William de Ferrers

Notes:

He was summoned to Parliament by writs dated 15 Mar 1354 to 6 Apr 1369. He accompanied the Prince of Wales to Gascony in 1355, and was at the battle of Poitiers in 1356.

William married Margaret de Ufford before 25 Apr 1344. Margaret (daughter of Robert de Ufford and Margaret de Norwich) died before 1368. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married Thomas Beauchamp before Apr 1381. Thomas (son of Thomas de Beauchamp and Katherine de Mortimer) was born before 16 Mar 1339; died on 8 Apr 1401; was buried in St. Mary's, Warwick, Warwickshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was summoned to Parliament by writs from 4 Aug 1377 to 17 Dec 1387. He accompanied Thomas of Woodstock on his unsuccessful expedition to Brittany in 1380. He accompanied Richard II in his 1385 invasion of Scotland. In 1387 he was involved in the negotiations for the ransoming of Jean de Blois.

Family/Spouse: Joan de Poynings. Joan (daughter of Luke de Poynings and Isabel de St. John) died on 30 May 1394. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

13th Earl of Warwick. His godfather was Richard II. Knighted at the coronation of Henry IV, he succeeded to his earldom in 1401.

From Wikipedia:

Soon after reaching his majority and taking responsibility for the Earldom, he saw military action in Wales, defending against a Welsh rebellion led by Owain Glynd?r. On 22 July 1403, the day after the Battle of Shrewsbury, he was made a Knight of the Garter.

In the summer of 1404, he rode into what is today Monmouthshire at the head of an English force. Warwick engaged Welsh forces at the Battle of Mynydd Cwmdu, near Tretower Castle a few miles northwest of Crickhowell, nearly capturing Owain Glyndwr himself, taking Owain’s banner, and forcing the Welsh to flee. The Welsh were chased down the valley of the River Usk where they regrouped and turned the tables on the pursuing English force, attempting an ambush. They chased the English in turn to the town walls of Monmouth after a skirmish at Craig-y-Dorth, a conical hill near Mitchel Troy.

Warwick acquired quite a reputation for chivalry, and when in 1408 he went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and was challenged many times to fight in the sporting combat which was then popular. On the return trip he went through Russia and Eastern Europe, not returning to England until 1410.

In 1410, he was appointed a member of the royal council, and two years later he was fighting in command at Calais. Up to this time Warwick’s career had been that of the typical knight-errant, but in 1413 he was Lord High Steward at the Prince’s coronation as Henry V of England, and became a trusted counsellor to the king. The following year he helped put down the Lollard uprising, and then went to Normandy as Captain of Calais, and represented England at the coronation of Sigismund as King of Germany and the Council of Constance.

Warwick spent much of the next decade fighting the French in the Hundred Years’ War. He took a prominent part in the campaigns of 1417–18. Then he joined the king before Rouen, and in October 1418 had charge of the negotiations with the dauphin Louis and with the duke of Burgundy. Next year he was again the chief English spokesman in the conference at Meulan, and afterwards was Henry’s representative in arranging the Treaty of Troyes. He held high command at sieges of French towns between 1420 and 1422.

In 1419, he was created Count of Aumale, as part of the King’s policy of giving out Norman titles to his nobles. He was appointed Master of the Horse.

Henry V’s will gave Warwick the responsibility for the education of the infant Henry VI of England. This duty required him to travel back and forth between England and Normandy many times, and during these travels he acted as superintendent of the trial of Joan of Arc. In 1437, when the king’s minority ended, the Royal Council deemed his duty complete. Despite his age, he loyally accepted an appointment as lieutenant of France and Normandy. Arriving in Normandy on 8 November, he ruled with vigour and remained in France for the remaining two years of his life.

