Sir Edward Wingfield of Kimbolton (c.1562-1603), member of Parliament and author of a masque.
The son of Thomas Wingfield of Kimbolton and Honora Denny, he was member of Parliament for Huntingdonshire in 1586, 1589, and 1593.[1]
Wingfield married Mary Harington, a daughter of Sir James Harington and Lucy Sidney, the daughter of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst.[citation needed]
A letter from Jacques Petit to Anthony Bacon of January 1596 mentions a New Year's Eve masque of Wingfield's invention and a performance of Titus Andronicus at Burley-on-the-Hill the home of his brother-in-law Sir John Harington of Exton, organised by his daughter Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford. Wingfield's masque was presumably produced and performed by the family, featuring the Countess of Bedford, while Shakespeare's play was performed by professionals, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the "London comedians" in Petit's phrase.[2]
Mary, Lady Wingfield, with her sisters, was a patron of literature. In 1600 Sir William Cornwallis younger published his Essayes with a letter of dedication by Henry Olney to three of the Harington sisters; "the Lady Sara Hastings, the Lady Theodosia Dudley, the Lady Mary Wingfield", and their friend and cousin Lady Mary Dyer (d. 1601), the wife of Sir Richard Dyer of Great Staughton.[3]
Robert Cawdrey dedicated his dictionary, the Table Alphabeticall to five daughters of Lucy Sidney, Lady Harington; Sarah, Lady Hastings, Theodosia, Lady Dudley, Elizabeth, Lady Montagu, Frances, Lady Leigh, and Mary, Lady Wingfield.[4]