Francis Stoughton

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1531

Family/Spouse: Agnes. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Rev. Thomas Stoughton was born before 1557 in Sandwich, Kent, England; died about 1622.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 16 Feb 1574, St. Mary's, Ash, Kent, England

Notes:

"Edward lived at Moat Farm in Ash, Kent. He was the primary beneficiary and executor of his father's will, suggesting that his older brother Peter was physically or mentally incapable of serving as head of the family." [Amelia Morrow, from Connections: Morrow, Porter, Sanders, etc.]

Birth derived from the fact that he was recorded as age 75 in May 1570.

Edward married Mary Exhurst before 4 Nov 1529 in St. Peter's, Sandwich, Kent, England. Mary (daughter of Richard Exhurst and Joan Roberts) was born between 1502 and 1511 in Kent, England; died before Feb 1548 in Ash-juxta-Sandwich, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1507
• Alternate death: Bef 1566

Notes:

"Mary Exhurst was born about 1507, the daughter of Richard and Joan Roberts Exhurst. Joan was Richard's second wife. About 1536, she married Edward Stoughton. They had three sons. A lawsuit initiated in 1556, brought by Walter Mayne against Edward Stoughton and his sons Francis and Thomas, confirms that Richard Exhurst was the father of Edward Stoughton's wife, Mary Exhurst, who was the mother of Francis Stoughton. One of the documents in the suit asserts that Mary was the daughter of Richard's second wife, Joan. It names the husbands of Bennett, Mary and Elizabeth Exhurst as Thomas Aldye, Edward Stoughton and Alane Mathewe respectively. Thomas Aldye and Bennett had a daughter, Margerye, and Edward Stoughton and Mary had sons Francis and Thomas. After Bennett and Mary died, Margerye married John Monnynges. Walter Mayne says that Richard Exhurst had two daughters by his first wife, Bennett and Elizabeth, and two daughters by his second wife, Joan; Mary and another Elizabeth. He also says that both Mary and the Elizabeth who married Alane Mathewe were the daughters of Joan. The language of the lawsuit indicates that Mary was dead by 1556. She was probably buried in the churchyard of St. Nicholas' Church in Sandwich, Kent." [Findagrave.com page for Mary Exhurst, by Todd Whitesides.]

Notes:

"Thomas Stoughton, the eldest son and heir of Henry, seems to have forsaken the mercantile pursuits of his father and grandfather and to have lived as a country gentleman upon his estates in Dartford. One wonders if he wished to live away from the scenes of his father's unhappy fate, and preferred the peace of country life to the stresses and strains of life as a business man in the city of London." [The English Ancestry of Thomas Stoughton, citation details below.]

Thomas married Margaret about 1492. Margaret died before 28 Jun 1528 in Dartford, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1471, Kent, England
• Alternate death: Aft 12 Jun 1512

Notes:

"Gentleman and vestryman for the chapel at Ash, also called a farmer at Colston." [Findagrave.com page for Richard Exhurst, by Todd Whitesides.]

Richard married Joan Roberts between 1502 and 1507 in [[pt:2990]]. Joan (daughter of Walter Roberts and Isabel Culpepper) was born between 1480 and 1491 in Glassenbury Manor, Cranbrook, Kent, England; died between Sep 1547 and Feb 1548 in Lamberhurst, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

It's possible that Joan Roberts' mother was Margaret Penn, the first wife of Walter Roberts, as asserted in the visitations of Kent. But Part Two of "The Exhurst Ancestry of the Stoughton Siblings of New England", citation details below, lays out the strong evidence that Joan was in fact the daughter of second wife Isabel Culpepper.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Between 20 Dec 1508 and 9 Aug 1509

Notes:

Amelia Morrow, from Connections: Morrow, Porter, Sanders, etc.:

"Henry succeeded his father in the business in London. He was bequeathed Thomas's 'principal place in Old Fish Street and the two shops against the door of St. Nicholas...my great shops which Thomas Derham holdeth to farm, with a cellar and a shop of the yearly value of £ 4 13s 4d.' [...]

"Henry Stoughton was part owner of two ships captured by pirates in December 1491. He was also probably the fishmonger who, for reasons unknown, appears on a list of persons in prison in Cambridge who were exempted from the King's general pardon on 30 Apr 1509 (on the ascension of Henry VIII), only a few months before Henry's will was proven."

