Edmund Colthurst (c. 1545[1] – 1616[2]) was a wealthy English landowner who inherited the former monastic estates of Hinton Priory and Bath Abbey, Somerset, following the death of his father in 1559.
In 1572 he donated Bath Abbey church to the city authorities, but retained the rest of the former priory precinct for his own use.
Lisfinny Castle is a tower house that formed part of an estate that Sir Walter Raleigh granted to Edmund's brother Andrew in return for his support during the Second Desmond Rebellion of the 1580s; his brother Thomas leased a similar property known as Shean Castle.
[5] In 1602, Colthurst proposed creating an artificial watercourse, known as the New River, to supply drinking water to London and obtained a charter from King James I to construct it in 1604.
Some funding was proposed by an Act of Parliament in 1606[6] but ultimately it fell to Colthurst's partner, Sir Hugh Myddelton, to complete the work between 1609 and its official opening on 29 September 1613.