Elizabeth Bryan

Notes:

Elizabeth Bryan was vice-chamberlain to Catherine of Aragon, an office also held by her father, and a reputed mistress of Henry VIII. Following her husband’s death, she was reduced to penury. Some of their former property eventually wound up in the Darcy family.

Elizabeth married Nicholas Carew in Dec 1514. Nicholas (son of Richard Carew and Malyn Oxenbridge) was born before 1496; died on 3 Mar 1540 in Tower Hill, London, England; was buried in St. Botolph's, Aldgate, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Mary Carew was buried in St. Botolph's, Aldgate, London, England.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1518

Notes:

Thomas Bryan was knight of the body to Henrys VII and VIII, knighted by Henry VII in 1497, and vice-chamberlain to Catherine of Aragon.

Thomas married Margaret Bourchier before 1495. Margaret (daughter of Humphrey Bourchier and Elizabeth Tilney) died between 20 Aug 1551 and 21 Jun 1552 in Layton, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Margaret Bourchier was lady governess to the children of King Henry VIII of England, the future monarchs Mary I, Elizabeth I, and Edward VI, as well as the illegitimate Henry FitzRoy.

Notes:

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (citation details below):

Bryan, Sir Thomas (d. 1500), judge, was born in obscure circumstances, though he assumed arms containing three piles in allusion to those of Sir Guy Bryan (d. 1390) whose barony became extinct in 1456. His early career suggests that he was the son of a Londoner, and the most probable lineage is that of John Bryan (d. 1395), citizen and fishmonger, whose son John (d. 1418) owned property in various parts of London, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, and Essex. Sir Thomas likewise had property in London and Buckinghamshire. […]

On the accession of Edward IV in 1471 Bryan was appointed chief justice of the common pleas, and in 1475 was created a knight of the Bath. In 1472 he received a remarkable patent of reappointment 'during good behaviour', the usual form of judicial appointment being 'during the king's pleasure'. The plea roll for Hilary term 1477 contains a badly defaced drawing which shows Bryan, in robes, receiving an amended version of this patent from the king. His tenure of the chief justiceship, which lasted for a little over twenty-nine years until his death, was the longest ever, though his lasting influence was staid rather than innovative. He always maintained that the common law should be guided by equity and justice, and he was not unaware of social changes: for instance, he favoured the new-found protection of the copyholder against his lord by an action of trespass. Nevertheless, in a period when the king's bench, under Hussey and Fyneux, was developing new remedies and becoming a rival court for court of common pleas, Bryan's judicial conservatism set the court of common pleas on a course which by the end of the sixteenth century would seem distinctly reactionary.

Bryan did not favour the current movement to find a means of barring entails. Although the doubts which he expressed in Taltarum's case (1472) failed to prevent the common recovery from becoming established in the early years of his presidency, he was scrupulous to protect the interests of leaseholders and remaindermen. Such considerations seem to have weighed less with his fellow judges, but the legacy of his cautious approach was the elaborate scheme of double and triple vouchers developed in the following century. In Hulcote's case (1493) he stopped counsel from disputing the 'common learning' that a landowner's freedom to dispose of the fee simple could not be restrained by condition, while in the same case approving a condition against barring an entail: this distinction encouraged a spate of 'perpetuity clauses', to counter the common recovery, which were not finally declared ineffective until 1613. Bryan was also opposed to the circumvention of wager of law by means of actions on the case, the issue later to provide the main source of contention between the two benches.

Thomas married Isabel. Isabel died in 1467. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Widow of Thomas Blount, treasurer of Calais.

Notes:

Killed fighting on the Yorkist side at the Battle of Barnet.

Humphrey married Elizabeth Tilney after 11 Apr 1451. Elizabeth (daughter of Frederick Tilney and Elizabeth Cheyne) was born about 1442; died on 4 Apr 1497. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 21 May 1474

Notes:

Constable of Windsor Castle. Itinerant justice for Brecon. Knight of the Garter.

John married Margery Berners before 1442. Margery (daughter of Richard Berners and Philippe Dallingridge) was born on 30 Nov 1408; died on 18 Dec 1475. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Boston, Lincolnshire, England
• Alternate death: Bef 1 Dec 1446

Frederick married Elizabeth Cheyne. Elizabeth (daughter of Lawrence Cheyne and Elizabeth Cokayne) died on 25 Sep 1473. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also spelled Cheney.

Notes:

Constable of the Tower of London. In the year following Agincourt, Henry V created him Count of Eu, one of several countships Henry created in Normandy to cement his power in France.

William married Anne of Gloucester. Anne (daughter of Thomas of Woodstock and Eleanor de Bohun) was born before 8 May 1383; was christened in Pleshey, Essex, England; died on 16 Oct 1438; was buried in Llanthony Priory, outside Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Richard married Philippe Dallingridge. Philippe (daughter of Walter Dallingridge and Margaret Chamond) died on 2 Oct 1421. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Boston, Lincolnshire, England

Notes:

Sheriff of Lincolnshire, 1437-38. Alderman of the Corpus Christi Guild of Boston. After the death of his wife, he became a secular canon and prebendary at Lincoln Cathedral.

