William Gerard

Family/Spouse: Constance Rowson. Constance was born about 1537; died after 1567. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: (Unknown mistress of Thomas Gerard). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Thomas Gerard was born about 1541 in of the New Hall in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire, England; died between 21 Dec 1628 and 12 Jan 1629.

Notes:

VCH Lancaster (citation details below) calls him "a turbulent and lawless man." He was killed while fighting the Scots at Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Thomas married Margery Trafford before 19 Aug 1511. Margery (daughter of Edmund Trafford and Margaret Savage) died on 10 May 1540. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Peter married Margery Stanley about 1476. Margery (daughter of William Stanley and Margaret Bromley) was born about 1458; died after 1505. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

VCH Lancaster (citation details below), evidently in error, calls her father "Sir Thomas Stanley of Hooton", but nonetheless correctly notes that she was "granddaughter and coheir of Sir John Bromley, by whom the estate of Gerard's Bromley came to this family."

Notes:

Date of dispensation.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1453, of Trafford, Lancashire, England
• Alternate death: 1514

Notes:

Knight of the Bath in 1493.

Edmund married Margaret Savage after 1480. Margaret (daughter of John Savage, Mayor of Chester and Katherine Stanley) died after Aug 1513. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Dugdale, in the 1664-65 visitation of Lancashire (citation details below), calls her "Elizabeth, dau. of Sir John Savage".

Thomas married Cecily Fouleshurst about 1440. Cecily (daughter of Robert de Fouleshurst and Joan Vernon) was born about 1440; died on 24 May 1502. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

After her husband's death she took a vow of chastity.

Notes:

Date of marriage settlement. John Blythe Dobson (citation details below) says that the actual marriage took place "by 1460".

Notes:

Sheriff of Cheshire 16 Jan 1462.

William married Margaret Bromley. Margaret (daughter of John Bromley and Joane Hexstall) died in 1469. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1488

Notes:

Knighted about 1444.

John married Elizabeth Assheton. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Clifton, Cheshire, England
• Alternate birth: Abt 1422

Notes:

Fought at Bosworth Field. Mayor of Chester, 1484-86. Chamberlain of Middlewich.

"Although there is a possibility that John (III) entered the service of the house of York, it seems more likely that it was his son Sir John (IV) Savage (c. 1423–1495) who did so. He was therefore well placed to benefit from Henry VI's deposition. John (III) served as deputy to Sir Thomas Stanley, afterwards Baron Stanley, as steward of the duchy lordship of Halton, Cheshire. John (IV) married Stanley's daughter Katherine; the couple's children were many and prominent. Aside from John (V), Savage's son and heir, there was Thomas Savage (d. 1507), who rose to be bishop of Rochester in 1492, and of London in 1497, and archbishop of York in 1501, Sir Humphrey, Lawrence, James, Sir Edmund, Christopher, William, George, and Richard. His daughters made good matches, with Ellen being married to Peter Legh of Lyme, Katherine to Thomas Legh of Adlington, Margaret to Edmund Trafford of Trafford, Lancashire, Alice to Roger Pilkington (d. 1527) , and Elizabeth to John Leek of Langford, Derbyshire. John (IV) was knighted at Elizabeth Woodville's coronation in May 1465, and although he is not always easily distinguished from his son and namesake, he probably also became a knight of the body to Edward IV, and a banneret after the Scottish campaign of 1482; he was also very prominent in local affairs in Cheshire and the north midlands. In 1484, as mayor of Chester, he presided when his sons were made freemen of the city." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, citation details below]

John married Katherine Stanley. Katherine (daughter of Thomas Stanley and Joan Goushill) was buried in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Peter married Isabel Strangeways before 1428. Isabel died after Feb 1448. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1447

Notes:

Richardson (citation details below) calls her "probable daughter of Thomas Strangeways."

