Robert Constable

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 4 Apr 1423, Holme-on-Spalding-Moor, Yorkshire, England

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Lincolnshire 1459, and for Yorkshire 1478.

Sheriff of Yorkshire 1461-3; Sheriff of Lincolnshire 1466-7; Justice of the Peace for the East Riding of Yorkshire 1453-88. Possibly Mayor of York at some point (not confirmed).

Joan Kirby, in The Plumpton Letters and Papers (Camden Society, 5th Series 8, Royal Historical Society, 1996), says of him "A political trimmer, he remained on the East Riding bench throughout every revolution from 1453 until his death." Another source calls him an "administorial 'Vicar of Bray'."

In an odd side note, he was part owner of a pirate ship in 1473, which we know because he was ordered to pay compensation for its attacks on Scottish shipping.

GX3-grandfather of the English poet and Catholic recusant Henry Constable (1562-1613), best known for Diana, one of the first sonnet sequences. The descent:

Sir Robert Constable, judge, diplomat, and MP (1423-1488)
Sir Marmaduke Constable, soldier and courtier (1457-1518)
Sir Marmaduke Constable (1480-1545)
Sir Robert Constable, soldier and MP (1495-1558)
Sir Robert Constable, soldier and MP (1522-1591)
Henry Constable (1562-1613)

Family/Spouse: Agnes Wentworth. Agnes (daughter of Roger Wentworth and Margery le Despenser) was born in of Nettlestead, Bosmere, Suffolk, England; died on 20 Apr 1496. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Anne Constable was born in of Flamborough, Bridlington, Yorkshire, England; died after 1518.
2. Margaret Constable died before Jul 1497.
3. Marmaduke Constable was born in 1443 in of Flamborough, Bridlington, Yorkshire, England; died on 29 Nov 1518; was buried in Flamborough, Bridlington, Yorkshire, England.

Notes:

Sheriff of Yorkshire.

Robert married Agnes Gascoigne about 1422. Agnes (daughter of William Gascoigne and Joan de Pickering) was born about 1401; died between 7 Jan 1466 and 5 Feb 1466. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Marmaduke married Catherine Cumberworth. Catherine (daughter of Robert Cumberworth and Sybil Ergham) was born in of Somerby, Lincolnshire, England; died about 1404. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 5 Aug 1404

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 17 Dec 1419

Notes:

Chief Justice of England. "His reputation is that of a great lawyer who in times of doubt and danger asserted the principle that the head of state is subject to law, and that the traditional practice of public officers, or the expressed voice of the nation in parliament, and not the will of the monarch or any part of the legislature, must guide the tribunals of the country." [Wikipedia]

William married Joan de Pickering after 1396. Joan (daughter of James Pickering, Speaker of the House of Commons and Agnes) was born about 1360; died between 1 May 1426 and 12 Jun 1426. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She was not a daughter of a William Pickering, the ODNB and other sources notwithstanding. John Watson has shown that she was almost certainly a daughter of James Pickering, speaker of the House of Commons, who d. 1398.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 8 Jan 1400
• Alternate death: Aft 8 Jan 1400
• Alternate death: Between Nov 1400 and 8 Jan 1401
• Alternate death: Between 29 Nov 1400 and 7 Jan 1401

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Yorkshire, Feb 1388 (the "Merciless Parliament").

Sheriff of Yorkshire, 20 Oct 1385 - 18 Nov 1386; 11 Nov 1394 - 9 Nov 1395.

"[H]e married Margaret, the widow of Alexander Surteys, who had died young in 1380 barely a few months after succeeding to family property in North Gosforth. Surteys had, however, by then produced an infant son, who became a ward of Margaret's father, William Skipwith. Since she herself had remarried without first obtaining the necessary royal licence, the Crown demanded a fine of 40s. before dower could be assigned, although in February 1384 Skipwith was ordered to be present when a suitable allocation of property was made to her out of the child's patrimony. Sir Robert was naturally anxious to gain control of the rest of these estates as well, and in October 1385 he finally obtained a lease of the town of North Gosforth at an annual rent of eight marks payable at the Exchequer." [Complete Peerage]

"His return to the Merciless Parliament of 1388, in which the Lords Appellant removed King Richard’s most unpopular favourites and asserted control over the government, does, however, underline the strength of his connexions in the upper ranks of the nobility, for both Thomas of Woodstock and Gaunt’s son, Henry of Bolingbroke, were active as Appellants, and clearly relied upon the support of friends like Constable among the shire knights." [History of Parliament]

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

Sir Robert [ii] Constable [...] continued the family's slow rise into a more than purely local prominence. During his father's lifetime he had begun a military career, campaigning in Brittany in 1373 with John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. This was the family's first known association with the house of Lancaster since 1321, and it is unclear whether the connection had been maintained in the intervening generations. It may have been for his service on that campaign that Robert was knighted. His military activity continued as head of the family (he served in Brittany under Thomas of Woodstock in 1380 and in Scotland under Gaunt in 1383) alongside involvement in local government. He was a justice of the peace for the East Riding and sheriff of Yorkshire in 1385-6 and 1394-5, and was returned to parliament in 1388. He acquired land in Butterwick in Ryedale, Yorkshire, in 1395, and it may also have been Robert who forged the links with the Percy family that were to be of such importance to the family in the next century. By 1405 (but not in 1378) the Constables held land of the earl of Northumberland in Nafferton, Yorkshire, and elsewhere.

Robert was unmarried at his father's death, but within three years had married Margaret Skipwith, the widow of Alexander Surtees (d. 1380) of North Gosforth, Northumberland. They were pardoned for marrying without licence in January 1384, but the marriage must have taken place earlier, since Robert's heir was old enough to inherit at his father's death, which occurred in late 1400 or early 1401.

Robert married Margaret Skipwith before 20 Jan 1384. Margaret (daughter of William Skipwith and Alice Hiltoft) was born about 1360; died after Jan 1401. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Or Skipworth.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 15 Jul 1404
• Alternate death: Bef 13 Jul 1405

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Lincolnshire, 1393 and 1395.

Robert married Sybil Ergham. Sybil (daughter of William Ergham and Katherine Cressy) died about 1408. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1407

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1309, Denton, Yorkshire, England
• Alternate death: Aft 1372

William married Agnes Franke. Agnes (daughter of William Franke and Alice de Aldwaldley) died after 29 Sep 1383. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Westmorland, 1362; Westmorland, 1365; Cumberland, 1368; Westmorland, Oct 1377; Westmorland, 1378; Westmorland, 1379; Westmorland, Oct 1382; Yorkshire, Feb 1383; Yorkshire, Nov 1384; Yorkshire, Sep 1388; Yorkshire, Nov 1390; Yorkshire, Sep 1397.

His eventful public life is chronicled in his History of Parliament entry. On 2 Feb 2013, John Watson posted a well-documented overview of the Pickering family to SGM, in the process correcting some errors in the HoP account.

James married Agnes. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]