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Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water
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Maude le Vavasour, aka Maid Marian
October 31, 2013
— 2 Comments
Maud
Maud as Maid Marian
My 21st grandmother married two husbands, the second of which (not my grandfather), was Robin Hood:
Maud le Vavasour, Baroness Butler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaMaud le Vavasour, Baroness Butler (24 June 1176- before 1226) was an Anglo-Norman heiress and the wife of Fulk FitzWarin,[1] a medieval landed gentlemanwho was forced to become an outlaw in the early 13th century. The legend ofRobin Hood is allegedly based on him.By her first marriage to Theobald Walter, 1st Baron Butler, Maud was the ancestress of the Butler Earls of Ormond.FamilyMaud le Vavasour was born on 24 June 1176 in Yorkshire, England to Robert le Vavasour, High Sheriff of Lancashire (1150- 1234), and his first wife Juliana de Ros. She had a brother Sir John le Vavasour who married Alice Cockfield, by whom he had issue. Maud’s paternal grandparents were William le Vavasour, Lord of Hazelwood, and Justiciar of England, and Matilda Perry. Her maternal grandparents were Gilbert de Ros and Matilda de Cauz.Maud was heiress to the properties of Edlington and Newborough in Yorkshire.Marriages and childrenIn 1189, Maud married her first husband Theobald Walter, 1st Baron Butler (died February 1206), son of Hervey Walter and Maud de Valoignes, and went to live in Ireland. His brother Hubert Walter was Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1185, Theobald had been given land by Prince John, who was then Lord of Ireland. He was appointed Butler of Ireland in 1192,[2] and High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1194.Theobald and Maud had three children:
- Maud le Botiller ( also known as Maud Walter) (1192- before 1240), married as his first wife Sir Gerald de Prendergast by whom she had issue, including Marie de Prendergast, who in her turn married Sir John de Cogan and had issue.
- Beatrice le Botiller
- Theobald le Botiller, chief Butler of Ireland (January 1200- 19 July 1230), who married firstly Joan du Marais, daughter of Geoffrey du Marais and Eva de Bermingham, and had a son Theobald le Botiller (1224- 1248), who marriedMargery de Burgh, daughter of Richard Mor de Burgh, Lord of Connacht, andEgidia de Lacy (daughter of Walter de Lacy and Margaret de Braose), and from whom descended the Earls of Ormond. Theobald le Botiller, chief Butler of Ireland married secondly, after 4 September 1225, Rohese de Verdon (1205- 10 February 1247), daughter of Nicholas de Verdon and Joan de Lacy, by whom he had a son and daughter: John le Botiller de Verdon, Lord of Westmeath (1226- 1274), who married Margery de Lacy (1229- after 10 June 1276), by whom he had issue, and Maud le Botiller de Verdon, who upon her marriage to John Fitzalan became the 6th Countess of Arundel, and from whom descended the Fitzalan Earls of Arundel.
Following the death of Theobald in early February 1206, Maud returned to England into the custody of her father, who, having bought the right of marrying her at the price of 1200 marks and two palfrys, gave her in marriage, on 1 October 1207, to Fulk FitzWarin.[3] Fulk was the son of Fulk FitzWarin and Hawise de Dinan, who subsequent to a violent quarrel with King John of England, sought refuge in the woods and became an outlaw. Maud accompanied him. The legendary figures of Robin Hood and Maid Marian are said to be based on Fulk and Maud.
By FitzWarin, Maud had a son and a daughter:
- Sir Fulk FitzWarin (1208-14 May 1264), married firstly, Clarice d ‘Auberville, by whom he had a daughter, Mabel FitzWarin (1248- 1296), who in turn married firstly John de Crevequer, and secondly, Sir John Tregoze, Baron Tregoze (1245- 1300), son of Robert II Tregoze, Lord of Ewyas Harold, and Juliane de Cantelou, and had issue. Fulk married secondly, Constance de Toeni (1225- 1265), by whom he had a son, Fulk FitzWarin and a daughter, Hawise FitzWarin, both of whom married and had issue.
- Hawise FitzWarin (born 3 February 1210), married firstly William Pantulf, by whom she had issue, and secondly, Hubert Huse.
DeathMaud le Vavasour died sometime before 1226. She had numerous descendants including the Earls of Ormond, the Earls of Arundel, Anne Boleyn, Mary Boleynand Elizabeth I.In fiction
Maud is the main protagonist in Elizabeth Chadwick’s The White Castle, which relates in highly fictional form, her life and adventures as the wife of Fulk FitzWarin.
References
- ^ peerage.com
- ^ Charles CawleyMedieval Lands, Earls of Ormond
- ^ 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica/Butler
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_le_Vavasour,_Baroness_Butler“
Categories: 1176 births
13th-century deaths
Women of medieval England
12th-century English people
13th-century English people
People from Yorkshire
13th-century deaths
Women of medieval England
12th-century English people
13th-century English people
People from Yorkshire
Hidden categories: Articles with hCards
Maud le Vavasour (1187 – 1282)
is my 21st great grandmother
Theobald II le Boteler (1200 – 1230)
son of Maud le Vavasour
Lady Maud Matilda DeVerdun Countess DeBoteler Countess Arundel (1225 – 1283)
daughter of Theobald II le Boteler
Matilda Tideshall FitzAlan Baroness Corbet De Arundel (1244 – 1309)
daughter of Lady Maud Matilda DeVerdun Countess DeBoteler Countess Arundel
Sir Thomas Corbet of Moreton, Knight of The Bath Corbet (1281 – 1310)
son of Matilda Tideshall FitzAlan Baroness Corbet De Arundel
Knight Sir Robert XII Corbet, Lord of Moreton Corbet (1304 – 1375)
son of Sir Thomas Corbet of Moreton, Knight of The Bath Corbet
Sir Roger XIII (Lord of Morton) Corbet (1330 – 1396)
son of Knight Sir Robert XII Corbet, Lord of Moreton Corbet
Robert Corbet (1383 – 1440)
son of Sir Roger XIII (Lord of Morton) Corbet
Blanche Corbet (1423 – 1458)
daughter of Robert Corbet
Humphrey Coningsby (1458 – 1535)
son of Blanche Corbet
Amphyllis Coningsby (1478 – 1533)
daughter of Humphrey Coningsby
Margaret Tyndale (1510 – 1555)
daughter of Amphyllis Coningsby
Thomas Taylor (1548 – 1588)
son of Margaret Tyndale
Thomas Taylor (1574 – 1618)
son of Thomas Taylor
James Taylor (1608 – 1698)
son of Thomas Taylor
John Taylor (1685 – 1776)
son of James Taylor
John Taylor (1727 – 1787)
son of John Taylor
John Taylor (1747 – 1781)
son of John Taylor
John Nimrod Taylor (1770 – 1816)
son of John Taylor
John Samuel Taylor (1798 – 1873)
son of John Nimrod Taylor
William Ellison Taylor (1839 – 1918)
son of John Samuel Taylor
George Harvey Taylor (1884 – 1941)
son of William Ellison Taylor
Ruby Lee Taylor (1922 – 2008)
daughter of George Harvey Taylor
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee Taylor
Sir Archibald Tyneman Regent Douglas
October 26, 2013
— 6 Comments
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- Sir Archibald
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- coat of arms
My 19th great grandfather died in battle defending Scotland against the English..Think bloody brutal….think crusaders…think crazy people…..