Richard married Elizabeth Berkeley between Sep 1392 and 5 Oct 1397. Elizabeth (daughter of Thomas Berkeley and Margaret Lisle) was born between 1386 and 1387; died on 28 Dec 1422. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Richard married Isabel le Despenser on 26 Nov 1423 in Hanley Castle, Worcestershire, England. Isabel (daughter of Thomas le Despenser and Constance of York) was born about 1400; died on 27 Dec 1439. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married John Beauchamp before 1397. John (son of John Beauchamp and Joan Fitz With) was born on 6 Jan 1377 in of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England; died on 27 Aug 1420. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Groby, Leicestershire, England

Notes:

He was summoned to Parliament by writs from 30 Nov 1396 to 13 Jan 1445.

Family/Spouse: Philippe Clifford. Philippe (daughter of Roger de Clifford and Maud de Beauchamp) died after 4 Jul 1405. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married George Neville before 13 Feb 1437. George (son of Ralph de Neville and Joan Beaufort) was born in of Scampston, Yorkshire, England; died in 1458 in Kislingbury, Northamptonshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Anne married Richard Neville in 1434. Richard (son of Richard Neville and Alice Montagu) was born on 22 Nov 1428; died on 14 Apr 1471 in Barnet, Hertfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married John Wysham before 1 Jul 1422. John (son of William Wysham and Margaret de Clifton) was born in of Churchill, Worcestershire, England; died after 1433. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married William Culpepper about 1412. William (son of John Culpepper and Catherine Charles) was born in of Aylesford, Kent, England; died on 20 Jul 1457; was buried in West Peckham, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Isabel Mowbray. Isabel (daughter of Thomas Mowbray and Elizabeth Fitz Alan) died on 23 Sep 1452 in Gloucester Castle, Gloucestershire, England; was buried in Grey Friars, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Tamworth, Warwickshire, England

Thomas married Elizabeth Freville before 1418. Elizabeth (daughter of Baldwin de Freville and Maud le Scrope) was born about 1394. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Harry Neville. Killed at the battle of Edgecote Moor.

Henry married Joan Bourgchier about 1467. Joan (daughter of John Bourchier and Margery Berners) died on 7 Oct 1470. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Anne married Edward of Westminster in Aug 1470. Edward (son of Henry VI, King of England and lord of Ireland and Margaret of Anjou, Queen Consort of England) was born on 13 Oct 1453 in Westminster, Middlesex, England; died on 4 May 1471 in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Anne married Richard III, King of England on 12 Jul 1472 in Westminster, Middlesex, England. Richard (son of Richard of York and Cecily Neville) was born on 2 Oct 1452 in Fotheringay Castle, Northamptonshire, England; died on 22 Aug 1485 in Bosworth Field, Leicestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: John de Gyse. John (son of Reynold Gyse and Katherine Clifford) was born in of Elmore, Gloucestershire, England; died before 1485. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Aylsford, Kent, England

Notes:

Sheriff of Kent, 1471.

Richard married Isabel Worsley before 1480. Isabel (daughter of Otewell Worsley and Rose Trevor) was born about 1460; died on 18 Apr 1527; was buried in Leigh's Chapel, St. Mary's, Lambeth, Surrey, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Edward Grey. Edward (son of Reynold Grey and Joan Astley) was born about 1415; died on 18 Dec 1457. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Knight of the King's Bodyguard. Sheriff of Kent 1487-88. Knight of the shire for Kent.

Richardson (citation details below) gives a date for the marriage of this Henry Ferrers to Margaret Hexdale of before 30 Sep 1481, when a grant of land in Kent on that date refers to Henry and Margaret as husband and wife. But another recorded grant of the manor of Hamyldon (Hambleton) to Henry and his wife is dated 14 Nov 1468, and a marriage date shortly before that fits much more tidily with Henry's i.p.m. on 17 Oct 1503, in which his and Margaret's son Edward is said to be "age 30 or more".

