Catherine Cotton

Family/Spouse: Thomas Heigham. Thomas (son of Thomas Heigham and Isabel Fraunceys) was born before 1432 in of Heigham Hall, Gaseley, Suffolk, England; died after 1493. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Clement Heigham was born in of Lavenham, Cosford, Suffolk, England; died on 26 Sep 1500 in Lavenham, Cosford, Suffolk, England; was buried in Lavenham, Cosford, Suffolk, England.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1411, of Landwade, Cambridgeshire, England
• Alternate death: 1453

Notes:

Porter of the Great Wardrobe for Henry VI; also esquire to the King; Usher of the Chamber; also attorney general and receiver-general for the Duchy of Lancaster. Burgess (MP) for Cambridge in 1447 and 1453. He was killed at the battle of St. Albans, the first battle of the Wars of the Roses.

Anderson and Threlfall (citation details below) direct the reader to the Cambridgeshire Antiquarian Society Proceedings 38:1-77 for "a lengthy and detailed investigation of this family, and in particular the reasons for discarding the visitation pedigree prior to Walter Cotton" (father of this William Cotton).

William married Alice Abbott. Alice (daughter of John Abbott and Agnes) died on 21 Nov 1473. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1466

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1376, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England

Notes:

Prior to marrying Margery Fresshe he was an apprentice to her father, John Fresshe. He later became an alderman (1409-16) and a sheriff (1411-12) of London. A member of the mercers' guild, he bought the Landwade estate in Cambridgeshire and rebuilt the Landwade church, where he is buried.

From The Ancestry of Thomas Bradbury (citation details below):

In addition to London business, Walter also was involved in foreign trade to the Mediterranean countries. Some of his ships were looted by the Genoese. He and his partners appealed to the King for letters of marque, which were granted, and then set about evening the score.

3 February 1412/13, Westminster - Grant of power to all admirals and others, as the king's lieges William Walderne, Drew Barantyn, Walter Cotton, John Reynewell, William Flete, Thomas Broun, William Brekespere, John Glamvyle, John Sutton and their fellows, merchants of London, have shown how lately they sent certain factors and attorneys with a great quantity of wools and other merchandise to the value of £24,000 in divers ships to the parts beyond the mountains to take to the port of Thelamonia by the king's licence, and to the end that the ships should have a safe and sure passage the king sent letters recommendatory to the governors, gentles and commonalty of Genoa, which letters were duly presented by certain of the factors, but they of Genoa not weighing the letters but scheming to impede the passage first detained the factors and afterwards compelled the ships to enter the port of Genoa and spoiled them of the wools and merchandise and sold these to their own use, the factors not having liberty of writing to their masters or livery of any parcel of the wools and merchandise or any money from thence for their maintenance, and although afterwards letters of the king for their delivery and free passage were presented to the said governors, gentles and commonalty nevertheless these have had no effect, and they have prayed the king for letters of marque and the king has assented to their supplication, to seize any Genoese or inhabitant of Genoa at the nomination of the king's said lieges by land and sea with their ships, vessels, goods and merchandise and keep them to the use of the king's said lieges until the latter have had full restitution of the persons and wools and merchandise to the said sum with costs to the sum of £10,000. (Calendar of Patent Rolls)

12 May 1413, Westminster - To the Mayor of Suthampton, Walter Cotton, John Reynewelle and William Flete. Order, upon petition of Raphael Vaunell of Luca merchant, by mainprise of the petitioner and James Bernardyn of Luca merchant to deliver to him his oil and wax if they exist or otherwise the price or value thereof, the arrest thereof notwithstanding, as his petition shows that at Cyvile in Spain he bought eight tuns of oil and a bale of wax, and put them in a ship of the king of Castille now in the port of Suthampton, and that among other merchandise brought thither in that ship they goods are arrested at suit of the mayor etc. as of merchants of Genoa, though they are his property; and he and James Bernardyn have made oath in chancery that they to answer to the king for the same, are his and not of any Genoese, undertaking under a pain of £100 or for the price or value thereof, in case it may not be proved that they are his property. (Calendar of Close Rolls)