Battle of Halidon Hill
Although Robert the Bruce’s reign in Scotland resulted in recognition of Scotland as a separate nation by Edward III in 1328, further wars with England were soon to follow. The deep animosity between England and Scotland that hardened after the wars of Independence, led to intermittent warfare for much of the next three hundred years. Scotland was handicapped in that, sometimes when a strong king was needed, they ended up have a weak king or a minor on the throne. This power vacuum at the top, helped to create an environment where the more noble families of Scotland vied for the power. The Earls of Douglas (the Black Douglases), the Earls of Angus (the Red Douglases), the Hamiltons and the Lennox Stewarts, were all related to the Scottish crown by marriage and battled for the power behind the throne. On Bruce’s death in 1329, he was succeeded by his 5 year old son, David II. England lost little time in taking advantage of the presence of a minor on the Scottish throne. Edward III provided encouragement and active support to Edward Balliol, the son of John Balliol, for claiming the throne. In 1332, Edward Balliol invaded Scotland with a mainly English force and was crowned King at Scone, after routing a much larger Scots army under Donald, Earl of Mar as Guardian, at Dupplin Moor near Perth. The disastrous defeat was due to incompetency of Mar, the use of long bows and their devastating effect by the English, and a guide with local knowledge, provided by a Murray of Tullibardine. The following year, 1333, saw the Scots suffer an even more disastrous defeat at Halidon Hill, near Berwick. In an effort to end the siege of the town of Berwick by the English, Sir Archibald Douglas, who had succeeded Mar as Guardian, ignored reasonable battle tactics. They advanced across a bog, against a strongly held position on Halidon Hill, under heavy fire from the English archers with their deadly longbows. They suffered enormous casualties and failed to even reach the English. Douglas, and most of the other leading Scots nobles and fighting men were left dead on the field. In 1334, Balliol acknowledged Edward III’s overlordship and ceded the southern half of Scotland, from East Lothian to Dumfries, to England, an act which was to mean over a hundred years of warfare before they were recovered. This resulted in the Lochmaben Castle being given to the English. It also affected Thomas Carruthers, 1st Laird of Mouswald. For his earlier support of Robert the Bruce, Thomas Carruthers had received in about 1320, a charter for all the lands of “Musfald et de Appiltretwayt cum pertinenciis”. This Thomas also received in the same year, a charter of half of all the lands, with pertinents, which belonged to “Robert de Applingdene in valle Anandie”, due to his marriage to one of Robert de Applynden’s daughters, Joan. These lands formed the kernel of what was to become just 4 generations later, the 1st Carruthers Barony – Mouswald, which is located just a few miles south of Dumfries. With Edward Balliol ceding the land of Dumfries to Edward III, Thomas Carruthers accepted an office under Edward III of England and relocated there, leaving his Mouswald land to his next oldest brother, William, now 2nd Lord Mouswald. Thomas is assumed to be the founder of the Carruthers family in England, where the family appeared at an early date in Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire.
Sir Archibald Tyneman Regent Douglas:
The younger son of Sir William “le Hardi” Douglas, the Governor of the castle at Berwick-upon-Tweed, and his wife, Eleanor de Lovaine. Douglas was also half-brother of “the Good” Sir James Douglas, King Robert the Bruce’s deputy.
Douglas is first heard of in 1320 when he received a charter of land at Morebattle in Roxburghshire and Kirkandrews in Dumfriesshire from King Robert. In 1324, he was recorded as being granted the lands of Rattray and Crimond in Buchan and the lands of Conveth, Kincardineshire, already being possession of Cavers in Roxburghshire, Drumlanrig and Terregles in Dumfriesshire, and the lands of West Calder in Midlothian. By the time of his death, he was also in possession of Liddesdale.
History then keeps quiet about Douglas except whilst serving under his older brother, James, in the 1327 campaign in Weardale, where his foragers “auoint curry apoi tot levesche de Doresme”– overran nearly all the Bishopric of Durham. (Scalacronica)
Following the death of King Robert I and his brother’s crusade with the dead king’s heart, Douglas once again becomes of note. He was made guardian of the kingdom since he was “the principal adviser in…the confounding of the king” as much as he was heir to his brothers influence after Murray’s capture. Archibald’s success in local raids though, did not prepare him for full scale conflict.
During the Second War of Scottish Independence, Edward Baliol, son of King John of Scotland, had invaded Scotland with the backing of Edward III of England, inflicting a defeat on the Scots at the Battle of Dupplin Moor. Douglas served under the dubious leadership of Patrick V, Earl of Dunbar leader of the second army that aimed to crush the smaller Balliol force. Following the rout of the Earl of Mar’s force Dunbar did not engage the disinherited but retreated allowing Edward Balliol to be crowned at Scone. Following this battle, and as a sweetener to the English, Edward Baliol agreed to cede the county, town and castle of Berwick to England in perpetuity. However Douglas led a Bruce loyalist defeat on Balliol at theBattle of Annan, forcing him to flee back to England.
Battle of Halidon Hill
Edward III himself came north to command his army, and laid siege to Berwick. However, a temporary truce was declared with the stipulation that if not relieved within a set time, Sir Alexander Seton, the governor, would deliver the castle to the English. Douglas raised an army to relieve the beleaguered defenders of Berwick. As a feint to draw the English away he invaded Northumberland, but was forced to return to Berwick when the English refused to be lured. On 19 July, Edward’s army took positions at the summit of Halidon Hill, a summit some mile and a half north of the town with commanding views of the surrounding country. Douglas’ numerically superior force was compelled to attack up the slope and were slaughtered by the English archers, a prelude, perhaps, to the battles of Crécy and Agincourt. The English won the field with little loss of life, however by the close of the fight, countless Scots common soldiery, five Scots Earls and the Guardian Douglas lay dead. The following day Berwick capitulated.
Archibald was succeeded by his son, William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas.
Sir Archibald Douglas married Beatrice Lindsay, daughter of Sir Alexander Lindsay of Crawford, an ancestor of the Earls of Crawford. They had three children.
- John Douglas (d.b. 1342 in the retinue of David II of Scotland in France)
- William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas
- Eleanor Douglas married five times
- Alexander, Earl of Carrick, natural son of Edward Bruce, King of Ireland (k. 1333, Battle of Halidon Hill)
- Sir James de Sandilands, ancestor of the Lords of Torphichen (d.b. 1358)
- Sir William Tours of Dalry (d.b. 1368)
- Sir Duncan Wallace of Sundrum (d.b. 1376)
- Sir Patrick Hepburn of Hailes, ancestor of the Earls of Bothwell
Sir Archibald Tyneman Regent Douglas (1289 – 1333)
is my 19th great grandfather
Baroness Catherine Douglas (1320 – 1360)
daughter of Sir Archibald Tyneman Regent Douglas
John de Vaux Barnbarroch (1365 – 1384)
son of Baroness Catherine Douglas
John De Vaux (1402 – 1456)
son of John de Vaux Barnbarroch
Isabella Vaus (1451 – 1510)
daughter of John De Vaux
Marion Accarson (1478 – 1538)
daughter of Isabella Vaus
Catherine Gordon (1497 – 1537)
daughter of Marion Accarson
Lady Elizabeth Ashton (1524 – 1588)
daughter of Catherine Gordon
Capt Roger Dudley (1535 – 1585)
son of Lady Elizabeth Ashton
Gov Thomas Dudley (1576 – 1653)
son of Capt Roger Dudley
Anne Dudley (1612 – 1672)
daughter of Gov Thomas Dudley
John Bradstreet (1652 – 1718)
son of Anne Dudley
Mercy Bradstreet (1689 – 1725)
daughter of John Bradstreet
Caleb Hazen (1720 – 1777)
son of Mercy Bradstreet
Mercy Hazen (1747 – 1819)
daughter of Caleb Hazen
Martha Mead (1784 – 1860)
daughter of Mercy Hazen
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
son of Martha Mead
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
son of Abner Morse
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Daniel Rowland Morse
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse
Nathaniel Warren of Plymouth Colony
October 25, 2013
— 2 Comments
Richard landing with Pilgrims
Nathaniel Warren was born in 1624 in Plymouth Colony. His father, Richard, came alone on the Mayflower to America, then sent later for his family:
We know that the Mayflower passenger’s first three children were named Mary, Ann, and Sarah (in that birth order).Very little is known about Richard Warren’s life in America. He came alone on the Mayflower in 1620, leaving behind his wife and five daughters. They came to him on the ship Anne in 1623, and Richard and Elizabeth subsequently had sons Nathaniel and Joseph at Plymouth.
Nathaniel Warren (1624 – 1667)
is my 12th great grandfather
daughter of Nathaniel Warren
daughter of Sarah Warren
son of Elizabeth Blackwell
daughter of Thomas Baynard
daughter of Deborah Baynard
daughter of Mary Horney
son of Esther Harris
daughter of John H Wright
daughter of Mary Wright
daughter of Emiline P Nicholls
daughter of Harriet Peterson
daughter of Sarah Helena Byrne
son of Olga Fern Scott
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse
When he was 41 years old he was given the responsibility of negotiating with my 11th great uncle Metacom to purchase land from the Wampanoag tribe.
Plymouth Colony Land Purchase:
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Oct. 1665, John Cooke and his Brother-In-Law Nathaniel Warren, were appointed by Plymouth Colony to “treat with Philip the Sagamore about the sale of such lands as are to be sold by him, and to purchase them in the behalf of the country.” Philip the Sagamore, sometimes called Metacom, was the son or grandson of Massasoit, and leader of the Wampanoag Indians. He would later be dubbed “King Philip” during the Wampanoag’s war he led against the English in 1676.
