Elizabeth Cawse

Family/Spouse: William Jenney. William (son of John Jenney and Maud Bokyll) was born about 1415 in of Knoddishall, Suffolk, England; died on 23 Dec 1483. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married Christopher Willoughby before 28 Mar 1482. Christopher (son of Robert Willoughby and Cecily Welles) was born about 1453 in of Parham, Suffolk, England; died between 1 Nov 1498 and 13 Jul 1499. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Thomas Tyrrell. Thomas (son of James Tyrrell and Anne Arundell) was born in of Gipping, Suffolk, England; died between 12 Jun 1551 and 25 Aug 1551. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married William Eure about 1503. William (son of Ralph Eure and Muriel Hastings) was born about 1483 in of Witton in Weardale, Durham, England; died on 15 Mar 1548 in Eresby, Lincolnshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Anne married John Clere before 19 Aug 1529. John (son of Robert Clere and Alice Boleyn) was born about 1511 in of Ormesby St. Margaret, Norfolk, England; died on 21 Aug 1557 in At sea. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was slain in the Battle of Ancrum Moor, part of the 1542-51 War of the Rough Wooing.

Ralph married Margery Bowes before 1529. Margery (daughter of Ralph Bowes and Elizabeth Clifford) died after 1566. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 3 Jun 1606, London, England

Notes:

Burgess for Thetford 1557-58, 1562-63. Burgess for Grampound 1571. Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk 1567-68. Sheriff of Norfolk 1580-81.

From the History of Parliament (citation details below):

Though a younger son, Clere succeeded to an extensive patrimony on the north-east coast of Norfolk, being licensed to enter his lands on 22 Feb. 1558. In May of that year he purchased further property at Wymondham, and in 1561, on the death of his great-uncle Sir James Boleyn he inherited Blickling, which he made his chief seat. On the death of his father-in-law (Sir) Richard Fulmerston in 1567, Clere and his wife came into possession of most of his extensive estates in and around Thetford as well as inheriting most of his personal property.

Thus, after 1567 Clere was one of the greatest landowners in Norfolk, appearing in 1588 on Lord Burghley’s list of ‘knights of great possessions’ able to support a peerage. He was a second cousin to the Queen and to Lord Hunsdon, and brother-in-law to Walter Haddon, the master of requests. His connexion with the Duke of Norfolk through his father-in-law Fulmerston, the Duke’s servant, caused him to be among those questioned on Norfolk’s arrest in October 1569, and in September 1571 he and others were ordered to take an inventory of the Duke’s goods at Kenninghall. In 1570 he was made collector in Norfolk of the forced loan. This inevitably made him unpopular with his fellow gentry, and gave rise to probably well-founded accusations of fraud and extortion. He was also in conflict with his manorial tenants, and at loggerheads with the Thetford corporation. He had to attend upon the Privy Council for a while after the forced loan episode, but he never lost the Council’s confidence. In 1578 he entertained the Queen during her Norfolk progress, ‘worthily feasted’ her retinue, and was knighted by the Queen at Norwich. In 1583 he signed a petition on behalf of certain puritan ministers and four years later was noted by the bishop of Norwich as a ‘favourer of religion’.

Clere’s election at Thetford to the Parliaments of 1558 and 1563 was due to the local influence of his father-in-law, Fulmerston. Clere succeeded to Fulmerston’s land in 1567 and what made him resort to Grampound for a seat in 1571 is not evident, nor is it clear who was his patron there. Possibly there was a court connexion with the 2nd Earl of Bedford. Clere’s committee work concerned the continuance of statutes (20 Mar. 1563), priests disguised as servants (1 May 1571), and tillage and the navy (25 May 1571). He spoke on the treasons bill (9 Apr. 1571), the anonymous diarist commenting, ‘Mr. Clere of Norfolk, a gentleman of great possessions, made hereupon a staggering speech: his conclusion I did not conceive’. Of another speech, again on a religious topic (11 Apr.), he wrote ‘such was my ill hap I could not understand what reason he made’. D’Ewes records Clere as speaking on the bill for Bristol, also on 11 Apr. In the discussion on Strickland’s case on 20 Apr., he defended the prerogative of the Crown.