15 February 1413/14, Westminster - To William Crowemere mayor of London. Order by mainprise of Lewis John and Thomas Walsyngham of London to deliver by indentures made with the captors to Laurence de Platea divers goods of his taken by Dru Barantyn, William Walderne, Walter Cotton, William (John) Reynwelle and William Flete by colour of granted concerning goods of the Genoese and their factors, or the a marque to them value thereof if they exist not, as the said Lewis and Thomas have mainperned in chancery under a pain of £400 that he shall deliver the same again to the captors, or the value therof, if before the feast of St. John Baptist next they may prove that the same are goods of the Genoese etc., bought and purveyed to their use. Vacated, because otherwise (Calendar of Close Rolls)

Years went by but finally a treaty was worked out and restitution was made for this blatant act of piracy. Many of the principals were dead, but their heirs and the survivors, including Walter Cotton, signed a receipt for the final payment on a £6,000 settlement made by special envoys of the commonalty of Genoa, according to an instrument dated at Devevia 12 June 1421, and letters patent under the great seal concerning the peace concluded between the king and ambassadors of the doge and commonalty of Genoa, dated at Westminster 26 October 1421. The receipt was signed 18 July 1427.

22 May 1414, Leicester - Grant to John Tiptot, chivaler, Thomas Felde, Philip Morgan and John Ovyngham, doctors of laws, Richard Whytyngton and Richard Merlowe, citizens of London, of full power to judge and determine all quarrels between John Martyns and Augustine Lomelyn, merchants of the kingdom of Castile, on the one part and Walter Cotton, John Reynewell, citizens of London, and William Soper of Suthampton concern- ing the capture of certain goods and merchandise of the former by the latter contrary to the form conduct and of letters patent of the king of safe the truce between the king and the king of Castile and Leon. (Calendar of Patent Rolls)

8 February 1414/15, Westminster - Grant to the king's servant Jordan de Worsley of £14 which Robert Chicheley, late mayor, and John Reynewell and Walter Cotton, late sheriffs of London, collectors of a subsidy of 6s.8d. on the value of every £20 yearly from the lands and rents in the city and suburbs granted to the king's father in Parliament of 13 Henry IV, are bound to pay to the king. (Calendar of Patent Rolls)

Walter married Joan Rede after 1397. Joan (daughter of John Rede and Cecelia Harlyngrugge) died before 1445. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Citizen and mercer of London. Sheriff of London 1429-29. MP for London in 1431.

John married Agnes. Agnes died after 1486. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 1408

Notes:

Also called John de Coton. Mayor of Cambridge, September 1376 to 1378. MP for Cambridge in 1379, Nov 1380, Oct 1382, Feb 1383, Oct 1383, Nov 1384, and Feb 1388.

The Rev. William Betham's 1801 The Baronetage of England gives him four generations of ancestry, starting with his supposed parents "Sir Thomas Cotton, who married Alice, daughter and heiress of John de Haistings, of Landwade, in Cambridgeshire." It also claims that he wife was "Bridget, daughter of Richard Grace, of Norfolk, by whom he had two sons, Thomas, and John", and further that his heir Walter Cotton was this John Cotton's brother, rather than his son. But a commenter on Geni.com points out that no evidence of any of this exists, and that it bears all the marks of having been invented by descendants in order to claim that Landwade, the primary residence of the Cotton family for the next two centuries, had been acquired by inheritance, whereas in fact the evidence is that the estate was simply purchased from the Grace and Hastings families. The actual parentage of John de Cotton is unknown, and his only known wife was Margaret, surname unknown.