His prepared his will in 1661 to resolve disputes over his father’s estate.
From the book “Mayflower Families Through Five Generations” Richard Warren, Volume Eighteen Part 1 – Third Edition by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants 2004
On June 11 1653 Jane Collyare (Collier) on behalf of her grandchild Sara, the wife of Nathaniel Warren. Elizabeth Warren and Nathaniel Warren agreed to let the court resolve their differences over certain lands of Mr. richard Warren deceased.
Nathaniel Warren became a Freeman 3 June 1657. On 1 June 1658 he was a Deputy from Plymouth, a position he frequently held.
On 15 oct 1661 Nathaniell Warren “aged thirty seaven yeares or thereabouts” made a deposition. NOTE: spelling in the ( )’s are exactly the way it was written back in 1661.
The will of Nathaniel Warren Sr. of Plymouth, dated 29 June 1667, codicil dated 16 July 1667, names wife Sarah; dau. Hope who is lame; other children (not named); the codicil mentions mother Elizabeth Warren; brother Joseph Warren; sisters Mary Bartlett, Sr., Ann Little, Sarah Cooke, Elizabeth Church and Abigail Snow. The inventory was taken 21 Oct 1667, sworn by widow Sarah Warren who was granted administration 30 Oct 1667.
On 9 Jan. 1689/90, Sarah Warren sold land in Plymouth to her son James Warren. On 9 Jan. 1689/90, the other heirs of Nathaniel Warren consented to the sale, they were: Richard Warren; Nathaniel Warren; Jabiz Warren; Elizabeth Green; Sarah Blackwell; Thomas Gibbs and wife Alice; Jonathan Delano and wife Mercy Delano.
On 19 Sept. 1694 Jabiz Warren of Plymouth, yeoman, sold to John Gibbs land in Middleboro which was bought by his father Nathaniel Warren.
Sir John Tyndale, Knight of the Order of the Bath
October 22, 2013
— 7 Comments
Order of the Bath
SIR JOHN TYNDALL KT., the only son of Sir ‘William by Mary Mondeford, was ten years old when his father died, and was then already contracted to marry one of the daughters of Humphrey Coningsby, Serjeant-at-Law (afterwards a Knight and a Judge of the King’s Bench), to whom his wardship and marriage had been sold by his father.
He married accordingly Amphillis Coningsby, who died before him on 18th Jan. 1532-3, leaving nine children. A gray marble slab in the chancel of Hockwold Church bears the effigies in brass of a lady and nine children, with this inscription:
Qui~quis ens qin transieris sta. perlege, plora,
Sum quod ens, fuciainque quod es, pro me piecor ora
Obitus Amfelicie Tendall decimo octavo die Mensis Januar. A I). MccccoXXXi j”
Sir John Tyndall was one of the Knights of the Bath created on 31st May 1533 at the coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn, (30) and married secondly in 1534 Lady Winifred Fermor, the widow of Sir Henry Fermor Kt., of’ East Barsham in Norfolk. Their marriage settlement is dated 14th Dec. 26l ien. VII I. (1534), whereby Sir John charged the manor of Scales hail in Hockwold with the payment. of 421. per annum by way of jointure to Dame Winifred) She was the daughter of Thomas Cawse, an Alderman of Norwich,and was thrice married, for her first husband was Henry- Dynne Esq. of Heydon in Norfolk. She had no issue by her third husband, whom she outlived.
Sir John Tyndall died on 1st Oct. 1539 at the age of 53, seised of the following manors and estates, which were valued at 223l 10s. per annum beyond all reprises (32)
Norfolk, The manor of Hickling, value per annum
The manor and advowson of Pudding-Norton
The manor of Redenhall in Harlston . The manors of Ilsington and Clenchwarton with the advowson of Clenchwarton .
Cambridgeshire, The manor of Haslingfield
Northants, The manor of Helpston ~
Norfolk Lands called Bainys, Lands lying in Colston . The manor of Mondeford, Scale, and Stewkeys, with East Lexham and
the advowson of Hockwold
(Research of Mark W Gardner, “Gardner’s Roots, RootsWeb.com)
John Tyndale (1486 – 1539)
is my 11th great grandfather
daughter of John Tyndale
son of Margaret Tyndale
son of Thomas Taylor
son of Thomas Taylor
son of James Taylor
son of John Taylor
son of John Taylor
son of John Taylor
son of John Nimrod Taylor
son of John Samuel Taylor
son of William Ellison Taylor
daughter of George Harvey Taylor
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee Taylor
He was a knight in the Order of the Bath. I think that is very funny because I am especially crazy about taking baths and water in general.
In the Middle Ages, knighthood was often conferred with elaborate ceremonies. These usually involved the knight-to-be taking a bath (possibly symbolic of spiritual purification), during which he was instructed in the duties of knighthood by more senior knights. He was then put to bed to dry. Clothed in a special robe, he was led with music to the chapel where he spent the night in a vigil. At dawn, he made confession and attended Mass, then retired to his bed to sleep until it was fully daylight. He was then brought before the King, who, after instructing two senior knights to buckle the spurs to the knight-elect’s heels, fastened a belt around his waist, then struck him on the neck (with either a hand or a sword), thus making him a knight. It was this “accolade” which was the essential act in creating a knight, and a simpler ceremony developed, conferring knighthood merely by striking or touching the knight-to-be on the shoulder with a sword, or “dubbing” him, as is still done today. In the early medieval period, the difference seems to have been that the full ceremonies were used for men from more prominent families.
From the coronation of Henry IV in 1399, the full ceremonies were restricted to major royal occasions such as coronations, investitures of the Prince of Wales or royal Dukes, and royal weddings. Knights so created became known as Knights of the Bath. Knights Bachelor continued to be created with the simpler form of ceremony. The last occasion on which Knights of the Bath were created was the coronation of Charles II in 1661.
From at least 1625, and possibly from the reign of James I, Knights of the Bath were using the motto Tria iuncta in uno (Latin for “Three joined in one”), and wearing as a badge three crowns within a plain gold oval. These were both subsequently adopted by the Order of the Bath; a similar design of badge is still worn by members of the Civil Division. Their symbolism, however, is not entirely clear. The ‘three joined in one’ may be a reference to the kingdoms of England, Scotland and either France or Ireland, which were held (or claimed in the case of France) by British monarchs. This would correspond to the three crowns in the badge. Another explanation of the motto is that it refers to the Holy Trinity. Nicolas quotes a source (although he is sceptical of it) who claims prior to James I, the motto was Tria numina iuncta in uno, (three powers/gods joined in one), but from the reign of James I the word numina was dropped and the motto understood to mean Tria [regna] iuncta in uno (three kingdoms joined in one).
coat of arms Tyndale
Lady Mary Davenport, Countess Cheshire
October 21, 2013
— 4 Comments
Lady Mary Davenport
Lady Mary Davenport Countess Cheshire (1287 – 1361)
is my 19th great grandmother
William Mainwaring (1316 – 1364)
son of Lady Mary Davenport Countess Cheshire
Randle Mainwaring (1367 – 1456)
son of William Mainwaring
CLEMENCE MAYNWARYNGE (1390 – 1414)
daughter of Randle Mainwaring
Thomas Beeston (1414 – 1477)
son of CLEMENCE MAYNWARYNGE
John Beeston (1441 – 1498)
son of Thomas Beeston
Baron Tochett Beeston (1458 – 1518)
son of John Beeston
John Beeston (1478 – 1543)
son of Baron Tochett Beeston
Mary Beeston (1503 – )
daughter of John Beeston
Richard Wyche (1525 – 1594)
son of Mary Beeston
Richard Wyche (1554 – 1621)
son of Richard Wyche
Henry Wyche (1604 – 1678)
son of Richard Wyche
Henry Wyche (1648 – 1714)
son of Henry Wyche
George Wyche (1685 – 1757)
son of Henry Wyche
Peter Wyche (1712 – 1757)
son of George Wyche
Drury Wyche (1741 – 1784)
son of Peter Wyche
Mary Polly Wyche (1774 – 1852)
daughter of Drury Wyche
John Samuel Taylor (1798 – 1873)
son of Mary Polly Wyche
William Ellison Taylor (1839 – 1918)
son of John Samuel Taylor
George Harvey Taylor (1884 – 1941)
son of William Ellison Taylor
Ruby Lee Taylor (1922 – 2008)
daughter of George Harvey Taylor
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee Taylor
A fellow Davenport compiled this documentation about the family. Mary comes in at number 6. I am very grateful for this because I too am descended from her son William:
My Davenport ancestors
The following history on the Davenport line includes segments from these books: “Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell” , “Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith”
Davenport is situated about five miles northeast of Sandbach, in a sequestered part of the hundred. The hall is a low building of various materials, still used as a residence of a gentleman’s family and doubtless retaining in its walls many relics of the ancient mansion which occupied its site. It stands on high ground above a range of rich meadows, through which the Dane flows rapidly. It is in the most pleasing scenery of the hundred and must have held no ordinary charm for the ancient chiefs of Davenport, the forest hills of Macclesfield, the scene of their favorite sports and feudal power. The manorial history of the township of Davenport involves a subject of rare occurrence even in this country–the descent of a family in one uninterrupted male line from the time of the Norman Conquest until today, possessing the feudal powers with which it was at first invested and preserving in its own archives, in a series of original documents, the proofs of its ancient importance and its unbroken line.