From "The Exhurst Ancestry of the Stoughton Siblings of New England", citation details below:

"[Turner and Turner, The English Ancestry of Thomas Stoughton] note that Edward Stoughton's grandfather Henry Stoughton 'appears in a list of persons beginning with Edmund de la Pole and including...a murderer...who were exempted from the King's general pardon on the accession of Henry VIII, April 30 1509,' but they say Henry Stoughton's offence is unknown. Henry's trial and death is documented in The Great Chronicle of London which shows that Henry Stoughton was imprisoned for his part in promoting the unpopular tax and debt-collecting activities carried out by Henry VII's ministers Empson and Dudley."

Footnote accompanying the above:

"A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley, ed., The Great Chronicle of London (London: G. W. Jones, 1938), 339. Following an entry describing a proclamation issued by Henry VIII 'upon the xviijth daye of maii' the chronicler states 'And abowth this tyme were convyct and demid to the pyllory iiij Sytyzyns as perjurid & comonly fforsworn personys, That is to say John derby bowyer othirwyse namyd John wrygth, John Sympson ffuller Rychard Smyth Carpenter & henry Stokton ffyshmonger Of the whych ffowyr personys iij were sett upon the said pyllory, and the iiijth which was henry Stokton ffor he was sore syke & In poynt of deth was sparid, But he dyed shortly afftyr In prison, These were the chevetaynys of alle the Questmongers of the Cyte, and In such ffavour wyth Empson & dudley that by theym was moche myschieff doon, The which afftyr this opyn shame to theym excecutid dyed alle shortly afftyr.' The next entry in the chronicle describes the marriage of Henry VIII 'Abowth the myddyll of the monyth of Junii.' The date of the trial is more precisely given in 'The Repertories of the Court of Aldermen, 1495–1835, from the Corporation of London Record Office,' microfilm (Brighton: Harvester Microfilm, 1986) repertory 2, fol. 68v, 8 June 1509 [FHL 1,482,846] (transcription, with modern spelling, supplied by historian Mark Horowitz of Chicago), which states 'At this court it is decreed and adjudged that Herry Stockton fishmonger and Robert Jakes sherman which as well by their own confession as otherwise been duly convict of detestable perjury shall be disfranchised [sic] from the liberty of this City forever.'"

Henry married Joan. Joan died after 7 Nov 1513. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1425, Kent, England

Notes:

"John Exherst, husbandman of Staplehurst was among those pardoned in July 1450 after Cade's Rebellion. He must have been at least 25 to have even been slightly involved. John moved to Canterbury by 1478, when he was admitted as a freeman there. He was a brewer in Canterbury and lived in St. Paul's parish" [Todd Whitesides on findagrave.com]

"Richard Exhurst's father John retained his land in Staplehurst, but in his later years he seems to have lived in Canterbury, where he was recorded as a brewer on his admission as a freeman of the town by redemption (purchase) in 1478. Chronologically, it is possible that John was the John Exhurst, husbandman of Staplehurst, who was among those pardoned in July 1450 after Cade's Rebellion. Around 1480 John Exhurst, citizen and brewer of Canterbury, and Sir Thomas Bouchier, knight, of Leeds, were involved in the arbitration of a dispute concerning the ownership of some oxen. On 26 June 1487 John Exhurst, John Waller, and others witnessed a deed in Canterbury. In his will John Exhurst described himself as a brewer of St. Paul's parish in Canterbury. He requested burial within the monastery of St. Augustine by Canterbury and gave 6s. 8d. to the making of a new bell there. John Exhurst died between 20 March 1492/3, the date of his will, and 15 April 1493, the date it was proved." ["The Exhurst Ancestry of the Stoughton Siblings of New England," by Adrian Benjamin Burke, John Blythe Dobson, and Janet Chevally Wolfe. Part One, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 165, October 2011.]

John married Alice. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Aft 1436, of Cranbrook, Kent, England

Notes:

Lancastrian; attainted under Richard III; made Sheriff of Kent by Henry VII.

His will, made 11 Feb 1522, mentions "Johan Horden my doughter". His daughter Joan's second husband, after the death of Richard Exhurst in 1512, was Thomas Horden, who died in 1552.

