Notes |
- Post to SGM on 7 Sep 2001, by Paul C. Reed:
I should also like to propose a revision of the evidence which was set forth by Clarence Almon Torrey in his article on the Whitbread family (TAG 32).
He had found no evidence of Thomas Whitbread, father of the John Whitbread who married Ellenor other than the reference in the 1639 conveyance. I just posted the reference to Thomas which appears in the Court of Augmentation Records in the 1540s. I would conclude (though Torrey was unable to) that this Thomas was son of Thomas Whitbread who he has as heading the main line of the Upper Gravenhurst Whitbread family.
The will of Lawrence, son of Thomas, proved 1552, mentioned his brother John, father Thomas, and minor sons Henry and John, etc. Torrey had concluded that when John Whitbread made his will in 1563, the 'cousin Jhon Whitbreade' to whom he bequeathed the tithe called 'Elsto Tithe' was the younger son of his brother Lawrence. BUT John did not mention Lawrence's elder son Henry, and both of Lawrence's sons would have still been minors [and John son of Lawrence is otherwise unknown, not known to have married or left a probate or burial record].
I think it more likely that John Whitbread (son of Thomas), was giving Elstow Tithe to John [probably his godson], only known son of Thomas Whitbread of Elstow, and thus Thomas of Elstow would be son of the first Thomas of Upper Gravenhurst.
The first Thomas Whitbread, of Upper Gravenhurst, was alive in 1552, when mentioned in the will of his son Lawrence, but no probate record was found. Sir William Gasgoyne, knight, had made a feoffment of the manor of Schepoe with appurtenances in Great and Little Gravenhurst and Clopton to Thomas Whytebrede on 12 April 1538.
John Whitbread, son of Thomas Whitbread of Elstow cannot have been entirely indigent. Remember that his widow Ellenor (Harvey?) had left a silver measure and a number of silver spoons to children and grandchildren, but far beyond this, her eldest son William and his eldest son Henry Whitbread, GENTLEMEN, received 2,200 pounds for the capitol house or manor house in the tenure of William and Henry, with four cottages in Upper Gravenhurst, paid by William Aleyn, Citizen and Grocer of London. William and Henry covenanted against either of them, or by John Whitbred, deceased, father of the said William, or by Thomas Whitbread, deceased, grandfather, dated 8 Oct. 1639.
However, we should point out that Torrey has an incompete entry for the children of William Whitbread whom he places as father of George and Ralph Whitbread. That William he shows as son of John, son of Thomas. An entirely new analysis of these Whitbreads and how Torrey sorted them out may be needed.
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