01. Orme de Davenport, the ancestor of the Davenports, assumed the local name Davenport, and the manorial history of the present time gives the date assigned to Orme de Davenport as 20 of William I, which would be 1086. This is proved by four pedigrees in the British Museum. He was a witness to a charter of enfranchisement by Gilbert de Venables during the reign of either King William II or King Henry I.
02. Richard de Davenport shown as son of Orme in Ormerod’s pedigree [3:68], which was based on deeds, Pleas and Recognizance Rolls, inquisitions post mortem and other evidence. He married Amibilia Venables, daughter of the 2nd Gilbert Venables and sister of Hugh Venables, rector of Eccleston in 1188, whose acknowledged minority gives the only means of calculating the time of Orme de Davenport. He was appointed supreme forester of the earl’s forests of Leek and Macclesfield, Cheshire, sometime between 1153 and 1181. (Note: Omerod’s History of Chester inserted Thomas de Davenport as next generation followed by another Richard de Davenport.)
03. Vivian de Davenport, son of Richard was probably born before 1190, but certainly before 1205. He was living in 1254 but died in 1260. He was Richard’s successor as Lord of Davenport and Marton in Cheshire, England. He had a grant of the magisterial serjeancy of the forests of the hundred of Macclesfield and Leeds from Randle Blunderville, Earl of Chester. The powers of this office were the highest the Earl could bestow, as it placed in several cases at this disposal of the serjeant the lives of his subjects without delay and without appeal. Vivian married Beatrix De Hulme, daughter of Bertrand de Hulme. He held rents of the constable of Chester, Edmund de Lacy. This showed a connection to the Lacy family, the Barons of halton and Earls of Lincoln. He also witnessed a number of charters with leading members of the county society. He witnessed over forty charters.
04. Roger de Davenport, son of Vivian and Beatrix was probably an adult in the period 1245 to 1249. He married Mary Salemon, daughter of Robert Salemon of Wythington. He held the serjeancy of Macclesfield. He exchanged lands in Marton for lands in Bramhall and Hillcroft, and became influential in the northern part of the Hundred of Macclesfield, so that he was able to make extensive grants to other members of his own family. He died between 1291 and 1297.
05a. Henry Davenport, son of Roger and Mary had lands in Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1294.
06. Mary Davenport, daughter of Henry married William Mainwaring. I descend from son William Mainwaring who married Elizabeth Leycester.
05b. Thomas Davenport, son of (#4) Roger and Mary was born abt. 1253. He married Agnes Macclesfield, daughter of Thomas Macclesfield abt. 1280 in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. Thomas died abt. 1320.
06. Thomas Davenport, son of Thomas and Agnes was born abt. 1283. He married Elizabeth abt 1315.
Mistress Bradstreet, Puritan Poet
October 20, 2013
— 6 Comments
My 9th great grandmother was the first woman poet to be published in America:
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) is one of the most important figures in the history of American Literature. She is considered by many to be the first American poet, and her first collection of poems, “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, By a Gentlewoman of Those Parts”, doesn’t contain any of her best known poems, it was the first book written by a woman to be published in the United States. Mrs. Bradstreet’s work also serves as a document of the struggles of a Puritan wife against the hardships of New England colonial life, and in some way is a testament to plight of the women of the age. Anne’s life was a constant struggle, from her difficult adaptation to the rigors of the new land, to her constant battle with illness.
It is clear to see that Anne’s faith was exemplary, and so was her love for children and her husband, Governor Simon Bradstreet. Anne’s poems were written mainly during the long periods of loneliness while Simon was away on political errands. Anne, who was a well educated woman, also spent much time with her children, reading to them and teaching them as her father had taught her when she was young. While it is rather easy for us to view Puritan ideology in a bad light because of it’s attitude towards women and strict moral code, her indifference to material wealth, her humility and her spirituality, regardless of religion, made her into a positive, inspirational role model for any of us.
Another one of Anne’s most important qualities was her strong intuition, although only subtly hinted at in her work, probably for fear of reprisal from the deeply religious Puritan community, one cannot help but feel her constant fascination with the human mind, and spirit, and inner guidance.
Her style is deceptively simple, yet speaks of a woman of high intelligence and ideals who was very much in love, and had unconditional faith. While it was difficult for women to air their views in the 17th Century, Anne Bradstreet did so with ease, as her rich vocabulary and polyvalent knowledge brought a lyrical, yet logical quality to her work which made it pleasant for anyone to read.
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- Cover Page
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- Her book
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- handwritten
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- her own hand
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- to her son
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- written in her style
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- water sound
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- stone seating
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- garden of poetic bamboo
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- quiet space
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- designed for poetry
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- entrance design
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- art
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- handrail
Anne Dudley Bradstreet was protected by her father and husband at a time when women were not supposed to think, let alone write poetry. She wrote history as she lived it as an Englishwoman in New England. I visited the University of Arizona Poetry Center this week to see the word shrine for the dead. I was very happy to also find a big blue book by Anne Bradstreet on the shelves. I enjoyed the wonderful space and visited with my ancestor by reading her works for about an hour. I had seen some of the work before, but since I was thinking of ancestry I really enjoyed the note she wrote to her son Simon (brother of my own ancestor). There is a copy preserved in her own hand, which I love to see. It gives me some intuition into her soul’s journey. Being a Pilgrim was not easy, but if your father and husband were governors you had some obvious advantages.
It is a wonderment of synchronicity to find my ancestor’s work preserved at the Poetry Center very near my home where I can go visit and read her any time.
Jaime I of Aragon
October 16, 2013
— 4 Comments
Jaime I Aragon and Mallorc
James I of Aragon was known as the conqueror because he defeated the Moors at Valencia.
James the Conqueror
Jaime I Pedrez of Aragon and Mallorc (1207 – 1276)
is my 22nd great grandfather
son of Jaime I Pedrez of Aragon and Mallorc
daughter of Pedro Great
son of Isabella Pedra Aragon
son of Alphonso Dinisez Portugal
son of Peter I Portugal Cruel Algarve
daughter of John I DePinto
son of Beatrix DePinto
son of John Fettiplace
daughter of Richard Fettiplace
daughter of Anne Fettiplace
daughter of Mary Purefoy
son of Susanna Thorne
daughter of Gov Thomas Dudley
son of Anne Dudley
daughter of John Bradstreet
son of Mercy Bradstreet
daughter of Caleb Hazen
daughter of Mercy Hazen
son of Martha Mead
son of Abner Morse
son of Daniel Rowland Morse
son of Jason A Morse
son of Ernest Abner Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse
James I the Conqueror (Catalan: Jaume el Conqueridor, Aragonese: Chaime lo Conqueridor, Spanish: Jaime el Conquistador, Occitan: Jacme lo Conquistaire; 2 February 1208 – 27 July 1276) was the King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276. His long reign saw the expansion of the Crown of Aragon on all sides: into Valencia to the south, Languedoc to the north, and the Balearic Islands to the east. By a treaty with Louis IX of France, he wrested the county of Barcelona from nominal French suzerainty and integrated it into his crown. His part in the Reconquista was similar in Mediterranean Spain to that of his contemporary Ferdinand III of Castile in Andalusia.