Robert married Joan Vernon between March 1422 and Aug 1422. Joan (daughter of Richard Vernon and Eleanor de Holes) was born on 3 Jul 1417; died after 1467. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Marriage contract made in infancy.

Notes:

Sheriff of Cheshire in 1463. In 1450 he fought for the king against Jack Cade.

William married Alice Hoghton. Alice (daughter of Richard de Hoghton and Margaret) was born in of Mollington Banastre, Cheshire, England; died after 11 Mar 1466. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Abt 1486

Notes:

Fought on the Lancastrian side at Blore Heath; he was one of the few Lancastrian survivors.

Said to have had a relationship with Martha Woodville, a sister of Elizabeth Woodville who married Edward IV.

John married Joane Hexstall before 18 Mar 1453. Joane (daughter of William Hexstall and Margaret Bromley) died after 26 Apr 1467. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1 Sep 1452

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1457

Notes:

Knighted Whitsuntide 1426. "Edmund Trafford, in company with Sir Thomas Assheton (father of Elizabeth Assheton, who married Edmund's son John), was granted a licence from the crown dated 9 March 1446 (24 Hen. VI), 'encouraging [them] … to pursue their experiments in alchemy, and forbidding any subject of the king to molest them' (in the words of a modern paraphrase)." [John Blythe Dobson, citation details below]

Edmund married Alice Venables in 1411 in Eccles, Lancashire, England. Alice (daughter of William Venables) was born about 1398. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Dugdale, in the 1664-65 visitation of Lancashire (citation details below), calls her "coheir of Sir William Venables of Bolyne, heiress of Mascy and Fitton."

Notes:

"Shortly after his father's death, evidently because of animosity toward his step-mother, he kidnapped his younger half-brother and refused to release him. He was still alive in 1446, in which year he, in company with Edmund de Trafford (father of John Trafford, who married Thomas's daughter Elizabeth), was granted a licence from the crown dated 9 March 1446 (24 Hen. VI), 'encouraging [them] … to pursue their experiments in alchemy, and forbidding any subject of the king to molest them' (in the words of a modern paraphrase). He and his wife (who was his stepmother’s sister) are said to have had eleven children." [John Blythe Dobson, citation details below]

Thomas married Elizabeth Byron in 1415. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 29 Jun 1463

Notes:

Chamberlain of Middlewich. Bailiff of the Forest of Macclesfield. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (citation details below), he extended Savage interests by obtaining a stake in the Middlewich salt industry. He was never knighted.

John married Eleanor Brereton before 1423. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Ormerod and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography both call her Elizabeth Brereton.

Notes:

Lieutenant-Governor of Ireland. Constable of Chester. Chamberlain of North Wales. Justice of Chester. Chief Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster. Controller of the royal household. Privy concillor.

Knight of the shire for Lancashire 1427, 1433, 1439, 1442, 1447, 1449, 1450, 1453, 1455. Summoned to Parliament by writ dated 15 Jan 1456.

Thomas Stanley (d. 1459) = Joan Goushill
Katherine Stanley = John Savage (1422-1495)
Margaret Savage = John Honford (1435-1480)
Katherine Honford (d. 1529) = John Mainwaring (1471-1516)
Randall Mainwaring (1495-1557) = Elizabeth Brereton
Margaret Mainwaring (1521-1590) = Arthur Mainwaring (1520-1590)
Mary Mainwaring (1541-1578) = Richard Cotton (1541-1602)
Frances Cotton (1573-1646) = George Abell (1561-1630)
Robert Abell (1605-1663) = Joanna
Mary Abell (b. 1642) = Samuel Luther (1638-1716)
Mehitable Luther (1676-1764) = Ebenezer Cole (1671-1719)
Ebenezer Cole (b. 1715) = Prudence Miller (b. 1721)
Ruth Cole (b. 1744) = John Thurber (b. 1735)
John Thurber (1774-1826) = Freelove Thurston (1778-1832)
Sarah Ann Thurber = Peleg Hull
Sarah Emeline Hull = Leander Thurber (1832-1867)
Charles Leander Thurber (1867-1939) = Mary Agnes Fisher (1868-1955)
James Grover Thurber (1894-1961)

Thomas married Joan Goushill. Joan (daughter of Robert Goushill and Elizabeth Fitz Alan) was born about 1401; died before 27 Apr 1466. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Bef 1402
• Alternate death: Aft 1459

Notes:

King's esquire. Knight of the shire for Lancashire, 1422.