Henry married Margaret Hexstall before 14 Nov 1468. Margaret (daughter of William Hexstall and Joan) was born about 1440 in of Hextall's Court, East Peckham, Kent, England; died before 21 Dec 1497. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Fought alongside the King against the rebels at the battle of Stoke, 1487. Summoned to Parliament by writ from 12 Aug 1491 to 3 Nov 1529. Fought at Flodden Field in 1513.

Doubly descended from Edward III, through his great-great grandfathers John of Gaunt (on his father's side) and Thomas of Woodstock (on his mother's).

Richard married Anne Stafford about 1483. Anne (daughter of Humphrey Stafford and Katherine Fray) was buried in Well, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Anne Berkeley before 23 Sep 1483. Anne (daughter of William Berkeley and Anne Stafford) died after 1502. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1484
• Alternate death: Aft 1525
• Alternate death: Aft 1526

Notes:

Also called Jocasta.

Family/Spouse: Edmund Howard. Edmund (son of Thomas Howard and Elizabeth Tilney) was born between 1478 and 1480; died in Mar 1539. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Joyce married Ralph Leigh before 1492. Ralph (son of Ralph Leigh and Elizabeth Langley) died on 6 Nov 1509; was buried in Lambeth, Surrey, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Elizabeth Talbot. Elizabeth (daughter of John Talbot and Joan Cheddar) was born in 1452 in Nutley, Sussex, England; died on 8 Sep 1487. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Killed in the Second Battle of St. Albans, fighting for the Lancastrians.

John married Elizabeth Woodville, Queen Consort of England in 1452. Elizabeth (daughter of Richard Woodville and Jacquetta of Luxembourg) was born in 1437 in Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire, England; died on 8 Jun 1492 in Bermondsey Priory, Surrey, England; was buried on 12 Jun 1492 in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Bef 1469, of Baddesley, Warwickshire, England
• Alternate birth: 1470

Notes:

MP for Warwickshire in 1529. Knighted at Tournai in 1513.

Edward married Constance Brome between 1 Oct 1497 and 17 Oct 1503. Constance (daughter of Nicholas Brome and Dorothy Arundell) died on 30 Sep 1551. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married James Clerke about 1508. James (son of John Clerke and Lucy Moyle) was born in of Forde Hall, Wrotham, Kent, England; died on 20 Sep 1553 in Wrotham, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married Edward Willoughby after 22 Nov 1505. Edward (son of Robert Willoughby and Elizabeth Beauchamp) was born in of Alcester, Warwickshire, England; died in Nov 1517. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called John Guise.

Family/Spouse: Tacy Grey. Tacy (daughter of John Grey and Anne Grey) died before 15 Nov 1558; was buried on 15 Nov 1558 in Elmore, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In one of the charges leading to her downfall, she was alleged to have failed to resist the advances of a gentleman of the king's privy chamber named Thomas Culpeper, who was himself beheaded at Tyburn on 10 Dec 1541, two months before her own execution. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article about Katherine Howard notes that "he was distantly related to Katherine on her mother's side, for they shared a Culpeper ancestor who had lived in the reign of Edward II." This would be true if the courtier were a son of any number of Culpepers of sixteenth-century Kent, virtually all of them descendants of Thomas Colepeper of Brenchley who died in 1309. But the ODNB confidently states that the courtier Thomas Culpeper was "the second of the three sons of Alexander Culpeper of Bedgebury, Kent (d. 1541), and his second wife, Constance Harper (née Chamberlain); his elder brother, also named Thomas, was a client of Thomas Cromwell." This piques our interest, because this Alexander Culpeper was a son of John Culpeper (~1430-1480) and his wife Agnes Gainsford, who are themselves direct ancestors of JTS and (probably) TNH, AP, and GFS.^{1, 2}

The problem is this: Alexander Culpeper of Bedgebury made his will on 20 May 1540, and died sometime in 1541 before 21 June, when his will was proved. His wife Constance made her will on 4 Oct 1541, after her husband's death. All of these events happened before the courtier Thomas Culpeper was accused, much less executed. And yet both wills name only one son named Thomas. Alexander's calls Thomas "myne eldist sonne" and mentions one other son, John. Constance's also names only two sons by Alexander, Thomas and John. (She had an additional son, George Harper, by her first marriage.)