As a legislator and organiser, he occupies a significant place among the Spanish kings. James compiled the Libre del Consulat de Mar,[1] which governed maritime trade and helped establish Aragonese supremacy in the western Mediterranean. He was an important figure in the development of Catalan, sponsoring Catalan literature and writing a quasi-autobiographical chronicle of his reign: the Llibre dels fets.
Contents
1 Early life and reign until majority
2 Acquisition of Urgell
3 Relations with France and Navarre
4 Reconquest
5 Crusade of 1269
6 Patronage of art, learning, and literature
7 Succession
8 Marriages and children
9 Ancestry
10 Notes
11 References
12 External links
Early life and reign until majority
James was born at Montpellier as the only son of Peter II and Mary, heiress of William VIII of Montpellier and Eudokia Komnene. As a child, James was a pawn in the power politics of Provence, where his father was engaged in struggles helping the Cathar heretics of Albi against the Albigensian Crusaders led by Simon IV de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who were trying to exterminate them. Peter endeavoured to placate the northern crusaders by arranging a marriage between his son James and Simon’s daughter. He entrusted the boy to be educated in Montfort’s care in 1211, but was soon forced to take up arms against him, dying at the Battle of Muret on 12 September 1213. Montfort would willingly have used James as a means of extending his own power had not the Aragonese and Catalans appealed to Pope Innocent III, who insisted that Montfort surrender him. James was handed over, at Carcassonne, in May or June 1214, to the papal legate Peter of Benevento.
James was then sent to Monzón, where he was entrusted to the care of William of Montredon, the head of the Knights Templar in Spain and Provence; the regency meanwhile fell to his great uncle Sancho, Count of Roussillon, and his son, the king’s cousin, Nuño. The kingdom was given over to confusion until, in 1217, the Templars and some of the more loyal nobles brought the young king to Zaragoza.[2]
In 1221, he was married to Eleanor, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonora of England. The next six years of his reign were full of rebellions on the part of the nobles. By the Peace of Alcalá of 31 March 1227, the nobles and the king came to terms.[3]
Acquisition of Urgell
In 1228, James faced the sternest opposition from a vassal yet. Guerau IV de Cabrera had occupied the County of Urgell in opposition to Aurembiax, the heiress of Ermengol VIII, who had died without sons in 1208. While Aurembiax’s mother, Elvira, had made herself a protegée of James’s father, on her death (1220), Guerao had occupied the county and displaced Aurembiax, claiming that a woman could not inherit.
James intervened on behalf of Aurembiax, whom he owed protection. He bought Guerau off and allowed Aurembiax to reclaim her territory, which she did at Lleida, probably also becoming one of James’ earliest mistresses.[4] She surrendered Lleida to James and agreed to hold Urgell in fief from him. On her death in 1231, James exchanged the Balearic Islands for Urgell with her widower, Peter of Portugal.
Relations with France and Navarre
From 1230 to 1232, James negotiated with Sancho VII of Navarre, who desired his help against his nephew and closest living male relative, Theobald IV of Champagne. James and Sancho negotiated a treaty whereby James would inherit Navarre on the old Sancho’s death, but when this did occur, the Navarrese nobless instead elevated Theobald to the throne (1234), and James disputed it. Pope Gregory IX was required to intervene.[5] In the end, James accepted Theobald’s succession.
James endeavoured to form a state straddling the Pyrenees, to counterbalance the power of France north of the Loire. As with the much earlier Visigothic attempt, this policy was victim to physical, cultural, and political obstacles. As in the case of Navarre, he was too wise to launch into perilous adventures. By the Treaty of Corbeil, signed in May 1258, he frankly withdrew from conflict with Louis IX of France and was content with the recognition of his position, and the surrender of antiquated and illusory French claims to the overlordship of Catalonia.
Reconquest
After his false start at uniting Aragon with the Kingdom of Navarre through a scheme of mutual adoption, James turned to the south and the Mediterranean Sea, where he conquered Majorca on 10 September in 1229 and the rest of the Balearic Islands; Minorca 1232; Ibiza 1235) and where Valencia capitulated 28 September 1238. Chroniclers say he used gunpowder in the siege of Museros castle.
During his remaining two decades after Corbeil, James warred with the Moors in Murcia, on behalf of his son-in-law Alfonso X of Castile. On 26 March 1244, the two monarchs signed the Treaty of Almizra to determine the zones of their expansion into Andalusia so as to prevent squabbling between them. Specifically, it defined the borders of the newly-created Kingdom of Valencia. James signed it on that date, but Alfonso did not affirm it until much later. According to the treaty, all lands south of a line from Biar to Villajoyosa through Busot were reserved for Castile.
[edit] Crusade of 1269
The “khan of Tartary” (actually the Ilkhan) Abaqa corresponded with James in early 1267, inviting him to join forces with the Mongols and go on Crusade.[6] James sent an ambassador to Abaqa in the person of Jayme Alaric de Perpignan, who returned with a Mongol embassy in 1269.[7] Pope Clement IV tried to dissuade James from Crusading, regarding his moral character as sub-par, and Alfonso X did the same. Nonetheless, James, who was then campaigning in Murcia, made peace with Mohammed I ibn Nasr, the Sultan of Granada, and set about collecting funds for a Crusade. After organising the government for his absence and assembling a fleet at Barcelona in September 1269, he was ready to sail east. The troubadour Olivier lo Templier composed a song praising the voyage and hoping for its success. A storm, however, drove him off course and he landed at Aigues-Mortes. According to the continuator of William of Tyre, he returned via Montpellier por l’amor de sa dame Berenguiere (“for the love his lady Berengaria”) and abandoned any further effort at a Crusade.
James’ bastard sons Pedro Fernández and Fernán Sánchez, who had been given command of part of the fleet, did continue on their way to Acre, where they arrived in December. They found that Baibars, the Mameluke sultan of Egypt, had broken his truce with the Kingdom of Jerusalem and was making a demonstration of his military power in front of Acre. During the demonstration, Egyptian troops hidden in the bushes ambushed a returning Frankish force which had been in Galilee. James’ sons, initially eager for a fight, changed their minds after this spectacle and returned home via Sicily, where Fernán Sánchez was knighted by Charles of Anjou.
Statue of James I at the Sabatini Gardens in Madrid (J. León, 1753).
Patronage of art, learning, and literature
James built and consecrated the Cathedral of Lleida, which was constructed in a style transitional between Romanesque and Gothic with little influence from Moorish styles.[8]
James was a patron of the University of Montpellier, which owed much of its development to his impetus.[9] He also founded a studium at Valencia in 1245 and received privileges for it from Pope Innocent IV, but it did not develop as splendidly.[10] In 1263, James presided over a debate in Barcelona between the Jewish rabbi Nahmanides and Pablo Christiani, a prominent converso.
James was the first great sponsor and patron of vernacular Catalan literature. Indeed, he may himself be called “the first of the Catalan prose writers.”[11] James wrote or dictated at various stages a chronicle of his own life, Llibre dels fets in Catalan, which is the first self-chronicle of a Christian king. As well as a fine example of autobiography the “Book of Deeds” expresses concepts of the power and purpose of monarchy; examples of loyalty and treachery in the feudal order; and medieval military tactics. More controversially, some historians have looked at these writings as a source of Catalan identity, separate from that of Occitania and Rome.
James also wrote the Libre de la Saviesa or “Book of Wisdom”. The book contains proverbs from various authors going back as far as King Solomon and as close to his own time, such as Albert the Great. It even contains maxims from the medieval Arab philosophers and from the Apophthegmata Philosophorum of Honein ben Ishak, which was probably translated at Barcelona during his reign. A Hebrew translator by the name of Jehuda was employed at James’s court during this period.[12]
Though James was himself a prose writer and sponsored mostly prose works, he had an appreciation of verse.[13] In consequence of the Albigensian Crusade, many troubadours were forced to flee southern France and many found refuge in Aragon. Notwithstanding his early patronage of poetry, by the influence of his confessor Ramon de Penyafort, James brought the Inquisition into his realm in 1233 to prevent any vernacular translation of the Bible.[14]
[edit] Succession
The favour James showed his illegitimate offspring led to protest from the nobles, and to conflicts between his sons legitimate and illegitimate. When one of the latter, Fernán Sánchez, who had behaved with gross ingratitude and treason to his father, was slain by the legitimate son Peter, the old king recorded his grim satisfaction.