Philip married Isabel Thorpe before 1 May 1417. Isabel (daughter of Edmund Thorpe, Mayor of Bordeaux and Joan Northwood) died on 10 Nov 1436. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire 1429-30, 1435-36. Knight of the shire for Cambridgeshire 1431, 1432, 1435, 1442.

He and his wife Elizabeth Cheyne were great-great grandparents of Anne Boleyn (d. 1536).

Lawrence married Elizabeth Cokayne. Elizabeth (daughter of John Cokayne and Ida Grey) died after 1438. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Bourgchier, Bourghchier.

William married Eleanor de Lovaine before Jun 1359. Eleanor (daughter of John de Lovaine and Margaret de Weston) was born on 27 Mar 1345 in Little Easton, Essex, England; was christened in Little Easton, Essex, England; died on 5 Oct 1397. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 9 Sep 1397, Calais, France

Notes:

Fifth surviving son and youngest child of Edward III, he is most remembered for having been the leader of the Lords Appellant, the alliance of nobles that, in 1388, succeeded in wresting power from Richard II. In 1397, with help from his uncle John of Gaunt, Richard succeeded in overthrowing the Lords Appellant. Thomas was imprisoned in Calais, where he was murdered, probably by a group led by Thomas de Mowbray, first duke of Norfolk.

Thomas married Eleanor de Bohun. Eleanor (daughter of Humphrey de Bohun and Joan Fitz Alan) was born about 1366; died on 3 Oct 1399 in Minoresses Convent, Aldgate, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

A great-great granddaughter of Edward I, Eleanor de Bohun became a nun at Barking Abbey sometime not long after her husband’s death.

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Surrey, 1386. A close ally of Richard II, he was targeted by the Lords Appellant and the "Merciless Parliament" of 1388, convicted of exploiting the King, and executed by beheading on Tower Hill.

James married Anne Barew. Anne (daughter of John Barew) died on 15 Apr 1403. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He predeceased his wife Margaret, who went on to marry a Cheney.

Walter married Margaret Chamond. Margaret (daughter of John Chamond) died between 1419 and 1420. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef May 1421

Frederick married Margaret Rochford before 29 Sep 1394. Margaret (daughter of John Rochford, Mayor of Boston, Lincolnshire and Alice) was born about 1380; died after 10 Feb 1443. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Norfolk, 1384, 1397-98, 1307. Mayor of Bordeaux 1397.

Accompanied Henry V to France in 1417, where he was appointed a commissioner of array, and then killed at the siege of Louviers.

Edmund married Joan Northwood. Joan (daughter of John de Northwood) was born about 1354; died on 3 Jan 1415; was buried in Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Katherine Pabenham before 20 Jan 1383. Katherine (daughter of Laurence Pabenham and Elizabeth d'Engaine) was born about 1372; died on 17 Jun 1436. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 17 Jul 1436

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Berwardecote, Derbyshire, England

Notes:

Recorder of London, 1394; Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 1401; Justice of the Common Pleas, 1405-29; Chief Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was an executor of the will of John of Gaunt, who called him in his will "chief steward of my lands."

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

Cokayne, John (d. 1429), justice, is frequently confused with his nephew, Sir John Cokayne (d. 1438) of Ashbourne in Derbyshire. Contemporary sources distinguish the two by referring to the justice as 'the elder' or 'the uncle'. He was the younger son of John Cokayne (d. 1372), chief steward of the northern parts of the duchy of Lancaster, and Cecilia Vernon (she later married Robert Ireton). His marriage, probably in the early 1380s -- the marriage had produced grandchildren by 1400 -- to Ida (d. 1426), daughter of Reynold, Lord Grey of Ruthin (d. 1388), reflected the quality of his family's connections. He must already have been well established in the legal profession when, in April 1383, the king granted him a life annuity of £15. In the following decade he was appointed to his first major legal offices: by October 1394 he was serving as recorder of London -- an office he surrendered in 1398 -- and in October 1396 he became a serjeant-at-law. By this time he had already followed the family tradition of service to the house of Lancaster, holding, as his father had done before him, the chief stewardship of the northern parts of the duchy (1398–1400). In his will of February 1398, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, nominated Cokayne as one of his executors. Such impeccable Lancastrian connections ensured further promotion on the accession of Henry IV. In November 1400 he was appointed chief baron of the exchequer, and in May 1405 he was elevated to the bench of the common pleas. He continued to hold both offices until Henry V's accession in 1413, when he surrendered his exchequer office.

The profits of office and royal patronage -- while a justice he enjoyed the grant of several royal wardships -- enabled Cokayne to lay the landed foundations of a gentry family that was to endure for more than 300 years. By 1394 he had acquired lands at Bearwardcote in his native Derbyshire, and in 1398 he secured a life interest in the Hertfordshire manors of Almshoe, in Ippollitts, and Radwell. His major purchase, that of the Bedfordshire manor of Bury (now Cockayne) Hatley, was made in 1417; when he drew up his will on 10 February 1428 he expressed his wish to be buried in the parish church there (his altar tomb is now lost). His bequests looked back to the patrons who had made his worldly success possible: he endowed prayers for the souls of John of Gaunt, the first two Lancastrian kings, and, most interestingly, Richard II. He died on 22 May 1429, probably at Bury Hatley.

John married Ida Grey before 1394. Ida (daughter of Reynold de Grey and Eleanor le Strange) died on 1 Jun 1426; was buried in Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]