Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Eldred, Thomas
ELDRED, THOMAS (fl. 1586–1622), mariner of Ipswich, was with Thomas Cavendish [q. v.] in one or both of his voyages, but not, so far as we know, in any position of authority. In or about 1600 he was appointed to a command in the service of the East India Company (Cal. S. P. East Indies, 7 Nov. 1600), and appears to have continued in that service for some years as commander or factor (ib. 4 March 1607; 1 April 1609). Gage identifies him with the Thomas Eldred buried at Great Saxham on 5 Nov. 1622; but three years later a Thomas Eldred was at Ipswich, in command of a ship lately come from Denmark (Cal. S. P. Dom. 4 Oct. 1625). Thomas Eldred the mariner was certainly of Ipswich; and there is nothing beyond Gage's conjecture which connects him so closely with Great Saxham.
He is said to have been of the same family as John Eldred [q. v.], but in what degree of relationship does not appear. He was not a brother, but may very probably have been a more or less distant cousin. He married Margaret Stud of Ipswich, and had a son John, alderman of Colchester, who purchased the estate of Olivers in Essex, where a portrait, possibly of Thomas Eldred, is preserved.
[Archæologia, xv. 403; Gage's Hist. and Antiq. of Suffolk, Thingoe Hundred, 107 n.; Morant's Essex, ii. 193, where the persons and dates are in wild confusion, John of Great Saxham, the son of John, and John of Olivers, the son of Thomas, being mixed up into one. In the indexes of the Calendars of State Papers there seems to be also great confusion between the two.]