John married Alice Boteler in 1402. Alice (daughter of John le Boteler and Alice de Plumpton) died on 27 Feb 1442. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Date of contract.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Crewe, Cheshire, England

Thomas married Cecily Mainwaring before 1418. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Richard married Eleanor de Holes in 1408. Eleanor (daughter of Hugh de Hulse and Margery de Domville) died after 1419. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Date of dispensation.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1404, of Hooton in Wirral, Cheshire, England
• Alternate death: Bef Mar 1465

William married Mary Savage on 15 Dec 1424. Mary (daughter of John Savage and Maud Swynnerton) died between 1434 and 1435. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

His father predeceased his paternal grandfather, so it was to this Richartd de Hoghton that most of the Houghton estates descended.

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

Notes:

He was affianced to Agnes Mainwaring, but she died, and he married her sister Margery instead.

William married Margery de Mainwaring. Margery (daughter of Randall Mainwaring and Margery de Venables) died after 1430. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Hextall's Court, East Peckham, Kent, England
• Alternate birth: of Kent, England
• Alternate death: 1470

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Surrey, 1449. Sub-sheriff of Staffordshire 1431-35.

He is said in various visitation pedigrees and other genealogical sources to have been a son of Richard de Hexstall and Anne Grovehurst (supposedly a daughter of Richard Grovehurst of Horsmondon, Kent), the former a son of Richard or Thomas de Hexstall and Elizabeth Hewet (definitely a daughter of John Hewet and Catherine Boweles). On 27 Jan 2021, Butler University historian Scott Swanson posted a long post to soc.genealogy.medieval summarizing everything that can be established about this William Hexstall, in the course of which he established that the aforementioned "Richard de Hexstall" almost certainly did not exist, but was instead the result of confusion on the part of Thomas Philipott in his 1776 Villare Cantianum; or Kent Surveyed and Illustrated. Thomas de Hexstall and Elizabeth Hewet existed, and were married to one another, but no evidence exists that they had a son named Richard. A Henry Hexstall married a Joan Grovehurst (daughter or sister and coheir of Richard Grovehurst) by 15 Nov 1466. But nothing exists to confirm the alleged parentage of this William Hexstall.

William married Margaret Bromley before 1423. Margaret (daughter of William Bromley) was born before 7 Nov 1411. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Abt 1414

Henry married Elizabeth Radclyffe. Elizabeth (daughter of Ralph de Radclyffe and Elena Massey) died in 1432; was buried in St. Nicholas's Chapel, Trafford, Lancashire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"John Assheton (II), of Ashton-under Lyne, co. Lancaster, entered the service of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in the 1380s, created a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of John's son, Henry IV (1399), Knight of the Shire for Lancashire in the parliament of 1413, appointed Seneschal of Bayeux after its capture in 1416, born after 1338 (under-age in 1360), died 3 September 1428. This man's marriages, and particularly the maternity of his son Thomas, appear to be the object of some confusion. One source states that he married (1) Isabel Kirkby, granddaughter and heiress of Sir Richard Kirkby, implying that she was mother of his son Thomas, and (without explanation) makes him married (2) to ________. Another source states that he married (1) Jane, daughter of Sir John Savile, of Tankersleigh, and that she was mother of his son Thomas. The various accounts of this man agree however in making him marry finally, by 1420, Margaret, widow of Sir William Atherton and of Sir Maurice Berkeley, and daughter of Sir John Byron, of Clayton (by whom he was ancestor of the extinct house of Baronets Assheton of Middleton). He married by 1403 (if she was mother of his son Thomas), Isabel Kirkby, granddaughter and heiress of Sir Richard Kirkby." [John Blythe Dobson, citation details below]

His History of Parliament (citation details below) entry says that he was a knight of the shire for Lancashire in 1411, May 1413, and March 1416.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Abt 1460

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Lancashire, 1421 and 1429. Knight of the shire for Lincolnshire, 1447. Sheriff of Lancashire 1439-49.

