[1] A decade later he was banned from Essex, had his estates seized, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London after siding with King Charles I during the English Civil War.
On 29 January 1647 the House of Lords confirmed that Sir Thomas was named as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
Bendysh received articles with the Levant Company from 18 March, set sail and arrived in Constantinople by 26 September.
Upon his entrance to Constantinople (now Istanbul) he was confronted by the previous ambassador, who refused to relinquish his post, and had to be forcibly removed from office.
[7] Sir Thomas's wife Anne, the daughter of Henry Baker, died before 1661 in Constantinople and was buried at Steeple Bumstead.