In 1547 Nicholas Pelham (age 30) was elected MP Arundel.

On 17 Nov 1549 Nicholas Pelham (age 32) was knighted.

In 1558 Nicholas Pelham (age 41) was elected MP Sussex.

Henry Machyn's Diary. 23 Sep 1560. The xxiij day of September was bered in Sussex ser John Pellam (deceased) knyght, with a standard and a pennon of armes and a cott armur, elmett, crest, targett, mantylls, and sword, a iiij dosen of skochyons and d', and master Somersett was the harold.

Note. P. 243. Funeral of sir (Nicholas) Pelham. Sir Nicholas Pelham (to whom our diarist erroneously gave the Christian name John, which was that of his son and heir), was of Laughton in Sussex, and lineal ancestor of the earls of Chichester. He was M.P. for Arundel 1547, sheriff of Surrey and Sussex 1549, and knighted Nov. 17 in that year, and afterwards twice knight of the shire for Sussex. He died Dec. 15, 1560, æt. 44, and was buried in St. Michael's church, Lewes, where is his monument, with a kneeling effigy: of which see an engraving in Horsfield's History of Lewes, 4to. 1824, or the Gentleman's Magazine for Sept. 1825, p. 215.