In his Will James divided his states between his sons by Yolanda of Hungary: the aforementioned Peter received the Hispanic possessions on the mainland and James, the Kingdom of Majorca (including the Balearic Islands and the counties of Roussillon and Cerdanya) and the Lordship of Montpellier. The division inevitably produced fratricidal conflicts. Always the home de fembres (“lady’s man”), he eloped with the wife of one of his vassals in his final years and was excommunicated for his efforts by Pope Gregory X. In 1276, the king fell very ill at Alzira and resigned his crown, intending to retire to the monastery of Poblet, but he died at Valencia on 27 July.
Mummified head of James, exhumed in 1856
Marriages and childrenAragonese and Valencian Royalty
House of Barcelona
Alfonso IIChildren include Peter (future Peter II of Aragon) Alfonso II, Count of ProvencePeter IIChildren include James (future James I of Aragon, Valencia and Majorca)James I Peter (future Peter III of Aragon and I of Valencia and Sicily) James II of Majorca Violant, Queen of Castile Constance, Infanta of Castile Isabella, Queen of FrancePeter III (I of Valencia and Sicily)Children include Alfonso (future Alfonso III of Aragon and I of Valencia) James (future James I of Sicily and II of Aragon and Valencia) Frederick II of Sicily Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal Yolanda, Duchess of CalabriaAlfonso III (I of Valencia)James II (I of Sicily)Children include Alfonso (future Alfonso IV of Aragon and II of Valencia)Alfonso IV (II of Valencia)Children include Peter (future Peter IV of Aragon and II of Valencia)Peter IV (II of Valencia)Children include Constance, Queen of Sicily John (future John I of Aragon and Valencia) Martin (future Martin II of Sicily and I of Aragon and Valencia) Eleanor, Queen of Castile Isabella, Countess of UrgelGrandchildren include Ferdinand (future Ferdinand I of Aragon, Valencia and Sicily) Isabella, Countess of Urgel and CoimbraJohn I Yolande, Queen of FranceMartin I (II of Sicily)
James first married, in 1221, Eleanor, daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonora of England. Though he later had the marriage annulled, his one son by her was declared legitimate:
Alfonso (1229–1260), married Constance of Montcada, Countess of Bigorre
In 1235, James remarried to Yolanda, daughter of Andrew II of Hungary by his second wife Yolande de Courtenay. She bore him numerous children:
Yolanda, also known as Violant, (1236–1301), married Alfonso X of Castile
Constance (1239–1269), married Juan Manuel, Lord of Villena, son of Ferdinand III
Peter (1240–1285), successor in Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia
James (1243–1311), successor in Balearics and Languedoc
Ferdinand (1245–1250)
Sancha (1246–1251)
Isabella (1247–1271), married Philip III of France
Mary (1248–1267), nun
Sancho, Archbishop of Toledo (1250–1279)
Eleanor (born 1251, died young)
James married thirdly Teresa Gil de Vidaure, but only by a private document, and left her when she developed leprosy.
James (c.1255–1285), lord of Xèrica
Peter (1259–1318), lord of Ayerbe
The children in the third marriage were recognised in his last Will as being in the line of Successon to the Throne, should the senior lines fail.
James also had several lovers, both during and after his marriages, and a few bore him illegitimate sons.
By Blanca d’Antillón:
Ferran Sanchis (or Fernando Sánchez; 1240–1275), baron of Castro
By Berenguela Fernández:
Pedro Fernández, baron of Híjar
By Elvira Sarroca:
Eleanor of Aquitane
October 16, 2013
— 3 Comments
Eleanor of AquitaneMy 25th great-grandmother was extremely powerful. She married the king of France, and then the king of England. She ruled for her son, Richard the Lionhearted, while he was off crusading.
Eleanor of Aquitane (1130 – 1204)
is my 25th great grandmother
Eleanor Spain Plantagenet (1162 – 1214)
daughter of Eleanor of Aquitane
Berenguela CASTILE LEON (1181 – 1244)
daughter of Eleanor Spain Plantagenet
Saint Ferdinand Castile amp Leon (1199 – 1252)
son of Berenguela CASTILE LEON
Alfonso X Wise Castile Leon amp Galicia (1221 – 1284)
son of Saint Ferdinand Castile amp Leon
Sancho Brave Castile Leon (1258 – 1295)
son of Alfonso X Wise Castile Leon amp Galicia
Beatrice Sanchez Infanta Castile (1293 – 1359)
daughter of Sancho Brave Castile Leon
Peter I Portugal Cruel Algarve (1320 – 1367)
son of Beatrice Sanchez Infanta Castile
John I DePinto (1358 – 1433)
son of Peter I Portugal Cruel Algarve
Beatrix DePinto (1403 – 1447)
daughter of John I DePinto
John Fettiplace (1427 – 1464)
son of Beatrix DePinto
Richard Fettiplace (1460 – 1511)
son of John Fettiplace
Anne Fettiplace (1496 – 1567)
daughter of Richard Fettiplace
Mary Purefoy (1533 – 1579)
daughter of Anne Fettiplace
Susanna Thorne (1559 – 1586)
daughter of Mary Purefoy
Gov Thomas Dudley (1576 – 1653)
son of Susanna Thorne
Anne Dudley (1612 – 1672)
daughter of Gov Thomas Dudley
John Bradstreet (1652 – 1718)
son of Anne Dudley
Mercy Bradstreet (1689 – 1725)
daughter of John Bradstreet
Caleb Hazen (1720 – 1777)
son of Mercy Bradstreet
Mercy Hazen (1747 – 1819)
daughter of Caleb Hazen
Martha Mead (1784 – 1860)
daughter of Mercy Hazen
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
son of Martha Mead
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
son of Abner Morse
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Daniel Rowland Morse
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse
Eleanor of Aquitaine
(in French: Aliénor d’Aquitaine, Éléonore de Guyenne) (1122 or 1124 – 1 April 1204) was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. As well as being Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she was queen consort of France (1137-1152) and of England (1154-1189). Eleanor of Aquitaine is the only woman to have been queen of both France and England, with the exception of Margaret of Anjou whose status as Queen of France is disputed. She was the patroness of such literary figures as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-More, and Chrétien de Troyes.
Eleanor succeeded her father as suo jure Duchess of Aquitaine and Countess of Poitiers at the age of fifteen, and thus became the most eligible bride in Europe. Three months after her accession she married Louis VII, son and junior co-ruler of her guardian, King Louis VI of France. As Queen of France, she participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. Soon after the Crusade was over, Louis VII and Eleanor agreed to dissolve their marriage, because of Eleanor’s own desire for divorce and also because the only children they had were two daughters – Marie and Alix. The royal marriage was annulled on 11 March 1152, on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate and custody of them awarded to Louis, while Eleanor’s lands were restored to her.
As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor became engaged to Henry II, Duke of the Normans, her cousin within the third degree, who was nine years younger. On 18 May 1152, eight weeks after the annulment of her first marriage, Eleanor married the Duke of the Normans. On 25 October 1154 her husband ascended the throne of the Kingdom of England, making Eleanor Queen of the English. Over the next thirteen years, she bore Henry eight children: five sons, three of whom would become king, and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. She was imprisoned between 1173 and 1189 for supporting her son Henry’s revolt against her husband, King Henry II.
Eleanor was widowed on 6 July 1189. Her husband was succeeded by their son, Richard the Lionheart, who immediately moved to release his mother. Now queen dowager, Eleanor acted as a regent for her son while he went off on the Third Crusade. Eleanor survived her son Richard and lived well into the reign of her youngest son King John. By the time of her death she had outlived all of her children except for King John and Eleanor, Queen of Castile.