In 1572 Clere decided to try for the county seat, Sir Thomas Cornwallis reporting just before the election that Clere ‘leaveth no stone untouched that may further his part’, and that ‘a great number of the shire’ were ‘evil affected towards him’. Unsuccessful, he wrote a series of letters to Richard Southwell, whom he had addressed as ‘loving cousin and friend’ when canvassing support beforehand, describing his ‘found falsehood’, and contrasting Southwell’s ‘overt action in so great an assembly’ with his ‘former pretended opinion’.

In October 1586 he and his fellow deputy lieutenant Sir William Heydon were ordered by the Privy Council to ensure that at the new election of knights of the shire ‘fit men may be chosen, known to be well affected to religion and the present estate’, and Clere wrote to his friend, Bassingbourne Gawdy, suggesting that he stand, adding that if he himself were not incapacitated by a rupture, he ‘should be willing to be with you there’. The Norfolk gentry at this time were divided. In the north of the county Clere and Sir William Heydon, after initial quarrels over the rights of Clere’s second wife to the Heydon manor of Saxlingham, had united against Nathaniel Bacon, the Knyvet and Wyndham families and others of their neighbours. Soon after the 1586 election they apparently persuaded the lord lieutenant, Hunsdon, to replace Sir Thomas Knyvet by their friend Sir Arthur Heveningham as a deputy lieutenant, and had several of their opponents turned off the commission of the peace. During the next few years Clere can generally be found on the side of Heveningham in the latter’s quarrels with the Bacon faction over such contentious matters as the organisation of county musters.

Clere’s eldest son Edward, already in 1585 ‘in peril divers ways of imprisonment and shame’, was accused in the next reign of sheltering a seminary priest and from 1606 spent much of his life in prison. Clere therefore did his best to keep his property out of his eldest son’s hands, though he could not break the entail on the Fulmerston estate. By various settlements and by his will, made in April 1605, he divided the rest between the younger sons, Sir Francis and Robert, and his grandson Henry. Most of the land eventually reverted to Henry, who became a baronet in 1620 and died s.p. in 1622. Clere’s will contained bequests to other relatives, and arranged for the foundation of a fellowship and scholarship at St. John’s, Cambridge. Most of the personal property was left to the widow, the sole executrix, who had a life interest in Blickling. One of the two supervisors was his ‘old well tried friend’ Dru Drury. Clere died in London on 3 June 1606, and was buried at Blickling.

Edward married Frances Fulmerston about 16 Dec 1554. Frances (daughter of Richard Fulmerston and Alice Lonzam) died on 20 Mar 1580 in Blickling, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Lancelot Mansfield. Lancelot was born about 1533 in of Skirpenbeck, Yorkshire, England; died after 20 Sep 1563. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Anne married William Gilbert on 23 Apr 1578 in Blickling, Norfolk, England. William died before 21 Feb 1608; was buried on 21 Feb 1608 in Mickleover, Derbyshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Anne married Okeover Crompton about 1610. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of London, England

Notes:

Burgess (M.P.) for Beverley, Yorkshire. Queen's Surveyor. B.A., Peterhouse College, Cambridge, 1572-3.

He was described as a resident of London in 1582, but the 1587 pedigree attached to the grant of his father's crest called him "of Huton on Derwent", Yorkshire.

From Robert Charles Anderson, John C. Brandon, and Paul C. Reed, "The Ancestry of the Royally-Descended Mansfields of the Massachusetts Bay" (citation details below):

Cotton Mather, in his biography of the Rev. John Wilson, identifies the father of the immigrants as "Sir John Mansfield, master of the Minories, and the Queen's surveyor." This identification has always been troublesome, as it includes some inaccuracies. The immigrants' father was an "esquire," a step below the dignity of knighthood, but above gentleman. Evidence has been found, however, to confirm that John Mansfield was intimately involved with royal mining interests, and was Queen's surveyor -- at least in Yorkshire.

When Mather used the word "Minories," he must have intended the word "mineries," or mining operations. The 3rd Earl of Huntingdon held mines and lands in Dorsetshire, having purchased various mining interests from James, Lord Mountjoy. John Mansfield was the Earl's "servant, and at one stage his lessee of the Canford mines, near Poole, Dorset. Lord Mountjoy was heavily indebted to creditors, and various interrogatories were taken in May 1582 concerning his sale to Huntingdon. "John Mansfield, and W[illia]m Bird, all of London," were among men examined on behalf of the Earl on May 17, 21, 24, and 31, and June 1, 1582. "John Mansfield of London" was also examined on 14 or 15 June.

