier, Member of Parliament, (1593) and English colonist in America. He was the son of Thomas Maria Wingfield, and the grandson of Richard Wingfield.
Background
Wingfield was born in 1550 at Stonely Priory (dissolved ca. 1536), near Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire (present-day Cambridgeshire), the eldest son of Thomas Maria Wingfield, the Elder, and Margaret (née Kay; from Woodsome, Yorkshire) and was raised as a Protestan. His middle name, "Maria" (pronounced [mah-RYE-uh]), derived from Mary Tudor, Queen of France, sister of King Henry VIII, not Henry VIII's same named devoutly Catholic daughter, Mary Tudor.
Edward's father, Thomas Maria Wingfield, MP (who had in 1536 renounced his calling as a priest), died when Edward was seven years old. Before he was twelve years of age, his mother remarried, to James Cruwys of Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire, who became his guardian; yet the father figure in his early years appears to have been his uncle, Jacques Wingfield, one of six contemporary martial Wingfields.
Education
He studied law briefly, fought the Spanish in the Low Countries, returned to Ireland, and served in Parliament before retiring from military service in 1600.
Career
From 1600 and then on he focused on colonization, helping his cousin Bartholomew Gosnold recruit members for the proposed colony in Virginia. He served as a soldier both in Ireland and the LowCountries, was one of the patentees of Virginia in 1606, and in 1607 accompanied the first colonists to Jamestown.
He was elected president of the Council (15th May 1607), but his arbitrary manners, the fact that he wras a Roman Catholic, and the suspicion that he was friendly toward Spain led to his deposition in September.
He returned to England in April 1608, and died after 1613. His amplified diary, entitled '' A Discourse of Virginia, " wras published in Archaeologia Americana, vol. iv. (Worcester, 1860), with introduction and notes by Charles Deane.
Religion
He was elected president of the Council (15th May 1607), but his arbitrary manners, the fact that he wras a Roman Catholic, and the suspicion that he was friendly toward Spain led to his deposition in September.