Humphrey Radcliffe
September 30, 2013
— 2 Comments
Humphrey and Isabella
My 14th great grandfather met his future bride in a very romantic return of her glove on his lance. They married and gave the queen their first born daughter. I find the gifting of the daughter to be a bit bizarre, but that is what they did.
is my 14th great grandfather
son of Humphrey Radcliffe
daughter of Edward Radcliffe
daughter of Lady Eleanor Elizabeth Radcliffe (Whitebread)
son of Elizabeth Whitbread
son of Thomas Spencer
daughter of Thomas Spencer
son of Margaret SPENCER
daughter of Moses Goodwin
daughter of Martha Goodwin
daughter of Grace Raiford
son of Sarah Hirons
son of John Nimrod Taylor
son of John Samuel Taylor
son of William Ellison Taylor
daughter of George Harvey Taylor
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee Taylor
In the chancel of the old parish church of Elstow, near Bedford–so famous for its associations with the childhood of John Bunyan*— a monument recording Sir Humphry Radcliffe of that place, and his wife, Dame Isabella Radcliffe. As the name of the latter is not even mentioned in the extinct peerage of fir Bernard Burke, perhaps a short account of a little episode in the history of this worthy pair may not be without interest to my readers. It is hardly needful to say more about the Radcliffes or Ratcliffes–for the word was spelt both ways indifferently when writing was rare and printing was almost unknown–than that they are of undoubted Saxon origin, and that they took their name from the village of Radcliffe, near Bury, in Lancashire. We read that one, Richard de Radcliffe, of Radcliffe Tower, seneschal and minister of the royal forests in the neighborhood of Blackburn, accompanied Edward I. to Scotland, and received from that sovereign, towards the end of his reign, ‘a grant of free warren and free phase in all his demesne lands of Radcliffe.’From him were descended a variety of noble houses–as the Radclyffes, Lords Fitzwalter, and Earls of Sussex; those of Foxdenton, and of Hitchin; and the unfortunate Earls of Derwentwater, who forfeited their Northumbrian castle of Dilston, as well as their lives, in the cause of the ‘young Chevalier,’ and the luckless house of the Stuarts.
One of his descendants, Sir John Radcliffe, was summoned to Parliament by Henry VII., in right of his mother, as Baron Fitzwalter; he was also steward of the Royal Household, and acted jointly with Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, as High Steward of England at the coronation of Henry’s queen, Elizabeth Plantagenet. But afterwards, being involved in the wild conspiracy of Perkin Warbeck, he was attainted, and lost his head on the scaffold at Calais.
His son, however, found so much favor with Henry VIII that he was restored in blood, and, having held the command of the van of the army sent to France under the Earl of Surrey, he was created Viscount Fitzwalter and Earl of Susses. He was a zealous supporter of the king in his quarrel with Wolsey and the Pope, and he found his reward in a life-patent of the office of Lord High Chamberlain, together with a grant of the noble abbey of Cleve, in Somerset, the ruins of which to the present day form one of the most beautiful features of the country near Minehead, and Watchet, and Dunster. He was thrice married, and on each occasion his wife was a noble dame; his first choice being a daughter of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, his second a Stanley, and his third an Arundell of Lanherne. The earl desired that Humphrey, the youngest son of his first marriage, should marry a wealthy heiress of a county family; but the son took a different view of the matter from that taken by his parents for him. Very naturally and very pardonably he said that he preferred to choose for himself.
King Henry had announced his intention of being present at a tournament in the tilt-yard at Hampton, and great preparations had been made for the occasion. As the king rode along the way from London, the windows and the balconies about Kensington were all hung with colored cloths and silks. Among the crowd of spectators in the balconies was a plain citizen of London, Edmund Harvey, along with his wife and their daughter Isabel. The ladies in the neighboring windows thought the latter nice looking, and even pretty; but no one ‘knew who she could be,’ as the old folks were but commonplace in appearance, and clearly had not been brought up in the regions of courts and cities. The father, as may be imagined, pointed out the nobles as they passed by with their trains and retinues; but Isabel had no ears for her father, and her eyes scanned each new arrival for the face of a youth whom she had met on a chance occasion, and who had professed an attachment to her, in spite of the fact that she was not the daughter of a courtier or a noble.
At length there rode along a body of knights, with their lances borne aloft and their colors flying in the wind; they were headed by the Earl of Sussex, who was attended by his son Humphrey, a fair and well-favored youth, who looked little more than twenty years of age. Isabel, however, had no difficulty in recognizing him and the black steed on which he sat, and which champed the bit and foamed beneath his rein. The truth is that they had met before at another tourney, when Sir Humphrey had incurred the scorn and displeasure of some of the king’s courtiers because of a slight civility and courtesy which he had shown to herself, her father, and her mother, whom none of the gallants knew by sight or by name, their names not having been entered by the Heralds on the rolls of the ‘College of Arms.’ Eagerly did Isabel lean over the balcony in the hope of catching his eye, and grateful did she feel for a sudden halt, which was occasioned by the pressure of the crowd.
The young knight, however, was too deeply engaged in thought to take notice of the gay and smiling occupants of the balconies above his head, for he little imagined that Isabel Harvey would be among the company. But as they moved on a few steps he was roused from his reverie by a start of his horse, caused by the fall of a glove from one of the balconies. Gallantry prompted him to pick up the glove and to return it to its fair owner. Upon looking up, his eyes met those of the fair Isabel; and as he returned to her the glove on the point of his lance, and she bowed her thanks, he felt that she was not insensible to his regard for he. He quietly watched his opportunity to fall back from the gay procession as it moved along, and guided his horse down a narrow side lane, where he remained till the pageant had passed by. His object in so doing was to prevent his father, the earl, from noticing Isabel; for he well knew the haughtiness of his temper, and his zeal for the dignity of his order, and his inflexible ambition to ally his son to the heiress of some noble house or other.
Having emerged from his retreat, the young knight came again beneath the window, and, after bowing in a courtly manner, addressed the father of Isabel, who was just about to leave the balcony. On their descending into the street, the young knight dismounted, and accompanied them back to the city, leading his horse, and entertaining them, as they passed along the Strand and through Fleet Street, by his lively and elegant conversation. On reaching their home near Cheapside, Edmund Harvey pressed the knight to join them at their meal, and he gladly closed with the invitation. So well indeed did be succeed in gaining the confidence of his newly-found friend, that ere they parted the knight confessed to him his love for the fair Isabel, and received her father’s permission to ask her band, if she had no objection.
The rest of this story may be easily imagined. On the morrow the knight accompanied them back into the country, and, representing himself to be only one of the gentlemen of the earl’s retinue, he espoused the fair Isabel a few days afterwards in the priory church of Elstow. For many months-indeed, it may have been years- -he did not disclose the full secret of his rank, nor did the fair Isabel know that she had a claim to be styled ‘My Lady; The secret, however, oozed out at length ; and in due course of time their union was blessed by the birth of sons and daughters, the eldest of whom became one of the special favorites of Queen Elizabeth.
Immediately on the accession of `her highness’ she made Humphrey Radcliffe a knight, and gave him a post at court near her person, and took his eldest daughter, Mary, as her ‘Mayden of Honor and Gentelwoman of the Privie Chamber’–a post which she filled `honorably, virtuously, and faithfully for forty years,’ as her monument tells us.
It was in the year 1566, on the 13th day of August, that Sir Humphrey Radcliffe died at Elstow, and he was buried a week later in the chancel, as stated above, by the side of his affectionate and faithful wife Isabel, and soon afterwards one of his sons erected to their memory the memorial already mentioned.
As for Mary Radcliffe, she suffered less than perhaps any other person about the Court from the whims and caprices of her royal mistress. Being possessed of great penetration and judgment, together with a high sense of honor and unshaken fidelity, she could not fail to command the esteem even of ‘the Maiden Queen.’ Although remarkable for her personal beauty, she was inaccessible to the flatteries of the fops and gallants by whom Elizabeth was surrounded, and many a smart repartee and rebuff was received by the courtiers who tried to turn the head and the heart of Mary Radcliffe. On one occasion, indeed, writes Sir Nicholas Le Strange in an anecdote communicated by Lady Hobart, ‘Mistress Radcliffe, an old courtier in Queen Elizabeth’s time, told a lord whose conversation and discourse she did not like, that his wit was like a custard, having nothing good in it but the soppe, and, when that was eaten, you might throw away the rest.`*
Throughout the long period of her services at Court, Mistress Radcliffe bore a character unblemished by a spot of evil fame or reproach. She looked upon herself, she would say, as a New Year’s gift, for it was on that day in 1561-2 that she was first presented by her father to the Queen’s Majesty, and accepted by her ; and never afterwards, to the end of her days, did she fail to give the Queen–who loved all sorts of presents, and did not think it ‘more blessed to give than to receive’–some kind of annual remembrance of that eventful morning.
As she was still living to make her yearly present on the new year of 1600, Mistress Isabel Radcliffe might very justly be called an old courtier of the jealous Queen, who was not very firm in her friendships, or very scrupulous about discharging those who failed to please her. The actual date of her death is not recorded by ‘the unlettered muse’ of Elstow.