John Mansfeild, Clement Draper, and Richard Laycolte received lands, rents and liberties in Brownsea Island, Dorset, with the advowson, by permission of license dated 1 April 1581. John Mansfelde, Richard Laicolte, Clement Draper, and Edward Mead complained to the Privy Council on 4 January 1581 that Edward Lane [of Blackfriars, London, 1582], John Lane, and others had "wrongfullie dispossessed them of two their workehouses for allum and coppres, called Allam Chyne and Okemans in the countie of Dorset." The various examinations "touching matters in conroversie betwene John and Edward Lanes and John Mansfelde" were delivered to the servant of the Earl of Huntingdon on 27 May 1582. On 12 September 1592, Clement Draper wrote to the Queen, pleading that he had "been detained in prison 12 years against all right, by practice of the Earl of Huntingdon, John Mansfield, his deputy, and Richard Laycolt, who have taken away his goods, which, with other losses, amount to 10,000l; his good name, dearer to him than his life, is rooted out by their false reports." He further claimed that "Mansfield, for 4l., got a protection under the Great Seal to defraud him and others of their goods....The Earl, the better to defend his own quarrel against Lord Mountjoy, has got into his hands...the writer's [Draper's] deeds and writings concerning his estate in the mines, and detains them. The Earl, in May 1583, covenanted that the mines should be maintained and set to work." John Mansfeld/Mansfyeld, with Clement Draper, had brought suit against others in the Court of Star Chamber, but later John sued Clement Draper in Chancery.

John Mansfield's career in politics reached its pinacle in 1593, when he represented Beverley, Yorkshire, in Parliament. He is not known to have had personal connections at Beverley, so the seat was likely procured through the influence of his lord the Earl of Huntingdon or cousin Lord Eure. As one of the burgesses for Yorkshire boroughs, he was appointed to a committee on cloth 23 March and to another concerning weirs 28 March 1593. In 1597, by which time he was serving as a Justice of the Peace for the North Riding of Yorkshire, John Mansfield offered himself for election to Parliament at Scarborough, but though he was recommended to the bailiffs and burgesses by the Archbishop of York, and had the support of his prospective fellow burgess, Sir Thomas Posthumous Hoby, his nomination was not accepted by the borough authorities.

Queen Elizabeth I on 8 February 1597/8 granted John Mansfield "the office of collector of the rents and revenues of the dissolved monastery of St. Mary's, York," and more importantly, "the surveyorship of the Queen's lands in the North Riding of Yorkshire." The Crown had extensive honours and holdings in Yorkshire. John Mansfield set about to prove his proficiency by making an unusually thorough and careful survey of the manor of Settington, Yorkshire, compiled between 17 and 21 March 1599/1600. Mansfield obviously took great pains in producing this detailed document, probably an attempt to demonstrate abilities superior to those of a rival who had received many benefits for little effort. John alluded to this in his plea to the Lord Treasurer in his introductory remarks to one copy of the survey:

It is my hard fortune whilest other men receyue great rewardes for small deserts I must hold my selfe happy not to be disgraced after good seruyce done. Good my Lord excuse me for thus writyng. I haue chosen to depend on your lordship onelye. When your lordship shall please to gyue me over I wilbegone as forsaken by all. I will equall my selfe to all in this[,] never any did nor shall performe more honest dutyes to your Lordship then I will.

The manor of Settrington had been granted to Matthew, Earl of Lenox, and his wife Margaret, in 1544, but was later returned to the Crown. John Mansfield, "Crown Surveyor," was ordered to make a survey of the manors of the late Margaret, Countess of Lennox. These documents are dated February 1600/1 to July 1601, when Mansfield died. He made the surveys as part of a northern tour, likely drawing up the results after his return to London.

Family/Spouse: Mary Hobson. Mary (daughter of William Hobson and Mary) died between 1587 and 3 Feb 1592. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Elizabeth before 3 Feb 1592. Elizabeth died before 10 Feb 1634; was buried on 10 Feb 1634 in St. Michael Cornhill, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Her second husband was William Hopkins. Administration on the estate of Temperance Hopkins who died overseas was granted to him on 6 Nov 1648 by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. For this reason it is believed that she emigrated to New England with her daughter.

Temperance married John Alsop on 1 May 1617 in Mickleover, Derbyshire, England. John (son of Anthony Alsop and Jane Smith) was born about 1596 in of Alsop-le-Dale, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England; died between 28 Mar 1631 and 8 Jun 1631. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Gateway ancestor, one of LD's five (so far).

