Nicholas Wodhull

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 5 May 1531

Notes:

Sheriff of Northamptonshire 1514, 1523, 1527-28. His second wife was Elizabeth Parr, daughter of William Parr, chamberlain to his niece Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII.

Nicholas married Mary Raleigh in 1508. Mary (daughter of Edward Raleigh and Anne Chamberlain) died before 1523. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1518, of Warkworth, Northamptonshire, England

Family/Spouse: Anne Smith. Anne (daughter of John Smith and Agnes Harewell) died before 16 Dec 1569. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 19 Jan 1542

Notes:

Our entry for her husband Richard Chetwode quotes from Richardson's Royal Ancestry: "About 1556 Charles Tyrell, Gent., brought suit to have Richard and Agnes' marriage annulled, after which Cardinal Pole declared their marriage invalid. In 1559 the Court of Audience rescinded the annulment."

Charles Hansen's "The Barons of Wodhull" (citation details below) gives considerably more detail about this drama. Richard Chetwood had been Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Edward VI, and like most of the young king's allies, fell out of favor when the Catholic queen Mary took the crown. Charles Tyrell appears to have been hoping to use this circumstance in order to marry the wealthy Agnes Woodhull himself. But the most interesting wrinkle to the story is that when Mary died and was succeeded by her Protestant sister Elizabeth, Richard Chetwode had, pending with the Pope in Rome, an appeal against his marriage's annulment. Richard and Agnes's connections in high places had evidently survived the five years of Mary's reign, because the new queen Elizabeth's first law, the April 1559 Act of Supremacy, which re-established the Church of England and prohibited legal appeals to the Pope, included a specific exception for "Richard Chetwood, Esq. and Agnes his wife, by the name of Agnes Woodhall", stating that if the Pope should rule to affirm their marriage, that would be considered valid in English law, notwithstanding all other provisions of the Act. As Hansen puts it, "Thus, as history would have it, the first baron of Wodhull was listed in Domesday Book, which validated the results of the Norman Conquest, while the heiress of the last baron was named in the act of Parliament which affirmed the success of the Protestant Reformation in England."

Notwithstanding the Act of Supremacy's carve-out for Richard and Agnes, in fact the Pope never did rule, and the validity of their marriage was re-affirmed in 1559 and 1560 by the Court of Audience in Canterbury, an entirely English church court.

Agnes married Richard Chetwode before Jan 1556. Richard (son of Roger Chetwode and Ellen Masterson) died between 6 Jan 1560 and 12 Jan 1560; was buried in St. Dunstan in the West, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Sheriff of Northamptonshire, 1597-98. Knighted in 1603. Member of the Inner Temple. His first wife was Jane Drury, daughter and co-heiress of William Drury (also Drewerie), sometime Deputy Lieutenant of Ireland, by Margery Wentworth, daughter of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Lord Wentworth, Lord Chamberlain of the Household to Edward VI. She was living in 1629.

"Through his mother, Richard Chetwode inherited her manors and estates of Bekebrok, Dunstewe, Somerton and Banbury, co. Oxford; Chetwode and Lampert, co. Bucks; Durnford, co. Wilts; Warkworth, Middleton, Overthorp, Astrup, Croughton, Sutton and Pateshull, co. Northants; and Wodhull, Langford and Hockliffe, co. Bedford. The manors of Wodhull, Langford and Pateshull had been held in demesne by Walter the Fleming in 1086 and had descended with the barony of Wodhull in the same family for 500 years. Richard Chetwode was later knighted and during the reign of King James I, being in possession of the manor and castle of Odell (Wodhull), petitioned for a writ of summons to Parliament as Baron de Wahull, but neither he nor his descendants were successful in this claim." ["The Barons of Wodhull," citation details below]

"In 1613 [Richard Chetwode] presented a petition to King James I, claiming the ancient barony in fee of Wahull [Wodhull], as being heir lineal and sole of his several ancestors who had been summoned to attend, and had attended, the king as barons. The claim was allowed to drag, and was put forward again by his fourth descendant, Knightley Chetwood, in 1739 ; by his sixth descendant, Jonathan Chetwood, in 1831 ; and by his eighth descendant, Constantia Elizabeth (Chetwood) Aiken (died 1892) in 1890. Decision was finally rendered against her son, John Chetwood Chetwood-Aiken, on technical grounds, the descent being recognized as valid." [Donald Lines Jacobus, citation details below]

Family/Spouse: Dorothy Needham. Dorothy (daughter of Robert Needham and Frances Aston) was born in 1570; died after 1631. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

One of TSW's eight proven "gateway ancestors". She was the Rev. Peter Bulkeley's second wife, and emigrated to New England with him.

Grace married Rev. Peter Bulkeley in Apr 1635. Peter (son of Dr. Rev. Edward Bulkeley, D.D. and Olive Irby) was born on 31 Jan 1583 in Odell, Bedfordshire, England; died on 9 Mar 1659 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From Wikipedia (accessed 22 May 2020):

Gershom Bulkeley was an early graduate of Harvard University, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1655 and possibly his master's degree in 1658. After receiving his master's degree he might have married Sarah Chauncy, daughter of then Harvard President, Charles Chauncy. In 1661 became the minister of the Congregational church in New London, CT, where he served for roughly 5 years. He then became minister of the Congregational church in the town of Wethersfield, Connecticut where he served until 1677. He left the ministry and practiced as a physician in Glastonbury, CT.

When the Salem Witch Trials spread from Massachusetts to Connecticut in the autumn of 1692, he expressed considerable scepticism about the evidence, saying that he had heard nothing of any weight to convince him that anyone was guilty of witchcraft. In particular he argued that Marcy Disborough, one of the only two women accused in Connecticut who actually stood trial for witchcraft, was the victim of the malice of her neighbours. Mercy was founded guilty and sentenced to death, but received a reprieve. She was set free and died some time after 1709.

Gershom married Sarah Chauncy on 6 Oct 1659 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Sarah was born on 13 Jun 1631 in Ware, Hertfordshire, England; died on 3 Jun 1699 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Hannah Raymond. Hannah (daughter of Joshua Raymond and Elizabeth Smith) was born on 8 Aug 1668 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut; died on 28 Jan 1742 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died at sea in a storm.

Peter married Rachel Talcott on 21 Mar 1700 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut. Rachel (daughter of Samuel Talcott and Hannah Holyoke) was born on 2 Apr 1676 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut; died on 8 Jan 1726 in Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Hannah married Rev. Richard Goodrich on 18 May 1709 in New London, New London, Connecticut. Richard (son of Capt. Ephraim Goodrich and Sarah Treat) was born on 27 Feb 1685; died on 7 Apr 1759 in Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]