Elizabeth Whitbread, 11th Great Grandmother
September 28, 2013
— 2 Comments
Elizabeth Whitbread
My 11th great-grandmother married into the Spencer family. Her son Gerard went to America.
Gerard Spencer, baptized at Stotfold, co. Bedford, 20 May 1576, died before 1646; married at Upper Gravenhurst, co., Alice Whitbread or Whitbred, who belonged to a family of some prominence. It seems quite possible that Gerard and his family moved from Stotfold some years before the emigration of his sons to New England; perhaps to London, where his brother Richard had become a prosperous haberdasher.
The English surname of “Spencer” derives from the Latin word dispensator, which means a storekeeper or shopkeeper. In medieval times, a feudal lord would employ a dispensator to have charge of his possessions and to oversee distribution and sale of supplies to the serfs, peasants, and tenant farmers who worked his land. In essence, a dispensator was something like a steward. This Latin term gave rise to the occupational family names of “Dispenser,” “Spencer,” “Spenser,” “Spence,” “Spens,” “Spender,” etc. Since there must have been thousands of dispensatori, there are naturally a large number of unrelated Spencer families. Even though he was the servant of a feudal lord or a king, a dispensator often himself would be of noble or knightly rank. The two best known medieval English families bearing a form of this surname were the Dispensers, Earls of Winchester, and the Spencers of Althorp, Northamptonshire, ancestors of the present Earls Spencer, who were the family of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, formerly known as Lady Diana Spencer. The Earls Spencer are also closely related to the Spencer-Churchill family, which includes the famous British Prime Minister Sir Winston Spencer-Churchill. During the Renaissance, an unscrupulous herald manufactured a spurious genealogy tracing the Spencers of Althorp back to the Dispensers of Winchester, but that fictitious genealogy was long ago debunked — there is no proof nor any reason to believe that the Spencers of Althorp had anything to do with the old Earls of Winchester.
Elizabeth Whitbread (1538 – 1599)
is my 11th great grandmother
Thomas Spencer (1571 – 1631)
son of Elizabeth Whitbread
Thomas Spencer (1596 – 1681)
son of Thomas Spencer
Margaret SPENCER (1633 – 1670)
daughter of Thomas Spencer
Moses Goodwin (1660 – 1726)
son of Margaret SPENCER
Martha Goodwin (1693 – 1769)
daughter of Moses Goodwin
Grace Raiford (1725 – 1778)
daughter of Martha Goodwin
Sarah Hirons (1751 – 1817)
daughter of Grace Raiford
John Nimrod Taylor (1770 – 1816)
son of Sarah Hirons
John Samuel Taylor (1798 – 1873)
son of John Nimrod Taylor
William Ellison Taylor (1839 – 1918)
son of John Samuel Taylor
George Harvey Taylor (1884 – 1941)
son of William Ellison Taylor
Ruby Lee Taylor (1922 – 2008)
daughter of George Harvey Taylor
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee Taylor
6. Gerald Spencer 3 (Michael S.2, John1) was baptized on 20 Apr 1576 in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, Eng 3 and died before May 1646 in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, Eng 1.
Documented events in his life were:
1. Mention in Will, Inv. or Prob.; 17 Mar 1644/45; London, Eng 3. Cited as the father of Jarrard, Thomas, Michaell Spencer who each received �50 in the will of their uncle Richard Spencer. Also father of William Spencer, deceased, with the legacy going to William’s children.
Gerald married Alice Whitebread 1 5, daughter of John Lawrence Whitebread and Eleanor Radcliffe, in Upper Gravenhurst, Bedford, England 1. (Alice Whitebread was born between 1578-1583 in Bedfordshire, Eng 1 5 and died about 1646 in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, Eng 1.)
Children from this marriage were:
+ 15 M i. Ensign Gerard Spencer 1 2 3 was baptized on 25 Apr 1614 in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, Eng 3 and died on 29 Jun 1685 in East Haddam, Middlesex Co., CT 1.
16 M ii. William Spencer 1 3 was baptized on 11 Oct 1601 in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, Eng 3 and died on 4 May 1640 in Hartford, Hartford Co., CT 1.
Documented events in his life were:
1. Mention in Will, Inv. or Prob.; Bef 20 Nov 1628; Upper Gravenhurst, Bedford, England 5. Received legacy in the will of his grandmother Eleanor (Radcliffe) Whitebread.
2. Residence; Bef 7 Jan 1632/33; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 6. William Spencer is listed as an Inhabitant � no date given. but probably before the 7 Jan 1632 date given to items on p 4
3. Lands Recorded – Granted; 7 Jan 1632/33; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 7. Common Pales devided as ffollo:– William Spencer 12 Rod
4. Lands Recorded – Granted; 2 Mar 1632/33; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 8. Granted William Spencer the fwampe on the other fide the Creeke.
5. Oath of Freemanship/Allegiance; 4 Mar 1632/33; Massachusetts Bay Colony, MA 9.
6. Lands Recorded – Granted; 5 Aug 1633; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 10. Lotts granted for Cowyardes:– William Spencer 3 Roods
7. Town Office; 3 Feb 1633/34; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 11. James Olmfted & William Spencer chosen as two of the five men to order business for the town.
8. Town Service; 1 Sep 1634; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 12. ffurther it is ordered that George St^ [ ] William Spencer fhall measuer out al^ [ ] ^ranted by the Towne and have IIId the Ac^ [ ] [ ] fame.
9. Lands Recorded – Granted; 1 Dec 1634; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 13. Granted William Spencer that Corner of ground by Jofeph Myats between the Swamps to bee fett out by John Haynes Efqr.
10. Town Service; 3 Feb 1634/35; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 14. chosen to survey town lands: James Olmfted & William Spencer [plus 3 others]
11. Town Service; 8 Feb 1634/35; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 15. Townsmen present at the town meeting:– William Spencer.
12. Town Service; 20 Aug 1635; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 16. It was ordered that William Spencer and George Steele fould meafuer all the meaddow ground and undeuided belonging to the Newtowne: and when it is Meafuered and deuided to euery man his proportcion there are to: meafuer every mans feuerally and Caufe ftakes to bee fett at each end and to haue three pence the Acker for the fame and whofoever fhall not pay for the meafueringe within one yeare then the ground to returne to them for meafueringe.
13. Lands Recorded – Granted; 20 Aug 1635; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 16. ffurrther it is ordered that the fame [the meaddow ground and undeuided belonging to the Newtowne] fhalbee deuided acordinge to every mans seuerall proporcion herevnder written vntell it bee all difpoffed of viz:– William Andrews 2�
14. Town Office; 23 Nov 1635; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 17. William Spencer chosen one of the nine men to �order busffiness of the whole Towne for the year following� also ordered that the Towne booke fhalbee at William Spencers house.
15. Town Service; 7 Dec 1635; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 18. Townsmen present at the town meeting:– William Spencer. William Spencer & Mr. Bambrigg to view the fence about the ground between the swamps [to be erected by land holders] and decide if it is sufficient.
16. Town Service; 4 Jan 1635/36; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA 19. Townsmen present at the town meeting:– William Spencer. William Spencer & Thomas Hofmer charged with seeing that a foot bridge is built over the Creek at the end of Spring street
17. Lands Recorded; 8 Feb 1635/36; Cambridge, Suffolk Co., MA20. The Names of Thofe men who haue houfes in the Towne at this prefent as onely are to be acconted as houfes of the Towne:– William Spencer – 2; also in the Weftend:– William Spencer – 2
18. Mention in Will, Inv. or Prob.; 17 Mar 1644/45; London, Eng 3. His children received a legacy in the will of his uncle Richard Spencer of London, England.
19. Probate; 24 Jun 1650; Hartford, Hartford Co., CT 21. This Courte taking into Consideracon the estate of William Spencer deceased with the Information of the ourseers In the presence of Thomas Spencer Brother to the said William, iwth the Consent of the wife of William Edwards: the doe Judge that 30� is as much as the estate heere will bare to be sequestred for the use of the Children, wch is to bee paid to them according tot he will of the said William Spencer, provided that suffitient security bee giuen in to the Satisfaction of the ourseers for the payment of the debts of the said William Spencer, and the aforesaid Sum of 30� to the said Children as aforesaid: And prouided allso that whatsoeuer Shall bee paid heere or in England of any Estate due to the wife of the said William Spencer while Shee was the wife of William Spencer, or that Shall Come from Concord: two thirds thereof Shall be and remaine to the propper vse of the Children aforesaid.
mermaidcamp 