Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Walter Tailboys

Male 1350 - 1417  (67 years)


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  • Name Walter Tailboys  [1, 2
    Birth 2 Feb 1350  Hepple, Rothbury, Northumberland, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [3, 4
    Gender Male 
    Alternate birth 1351  [5, 6
    Alternate birth Abt 1351  [7, 8
    Death 20 Sep 1417  [3, 4, 5, 7, 8
    Alternate death 21 Sep 1417  [5, 6, 7, 8
    Alternate death 20 Sep 1418  [9
    Person ID I10524  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of DK, Ancestor of LMW, Ancestor of TNH
    Last Modified 24 Dec 2018 

    Father Henry Tailboys,   b. Abt 1334, of Hepple, Rothbury, Northumberland, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 23 Feb 1369 (Age ~ 35 years) 
    Mother Eleanor de Boroughdon   d. Aft 1381 
    Family ID F2332  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Margaret   d. Aft Nov 1417 
    Marriage Bef 1396  [3, 4
    Children 
    +1. Walter Tailboys,   b. of Goltho, Lincolnshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 13 Apr 1444
    +2. John Tailboys,   b. of Stallingborough, Lincolnshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 16 Apr 1467
    Family ID F6255  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 24 Dec 2018 

  • Notes 
    • Sheriff of Lincolnshire 13 Dec 1389 - 7 Mar 1390.

      Knight of the shire for Lincolnshire, Feb 1383, 1386, Feb 1388.

      HoP and Richardson's RA concur in giving him a birth date of 2 Feb 1350. But RA, AR8, and VCH Durham give his father birth years ranging from 1334 to 1337, making his father 12 to 15 years old when Sir Walter was conceived. Not impossible, but a red flag.

      From the History of Parliament:

      "Although he was still in his early thirties when he moved south, Tailboys had already gained some experience of local government in Northumberland. He was, moreover, a seasoned campaigner, having on his own testimony begun the profession of arms at about the age of 19. His military exploits seem to have been confined to the Anglo-Scottish border, which was the scene of protracted hostilities throughout this period. Indeed, in 1380, he was actually taken captive and ransomed by the Scots, King Richard intervening to authorize an exchange of prisoners and the shipment of grain supplies to Scotland as measures towards his release. Tailboys may well have fought in the retinue of the earl of Northumberland, to whom, as we have seen, his mother became connected by marriage. He certainly took part in Richard II's unsuccessful expedition to Scotland in 1385, although by then his involvement in border society had virtually ceased. Within less than two years of his arrival in Lincolnshre, Tailboys was returned by the county electors to Parliament, and soon after that he began serving regularly as a royal commissioner there. His servants were accustomed to the lawlessness of the northern march, and found it less easy to settle down: in 1384, for example, a commission of oyer and terminer was set up to investigate a robbery committed by them on the widowed Lady Roos's estates at Wragby. Even so, their master soon established himself as a leading member of the local community. He was again returned to the House of Commons in 1386, giving evidence during the session on behalf of Richard, Lord Scrope of Bolton, in his celebrated dispute with Sir Robert Grosvenor over their claim to the same coat of arms.

      "We do not know if Tailboys was an active supporter of the Lords Appellant, but his return to the Merciless Parliament of 1388 in which they secured the downfall of the court party suggests that he had some sympathy with their cause. This is borne out by his decision to sue out royal letters of pardon in April 1398, when Richard had already punished the chief of his enemies of ten years before. On the other hand, however, the King thought sufficiently well of him to entrust him with the difficult task of settling the civic disturbances which affected Lincoln so seriously in the spring of 1393; and although the problem eventually proved too delicate for a routine commission, it is clear that Tailboys was regarded by the authorities as a man of some consequence. [...]

      "He was [...] summoned as a representative for Lincolnshire to the great councils of August 1401 and 1403; and although he performed comparatively few official duties after this date he remained active for several more years. This is evident from a complaint made by the citizens of Lincoln in the spring of 1411, alleging that Tailboys and a retinue of 'about 160 horsemen' had tried to murder Sir Thomas Chaworth in the city, killing two local men and wounding many others in their attempt. He and his brother-in-law, Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, were, moreover, charged with laying ambushes for local wool merchants on their way to the coast and terrorizing the countryside. The severity with which these crimes was viewed may be gauged from the size of the pledges for good behaviour (£3,000) demanded from Tailboys at this time, and the setting up of a commission of oyer and terminer to examine those concerned."

      *****

      Note: The Luttrell that was brother-in-law to Walter Tailboys was Andrew Luttrell (1365-1367), husband of Tailboys' sister Joan, not "Geoffrey." HOP is in error here.

  • Sources 
    1. [S877] Mark Noble, "History of the Beautiful Elizabeth Blount." The Genealogist volume II, p. 44. London, 1878.

    2. [S1378] The Royal Descents of the Fosters of Moulton and the Mathesons of Shinness & Lochalsh by William Edward Foster. London: Phillimore and Company, 1912.

    3. [S47] The History of Parliament. Some citations point to entries from the printed volumes not yet added to the online site.

    4. [S142] Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families by Douglas Richardson. Salt Lake City, 2013.

    5. [S128] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant ed. Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R. S. Lea. 2nd edition. 14 volumes (1-13, but volume 12 spanned two books), London, The St. Catherine Press, 1910-1959. Volume 14, "Addenda & Corrigenda," ed. Peter W. Hammond, Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing, 1998.

    6. [S876] The Victoria County History of Durham. Portions online, linked from medievalgenealogy.org.uk.

    7. [S145] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. 8th edition, William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, eds. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, 2006, 2008.

    8. [S137] Wayne Howard Miller Wilcox, "The Ancestry of Katherine Hamby, Wife of Captain Edward Hutchinson of Boston, Massachusetts." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 145:99, 1991; 145:258, 1991.

    9. [S789] The Wallop Family and Their Ancestry by Vernon James Watney. Oxford, 1928.