From The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (citation details below):

THE MANOR OF GLASSENBURY is of considerable note, the mansion of which is situated near three miles north-west from the church. This seat was for many generations the residence of the antient family of Rokehurst, the first of whom, who settled in this county, was William Rookehurst, alias Roberts, a gentleman of Scotland, of the shire of Anandale, who, leaving his native country, came to the adjoining parish of Goudhurst in the 3d year of king Henry I and then purchased lands at Winchett hill there, where he built a mansion for his residence; which lands were afterwards named from him, the lands and denne of Rookehurst, which name it still retains, and there is a tablet put up over a tomb in the south chancel of this church, giving an account of him and his posterity, who bore for their arms, Azure, on a chevron, argent, three mullets, sable. This family continued at Goudhurst for 274 years, till, in the reign of king Richard II. Stephen Roberts, alias Rookehurst, marrying Joane, daughter and heir of William Tilley, esq. of Glassenbury, whose ancestors had resided here, as appeared by private evidences, from the time of king Edward I removed to his manor, where he built a mansion, on the hill of Glassenbury, which came by lineal descent to Walter Roberts, esq. who possessed it in the reigns of king Edward IV and Henry VII and was the first who wrote himself by that name only. He, about the year 1473, pulled down this antient seat, and built another lower down the valley, being the present seat of Glassenbury, which he moated round, and inclosed a large park which lay at some distance from it; to enable him to do which, in the 4th year of king Henry VII. he had a grant to impark six hundred acres of land, and one thousand acres of wood, in Cranebrooke, Gowdehurst, and Ticehurst, in Kent and Suffex, and liberty of free warren in all his lands and woods, and of fishing in all waters in his lands in those parishes, with all liberties and franchises usually granted in such cases. The park of Glassenbury has been long since disparked. He was afterwards dispossessed of this seat, and forced to fly into sanctuary, for endeavouring to conceal his friend and neighbour Sir John Guildford from the resentment of king Richard III. for which he was attainted, and this manor and seat, together with all other his lands in Kent, Suffex, and Surry, were granted by the king, in his first year, to his trustly friend Robert Brackenbury, esq. constable of the tower; but on the accession of Henry VII his attainder was taken off by parliament likewise, and all his estates restored to him. And in the 5th year of that reign, he was sheriff of this county. He died in the year 1522, aged more than eighty years, and was buried under the old tomb on the north side of the south chancel, being the first who appears by clear evidences to have been interred in this church, in which there are many gravestones and memorials of his posterity, who continued to reside here, several of whom were at times sheriffs of this county, until within memory.

From "The Exhurst Ancestry of the Stoughton Siblings", citation details below:

Walter's manor of Glassenbury was the scene of a well-documented episode during the War of the Roses. At the parliament that began on 23 January and ended on February 20, in the first year of King Richard III, Walter Roberts was attainted and his lands forfeited:

Forasmoche as oon Walter Roberd, late of Crambroke in the Countie of Kent...accompanyed with Sr George Browne, Sr John Gylford, and other the Kyngs Traytors and Rebells, the xviiith day of October, the first yere of the Reigne of the Kyng oure Soveraigne Lorde, falsly and traiterously levied Werre ayenst oure said Soveraigne Lorde. And afterwards, the xth day of Fevrier, the said fyrst yere of oure said Soveraign Lorde, the said Water [sic]...herboured, comforted and ayded the same Sr John, and othre the Kings Traitors and Rebells...Bee it therfore ordeigned...that the said Water Roberd be atteynted of high Treason, and forfaite...all his Lands and Tenements, and other Hereditaments and Possessions, that he...had...the said xviiith day of October.

A vivid account of the attempt to arrest Walter Roberts on February 10 is given in the 1592 and 1629 Roberts pedigrees:

On the Wednesday following the Purification of the Virgine in the first yeare of that Kings reigne Edw: Stanley and John Savage Knights guarded with an extraordinarie Companye of Souldiours did with extreme violence enter the house of Glastenbery and there apprehended Sir John Guildeforde whom they Deteyned prisoner, wherewith Walter Rooberts being feared and doubting further evills to fall upon himselfe did yet set a good countenance thereon preparing a costly Dinner for Stanley and Savage. But when they were at their Repaste Walter beying let downe out of the House by a Sheete, for Stanley and Savage had so fastened the Doors yt none might enter in or out did forsake his house and committed himselfe to Sanctuary in whichhe lay secretly 3 yeares...until King Hen: the 7th obtained the Crowne at length; when Stanley and Savage knew the departure of Walter forthwith they seised upon his goods, spoyled his house and carried away the valew of A Thousand pounds declaring all there doings to King Richard whereupon the king beying heavily incensed against Walter Rooberts condemned him of High Treason and entered upon all his goods and possessions.

Walter married Isabel Culpepper on 20 Nov 1480 in St. Dunstan, Cranbrook, Kent, England. Isabel (daughter of John Culpepper and Agnes Gainsford) died on 17 Jan 1491 in Cranbrook, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]