From Robert Charles Anderson, John C. Brandon, and Paul C. Reed, "The Ancestry of the Royally-Descended Mansfields of the Massachusetts Bay" (citation details below):

Of Elizabeth (Mansfield) Wilson, not much is known. She was very unwilling to come to New England; as Mather writes, she had to be "perswaded over into the difficulties of an American desart," arriving two years after her husband. In May 1631, Margaret (Tyndal) Winthrop told how Mr. Wilson "can not yet perswad his wife to goe, for all he hath taken this paynes to come and fetch hir. I maruiell [marvel] what mettell she is made on. shure she will yeald at last, or elce we shal want him excedingly in new england." Later the same month, Mrs. Winthrop again mentioned Elizabeth's distaste for the trip; she was "more auerce [averse] then euer she was." Mrs. Wilson finally arrived in Massachusetts in 1632. Her dislike of the voyage to New England, and her unhappiness at hearing of the death of her eldest son, whom she did not long survive, are almost all that we know of her character and life.

Elizabeth married Rev. John Wilson before 1617. Rev. (son of Rev. William Wilson and Elizabeth Woodhall) was born about 1591; died on 7 Aug 1667 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Anne married Robert Keayne on 18 Jun 1617. Robert (son of John Keayne) was born about 1594; died on 23 Mar 1656 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut

Notes:

One of DDB's six proven "gateway ancestors."

Elizabeth married Richard Baldwin after 5 Feb 1643 in Milford, New Haven, Connecticut. Richard (son of Sylvester Baldwin and Sarah) was born before 25 Aug 1622; was christened on 25 Aug 1622 in Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, England; died on 23 Jul 1665 in Milford, New Haven, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Rev. married Sarah Hooker before 1649. Sarah (daughter of Rev. Thomas Hooker and Susannah Garbrand) was born before 21 Feb 1630; was christened on 21 Feb 1630 in Broomfield, Essex, England; died on 20 Aug 1725 in Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married Rev. Samuel Danforth on 5 Nov 1651. Rev. (son of Nicholas Danforth and Elizabeth Barber) was born in Sep 1626 in Framlingham, Suffolk, England; was christened on 17 Oct 1626 in Framlingham, Suffolk, England; died on 19 Nov 1674 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

According to Robert Charles Anderson, John C. Brandon, and Paul C. Reed (citation details below), he and Sarah Dudley ultimately divorced "because of Sarah's increasing religious fanaticism".

From The Great Migration Begins (citation details below):

Some considerable pain entered Gov. Dudley's last years as his daughter Sarah and her husband Benjamin Keayne necessitated one of the colony's earliest divorces. Stephen Winthrop says "My she Cosin Keane is growne a great preacher" in a letter from London 27 March 1646. In a letter dated London 18 March 1646/7, Benjamin Keayne writes to Thomas Dudley:

Honored Sir, That you and myself are made sorry by your daughter's enormous and continued crimes, is the greatest cause of grief that ever befell me, and the more because her obstinate continuance in them is now to me by her own letter made as certain...I never gave her the least just cause or occasion to provoke her to them...she has not left me any room or way of reconciliation. And therefore as you desire, I do plainly declare my resolution never again to live with her as a husband. What maintenance yourself expects I know not. This I know (to my cost and danger) she has unwived herself and how she or you can expect a wife's maintenance is to me a wonder...

Ezekiel Rogers passed some of the gossip on to John Winthrop in a letter dated Rowley 8 November 1647:

...I thought myself bound to acquaint you that there is not a little discourse raised, and by some, offence taken, at the late divorce granted by the Court. How weighty a business that is, as I need not tell you, so I would humbly desire that some course may be taken so as to clear the court's proceeding, as that rumors might be stopped, and letters of mistake into England prevented...

The news from England in the words of Brampton Gurdon Sr. put another light on things, as he wrote from Assington 6 June 1649 to John Winthrop:

...Here goes some speech of a N.E. couple that lately came from thence the husband first, and then the wife followed after with what goods she could get together but we heat all her goods miscarried and she escaped only with her life. The man was Cane's son a cloak seller in Birching Lane, whose mother was Mr. Willson's sister. The woman is returned to N.E. and resolves there to take another husband. I hope your laws will not tolerate such wicked actions.

Benjamin married Sarah Dudley before 1639, and was divorced in 1647. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]