From the History of Parliament (citation details below):

Coming from a family with a tradition of public service in the borough, Cotton was elected mayor in 1376. Acting in this capacity on behalf of the town, he made a fine of £2 at the Exchequer for the restoration of its liberties, and he also purchased a vacant lot on the bank of the river Cam, which he then leased out for the town at 4d. a year. At the beginning of his second mayoral term he stood surety for John Sibille when the latter was elected as knight of the shire to the Parliament of October 1377. After two years in office, Cotton was returned in April 1379 to the first of his own seven Parliaments. In four of these (1382, February and October 1383 and 1385) he was partnered by the current mayor, Richard Maisterman, and when not himself returned he offered surety for the attendance in Parliament of one or both of the borough's Members at almost every election until 1394. He occasionally appeared on royal commissions, in spite of having obtained, on 4 Sept. 1378, a royal exemption from official appointments. His own service as a j.p. in the town in 1380 did not prevent him from becoming embroiled in the factional disputes of the following year, and in February 1381, following charges of obstructing the royal justices in their sessions and inciting the people against them, he was compelled to enter into recognizances of £100 for good behaviour. Although he is not specifically recorded as taking part in the riots which disrupted Cambridge that summer, his purchase of a royal pardon in February following suggests that his activities had created suspicion in official circles.

Cotton may have had mixed feelings about the mob's attack on Corpus Christi college in 1381, for his own relationship with the clerks was somewhat ambivalent. In 1376 he had leased from the college at an annual rent of 6s. 8d. a large walled garden some 35 yards long and 13 yards wide in St. Mary's parish, sharing the lease with his wife Margaret and son Walter. Yet four years earlier, as a juror at an inquisition ad quod damnum conducted to decide whether certain tenements in the town, including one he himself held, should be alienated to the college in mortmain, he had withheld his consent to the transfer. Inquiries made in 1380 revealed that, as a result of bribery, the clerks had secured the property notwithstanding the illegality; nevertheless, in January following, the Crown confirmed the college in its possession, thereby exacerbating the contentions between town and gown. The eventual resumption of good relations between the clerks and Cotton may have been helped by the position of the burgess's son Thomas as a scholar at the university in the 1380s. Certainly, in August 1389, Corpus Christi college gave Cotton a 40-year lease of a tenement adjoining one he already held near the market in St. Mary's parish, for which he was required to proffer merely an annual quit rent of a rose. Cotton's property holdings were extensive, for he apparently owned 'Cotton Hall' elsewhere in Cambridge, and the local manor of Cayles which had appurtenances in neighbouring villages. The full extent of his interests outside the town is unclear, although in 1375 he had been made a feoffee of land in nearby Trumpington, as well as of the manor of Hempstead in Essex, and in 1387 he acquired property in Swaffham Bulbeck, initially in conjunction with others including John Payn I, but later, in 1389, taking possession of 32 acres on his own account.

On occasion, Cotton acted as a patron of local churches. During the 1380s he was a member of a religious guild in the church of Holy Trinity, and in 1392 he joined John Blankpayn, John Herries and John Thriplow in donating to St. Mary's church a number of properties in Cambridge and Chesterton for the endowment of a chantry. The date of his death is not known, but it probably occurred before 1408 when a deed mentioned a tenement in St. Andrew's parish as formerly belonging to him, while another of the following year referred to his earlier tenancy of a garden in Petty Cury.

John married Margaret. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 20 May 1404

Notes:

Justice of the peace for Oxfordshire in 1386, and for Buckinghamshire in 1381, 1382, 1386, and 1397. Knight of the shire for Oxfordshire in September 1388 and in 1391. An elaborate brass exists to him in the Checkingden church.

"[P]ossibly son of John and Margery Rede of Ascote in the parish of Winkfield, co. Berks." [Ancestral Roots, citation details below]

From the History of Parliament (citation details below):

Early on in his career Rede, who came from Bledlow in Buckinghamshire, acquired a tenement, shop and garden in Oxford, which he sold in 1382. As a consequence of his marriage, contracted a few years previously, he had by then established himself as a landowner in the county, with holdings in Checkendon and Stoke which his wife had inherited through her mother; and these estates, substantially increased after the death of his father-in-law (who held a large part of the inheritance 'by the courtesy'), formed the basis of his descendants' prosperity in the following century. With the profits of a successful career in the law, Rede was able to add to his possessions the Oxfordshire manors of Standhill (in the 1390s) and Gatehampton (1402).