Constance's will was proved at London on 13 Nov 1542, so it's entirely possible that she lived past 10 Nov 1541, the day the courtier Thomas Culpepper was executed. And there is a codicil to Constance's will, undated, but it makes none of the adjustments one might expect if one of one's legatees had been beheaded at Tyburn since the main will was drawn up.

Even more to the point, if backwoods gentry Alexander and Constance Culpeper had a son who was a fast-rising figure at the royal court, one would think he would at least be mentioned in one or both of their wills. Remember again that when both of these wills were drawn up, the courtier Thomas Culpeper had yet to be accused of any wrongdoing.

Finally, the will of the Thomas Culpeper who was definitely a son of Alexander and Constance Culpeper, mentioned in both of their wills, is dated 6 Aug 1557; it was proved 20 Oct 1558, and he was buried at St. Mary's in Goudhurst on 13 May 1558. He was married twice, to Elizabeth Hawte in about 1522 and to Ellen Hendley in about 1540. He is obviously not the courtier who was executed in November 1541.

Where does the claim about the courtier's parentage come from? Probably the 1592 Visitation of Kent. Specifically, the 1924 volume The Visitations of Kent, Taken in the Years 1574 and 1592 by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux, edited by W. Bruce Bannerman, part 2, London, 1924 (Harleian Society volume 75). "The present Volume contains the remaining portion of the letters, I-Z, of the second Visitation, in 1574, together with the third Visitation, made in 1592, based on a contemporary MS bearing the autograph of Percy, Viscount Strangford, London, 1816, with the addition, from other sources, of some further Pedigrees and Arms." We're uncertain what "contemporary MS" means in this context: an actual manuscript made by a herald in the 1590s, or not? And as to the "autograph of Percy, Viscount Strangford, London, 1816", we are doubtful about the mighty authenticating credibility emanating from the signature of Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford (1780-1855), whose career as a British diplomat went into an abrupt decline when, as ambassador to Russia in 1826, he was caught falsifying dispatches to the British government and revealing confidential documents to the Austrian ambassador in St. Petersburg. At any rate, these are the pertinent passages from the 1924 volume's representation of the 1592 visitation, all on page 92:

S^r John Colepeper of Bedgebery aforsaide knight Sonne and heire to Walter married Agnes the daughter of . . . . . and by her hathe issue S^r Alexander Colepeper knighte his eldest Sonne […]

S^r Alexander Colepeper of Bedgebery aforsaide knighte Sonne and heire to S^r John maried to his first wiffe Agnes Daughter to Roger Davye of Northfelde in the County of Kent Esquire and by her had issue Alys. After the saide S^r Alexander maried to his seconde wiffe Constance Daughter to Robert Chamberlein and wydowe of Harper, and her her had issue Thomas Colepeper his eldist Sonne, and Thomas Colepeper second Sonne, and John Colepeper thirde Sonne, Elizabeth maried to S^t Clere gent., Anne maried to Raulfe Molyns of Barkeshier, and Johan maried to Aldred ffitz James of Somersetshire Esquire, Margarett married to Phillippe Chowte gent and Katherin maried to Edwarde Barrett gent.

Anne's husband was actually William Molyns, not Raulfe or Ralph. Johanna's husband was Alfred Fitzjames, not Aldred, but given the fluidity of late-medieval names he may well have gone by Aldred two or three times a week. At any rate, even stipulating that these passages represent a perfect copy of the original 1592 visitation, it remains that this information would have been taken down by the heralds from people reciting family history over fifty years after the deaths of Alexander and Constance Culpeper.