"He is believed to have been buried in Manchester Cathedral where remains of a memorial brass are attributed to him." [The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, citation details below.]

John married Margaret Booth. Margaret (daughter of John Booth and Joan Trafford) was born in of Barton, Lancashire, England; died about 1460. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Bailiff of the Forest of Macclesfield. Constable of Halton Castle. Esquire to Henry, Prince of Wales. Fought at Agincourt, emerging from the battle as a banneret.

"Sir John (II) Savage (d. 1450) achieved success in royal service. Like his father, he served in France: Froissart records his complaint in 1390 at the tournament of St Inglevert that he had not crossed the sea merely to run one lance. Under Richard II he was appointed keeper of the park of Macclesfield, along with Piers Legh of Macclesfield. Yet he made the transition to the Lancastrian allegiance: soon after Bolingbroke's accession, Savage was granted a fee and in the first year of the reign he led troops in Henry IV's Scottish campaign. John (II) consolidated his interest around Macclesfield, receiving a lease of its mills in 1408, and he was often a justice on eyre in Cheshire. Knighted at Agincourt, in 1418 John (II) led 250 Cheshire men to Calais; he also received significant rewards from a ransom." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, citation details below]

John married Maud Swynnerton before 1401. Maud (daughter of Robert de Swynnerton and Elizabeth de Beke) was born about 1370; died between 8 Jun 1414 and 1424. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 1428

Notes:

Shortly after the death of her first husband, Humphrey Peshale (d. <1388), she was abducted by John de Ipstones, described in several places as a notorious bully, and forced to marry John's son William Ipstones and convey her property to him.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1350, of Brereton, Egerton, Cheshire, England

Notes:

Governor of Caen. Sheriff of Cheshire, 1407-08.

William married Anyll de Venables in 1386 in Audlem, Cheshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Being related to her husband in the 4th degree, they received a dispensation from Pope Urban VI through Richard de Dounes, prior of the Carmelites of Chester, in consequence of the services of Sir William in the crusade against Enrique, King of Castile." [The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, citation details below.]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1 Sep 1427
• Alternate death: Dec 1437

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Lancashire, 1413 and 1414. Justice of Chester. Sheriff of Anglesey. Steward of the household of Henry IV.

Fought at Agincourt with eight men-at-arms and 24 archers.

Quoted in Wikipedia, A. W. Moore (1853-1909), Speaker of the House of Keys, the lower house of the Manx legislature, said of him: "He may justly be considered an enlightened and upright ruler, much in advance of his time. He caused the ancient laws and constitutions of his little kingdom to be reduced to writing, he humbled the overbearing ecclesiastical authorities, and, after he had practically concentrated all power into his own hands, he wisely conceded a representative form of government."

John married Elizabeth Harington before 1405. Elizabeth (daughter of Nicholas Harington and Isabel English) died after 22 Mar 1445. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Ormerod, probably mistakenly, calls her "Isabel, daughter of sir John, and sister of sir William de Haryngton."

Notes:

Also called Gousehill, Goushall. Killed at the battle of Shrewsbury.

Robert married Elizabeth Fitz Alan before 19 Aug 1401. Elizabeth (daughter of Richard de Arundel and Elizabeth de Bohun) was born about 1371; died on 8 Jul 1425. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1372

Notes:

Also, confusingly, called Elizabeth de Bohun.