Rede's legal practice, already well-established by 1378, brought him clients from both Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, the best known among them to start with being (Sir) Richard Chambernon and Thomas Childrey. He soon came to be regularly appointed to royal commissions, particularly those of a judicial nature such as gaol deliveries, and his service as a j.p. lasted more than 20 years. Probably by Michaelmas 1387 he had been made steward of the manor of Benson, which, previously held by the Black Prince and his widow Joan of Kent, had quite recently come into the possession of Sir John Salisbury, a knight of the King's chamber. However, Salisbury's execution by judgement of the Merciless Parliament, and the forfeiture of his estates, led to Rede being summoned to the Exchequer in the Easter term of 1389 to produce certain court rolls still in his possession, so that the bailiff could make full account of the manorial issues. The same year he was also discharging the office of steward of the Chiltern hundreds, presumably as deputy to Sir John Golafre, another knight of the chamber and at that time constable of Wallingford castle. On one occasion (in 1391) Rede witnessed a deed at Rotherfield Peppard for James Butler, earl of Ormond. Then, in 1394, he agreed to act as attorney for Sir Walter de la Pole during the latter's absence in Ireland with Richard II's army. Associated with him in this last task was de la Pole's brother-in-law, Robert James of Wallingford, with whose family he had long had close dealings. Rede was also acquainted with John Cassy, the chief baron of the Exchequer, with whom he was party to transactions in the following year. Recognition of his abilities led to his promotion to the estate and degree of serjeant-at-law in the Michaelmas term of 1396, when a great feast was held at Westminster, he and his five fellows providing the food.

In May 1399 the serjeant was nominated as attorney by both Richard Metford, bishop of Salisbury, and Henry Beaufort, bishop of Lincoln, while they accompanied Richard II to Ireland. His appointment to commissions of gaol delivery by the caretaker government under the duke of York in July suggests that there was still no question of his loyalty to the King, but he nevertheless acquiesced in the usurpation of Henry of Bolingbroke, continuing to serve on the bench without a break until his death. Perhaps the transition was made easier for him by his connexion with the new King's half-brother, Bishop Beaufort, for whom he witnessed a charter at Oxford in 1402. He was then in receipt of £20 p.a. as a justice of assize (as paid from May 1401); but naturally enough he continued to supplement his income with fees from private clients, such as (Sir) William Moleyns, the wealthy Buckinghamshire landowner, who engaged his services for £2 a year. Rede was among the professional lawyers who in April 1403 were each asked to lend £100 to the Crown.

Rede died on 31 May 1404 and was buried at Checkendon, where a monumental brass (since lost) commemorated his devotion as 'quondam serviens domini Regis ad legem', and depicted him wearing his gown of office. Soon afterwards his widow, Cecily (who subsequently obtained a licence from Bishop Repingdon of Lincoln to have religious services celebrated in her private chapel at Checkendon), married Sir Thomas Sackville I of Fawley, Buckinghamshire, only to be again widowed before the end of 1406. It was Rede's son, Edmund, who through his marriage in 1412 to Christine, daughter of Robert James, was to establish the family as landowners of some importance when, several years later, Christine became her father's sole heir.

John married Cecelia Harlyngrugge before Apr 1378. Cecelia (daughter of William Harlyngrugge and Alice Marmion) died on 20 May 1428; was buried in Checkingden, Oxfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Assendon, Pyrton, Oxfordshire, England

Notes:

VCH Oxfordshire, "Parishes: Pyrton", (citation details below) says this family "were related to the Marmions of Checkendon."

William married Alice Marmion before 1353. Alice (daughter of Thomas Marmion and Agnes) was born about 1320; died before 1367. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Between 1290 and 1295

Notes:

He was the younger brother of John Marmion, heir to the Marmion family holdings at Checkingden and elsewhere. But John and nearly all of John's family died between 1346 and 1355, quite possibly in the Black Death, leaving the holdings to Thomas. Meanwhile Thomas's only son John died young. Ultimately the Marmion estate passed to his two daughters, Alice and Margaret. The date of Thomas's death is unknown but it seems possible that he died in the great plague as well.

Thomas married Agnes. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]