William Whitgift

Other Events and Attributes:

• Buried: 2 Aug 1615, Clavering, Essex, England

Notes:

He and his son John were trustees of the Hospital of the Holy Trinity at Croydon, founded by Archbishop John Whitgift for the benefit of the poor.

Family/Spouse: Margaret Barley. Margaret (daughter of John Barley and Philippa Bradbury) died before 5 Jan 1605; was buried on 5 Jan 1605 in Clavering, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: (Unknown first wife of William Whitgift). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In the church at Croydon was once a marble tomb inscribed:

HERE LIETH ELIZABETH BRADBURY
WYFE UNTO WYMOND BRADBURY OF
NEWPORT-POND IN ESSEX GENT. DAUGTHER
TO WILLIAM WHITGIFTE OF CLAVERINGE IN
THE COUNTY AFORESAID GENT. AND SECOND
BROTHER TO DOCTOR JOHN WHITGIFTE ARCH-
BISHOPPE OF CANTERBURY; AND WHO HAD
ISSUE BY HER ABOVE NAMED HUSBAND JANE,
WILLIAM, ANNE AND THOMAS, AND DECEASED
THE 26 DAY OF JUNE AN. DÑI 1612, BEING
OF THE AGE OF 38 YEARES AND THREE
MONTHS

Family/Spouse: Robert Coles. Robert was born in of Leigh, Worcestershire, England; died in Nov 1600. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Francis Gill. Francis was born in of London, England; died in 1605. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Wymond Bradbury about 1605. Wymond (son of William Bradbury and Anne Edon) was born before 16 May 1574; was christened on 16 May 1574 in Newport Pond, Essex, England; died about 1649 in Whitechapel, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Arrived in 1635; first at York, Maine, then in Salisbury by 1640. He was initially a business agent for Ferdinando Gorges, to whom it has been said he was related. Obviously the beneficiary of a fine education, he held many public offices in his long life, and numerous samples of his excellent handwriting have survived to the present day.

Over time he has had several descents from the Plantagenet kings attributed to him, but most of them have been disproved. (The exception is a descent from Edward I for which Marshall K. Kirk made a very persuasive but not conclusive case in "A Probable Royal Descent for Thomas Bradbury of Salisbury, Massachusetts", NEHGR 161:27, 2007.) Nevertheless, Thomas Bradbury's proven ancestry extends far back into the Middle Ages. One of his great-uncles was an Archbishop of Canterbury; a 3XG-uncle, also named Thomas Bradbury, was a mayor of London. As Marshall K. Kirk wrote, "Unlike most immigrants to seventeenth-century New England, Thomas Bradbury's ancestry rates an entire book. Given his social standing as a member of the gentry and his business dealings with Sir Fernando Gorges, it would stand to reason that a royal descent from a Plantagenet king should be provable for Thomas Bradbury. Many of his siblings and aunts and uncles married people with such descent."

John Brooks Threlfall's The Ancestry of Thomas Bradbury (1611-1695) and His Wife Mary (Perkins) Bradbury (1615-1700) of Salisbury, Massachusetts, of which we have the second of three editions, traces for him a descent from Charlemagne through the Marmions of Checkingden, Oxfordshire, which seems to us sufficiently well-argued. But whether or not this descent is valid, the sheer number and variety of Thomas Bradbury's proven medieval forebears seems to us to earn him the title of "gateway ancestor" for his descendant JDM.

Thomas married Mary Perkins about 1636. Mary (daughter of John Perkins and Judith Gater) was born before 3 Sep 1615; was christened on 3 Sep 1615 in Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England; died on 20 Dec 1700 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married John Stanyan on 15 Dec 1663 in Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire. John (son of Anthony Stanyan and Mary) was born on 16 Jul 1642 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; was christened on 24 Jul 1642 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died on 27 Sep 1718. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]