We would like to know if the author of the ODNB essay about Katherine Howard, Retha M. Warnicke, has other sources that would indicate that the courtier Thomas Culpeper was in fact a son of Alexander and Constance. We would also like to know the source for the information that his stated older brother, also named Thomas, was "a client of Thomas Cromwell." In the absence of any such information, we're inclined to believe that this theory of the parentage of the courtier Thomas Culpeper is merely yet another example of the less-than-perfect reliability of visitation pedigrees.

_____

(1) Depending on whether TNH, AP, and GFS ancestor Joan Roberts was a daughter of her father Walter Roberts's second wife Isabel Culpepper, daughter of John Culpepper and Agnes Gainsford, as seems most probable, instead of his first wife, Margaret Penn. See Adrian Benjamin Burke, John Blythe Dobson, and Janet Chevally Wolfe, "The Exhurst Ancestry of the Stoughton Siblings of New England", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 165:245, October 2011; 166:46, January 2012.

(2) And possibly of PNH, if it's ever proved that his 9G-grandfather Henry Colepepper (d. 1675 in Virginia) was a son of his fellow Virginia emigrant John Culpeper (1637-1674), as has often been speculated. If this turned out to be the case, John Culpeper and Agnes Gainsford would be the most recent common ancestors of PNH and TNH.

Catherine married Henry VIII, King of England on 28 Jul 1540 in Oatlands Palace, Surrey, England. Henry (son of Henry VII, King of England and lord of Ireland and Elizabeth of York, Queen Consort of England) was born on 28 Jun 1491 in Greenwich, Kent, England; died on 28 Jan 1547 in Hampton Court Palace, Richmond upon Thames, London, England; was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She was subsequently married to James Stumpe (d. 1563) and then Thomas Stafford. Over the decades she sold off most of her first husband's property in order that she and her husbands could maintain the extravagant lifestyle to which she had become accustomed at the court of Henry VIII.

Isabel married Edward Baynton about 18 Jan 1532. Edward (son of John Baynton and Joan Digges) was born about 1480 in of Bromham, Wiltshire, England; died on 27 Nov 1544. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Edmund Dudley after 1500. Edmund (son of John Dudley and Elizabeth Bramshott) was born about 1462; died on 18 Aug 1510 in Tower Hill, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Cecily Bonville. Cecily (daughter of William Bonville and Catherine Neville) was born between 1460 and 1461; died on 12 May 1529 in Shacklewell, Hackney, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Valentine Knightley. Valentine (son of Richard Knightley and Joan Skennard) died on 8 Mar 1566 in Fawsley, Northamptonshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He participated in the suppression of Wyatt's Rebellion with a defeat of rebels near Wrotham on 10 Feb 1554.

George married Elizabeth Wilsford about 1533. Elizabeth (daughter of Thomas Wilsford and Elizabeth Culpeper) was born about 1517. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Fulk Greville before 11 Apr 1526. Fulk (son of Edward Greville and Anne Denton) was born in of London, England; died on 10 Nov 1559; was buried in Alcester, Warwickshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called William Guise.

William married Mary Rotsey before 1540. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

MP for Malmesbury, 1572; Devizes, 1584 and 1586; Old Sarum, 1589, and possibly Devizes again in 1593.

"In 1593 he succeeded his mother to the site and demesnes of the monastery of Edington, Wiltshire. He so despoiled the house there, that the Marquess of Wiltshire alleged that £1000 would not repair it." [Royal Ancestry, citation details below.]

Family/Spouse: Anne Cavendish. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

1st Duke of Northumberland.

John married Jane Guildford before 1526. Jane (daughter of Edward Guildford and Eleanor West) was born about 1504; died on 22 Jan 1555 in Chelsea, Middlesex, England; was buried on 1 Feb 1555 in Chelsea, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

2nd Marquess of Dorset.

Thomas married Margaret Wotton in 1509. Margaret died after 6 Oct 1535. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Elizabeth Shukburgh. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Mary Saxby. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]