Sir Humphrey Coningsby

June 2, 2013 — 20 Comments

Coningsby COA

My 12th great Grandfather was a lawyer, judge, and a bencher at the Inner Temple. We have his will:

The will Sir Humphrey Coningbsy as reproduced in ‘Genealogical Memoirs of the extinct family – The Chesters of Chichley’ by Robert Edmund Chester Waters; changed the descentant line quite considerably but put in no doubt that she married Sir John Tyndall anmd not Sir Thomas as previous authors had suggested.Sir Humphrey Conyngesby Kt, one of the Kings Justices of the PleasWill dated 15th Nov 1531“To be buried in the Church of the White Friars, London, near the grave of my late wife Isabel , but if I die at Aldenham, or within seven miles thereof, then to be buried there , or if I die at Lock, or within fusty mile’ thereof, then to be buried thereTo the Churches of Aldenham, Elstree, and Rock, 10s each, and to the repairs of the Church of \Teen Sollars, 20sTo my daughter Elizabeth, late wife of Richard Berkeley, and now wife of Sir John Fitz-James Kt , fsU, which was owing to me by the said Richard at the time of his death, for the marriage of the three daughters of the said Richard Berkelev and ElizabethTo Dorothy, daughter• of John Tendall Esq , and of my daughter Amphelice, his wife, £10 towards her preferment in marriage and to each of the daughters of the said John Tendall and Ampheilce 40 marks for their preferment in marriage To Anne, wife of William Thorpe, and daughter of Christopher Hyllyarde, and my daughter Margaret his wife, now deceaaed, £5 To every daughter of my sons William and John Conyngesby, 40 marks each, and to every daughter of George Ralegh and my daughter Jane his wife, 40 marks.My manor of Stottesden in Salop, and my manor of Orleton, with its appurts in 0r1eton, Stoketon, Stanford, and Eastham in Worcestershire, to Humfrey Conyngesby, now under age and my next heir apparent, the son of my son Thomas Covyngesbv, to hold to him and the heirs male of his body, with remainder to the heirs male of my body, remainder to my heirs, My nephew Thomas Solley, My late wives Alice and Anne and IsabelTo Humfrey Tendell my coyin and godson, son of John Tendall, and my daughter Ampheice his wife, five marks a year towards his finding, and the like sums to Maurice Berkeley, son of my daughter ElizabethMy sons Willam and John Conyngesby to be my executors, Sir John Fitz-James Kt , and Sir Anthony Fitz-Herbert,’ Kt , a Kings Justice of Common Pleas, to be overseers of my Will.Will proved 26th Nov. 1535 In C P C.

Humphrey Coningsby (1458 – 1535)

Coningsby [Conyngesby], Sir Humphrey (d. 1535), judge, was born about the end of Henry VI’s reign at Rock, Worcestershire, the son of Thomas Coningsby (d. 1498) and Katherine Waldyff. The family derived its name from Coningsby in Lincolnshire, though Thomas’s father had settled at Neen Sollars in Shropshire. Humphrey Coningsby began practice as an attorney of the common pleas, and is named in warrants of attorney in 1474; in 1476 he was deputy for the sheriff of Worcestershire. From 1480 to 1493 he was third proto honouree, surrendering the office on 24 November 1493 in favour of John Caryl on terms that Caryl would pass it on to Humphrey’s son (which he did). He was also clerk of assize on the western circuit. During the 1480s he became a bencher of the Inner Temple. There was a copy of his reading in Lord Somers’s library, but it has not been discovered. He may already have been nominated as a serjeant when he gave up the proto honouree ship. At any rate he was one of the nine graduates who, after a long delay, were created serjeant in November 1495. His clients included Queen Elizabeth, the duke of Buckingham, and Peterborough Abbey. In 1500 he became one of the king’s serjeants, and on 21 May 1509 the first justice of the king’s bench appointed by Henry VIII. He was knighted by 1509. There survives in Westminster Abbey ‘A remembrance made by Humfrey Conyngesby for the kynges matters at Yorke’, written as an assize judge in preparation for the Lent circuit of 1501. By 1532 he had apparently become incapable of sitting, and an attempt seems to have been made to replace him without discontinuing his salary. However, the salary was discontinued and Walter Luke formally appointed in his place on 28 November 1533, Coningsby being compensated with a lease of the manor of Rock.Coningsby was a justice of the peace for Hertfordshire from 1493, and was perhaps already of Aldenham, where he acquired Penne’s Place as executor of Ralph Penne (d. 1485), a relative of his first wife, Isabel Fereby. Isabel died in the 1490s and was buried in the Whitefriars next to the Temple. In 1513 he was to found a chantry chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St George at Copthorne Hill in Aldenham. About 1499 he married Alice, daughter and heir of Sir John Franceys, widow of John Worsley and William Staveley (d. 1498); she died in 1500. As his third wife, Coningsby in 1504 married Anne, daughter and heir of Sir Christopher Moresby of Cumberland, widow of James Pickering (d. 1498); she died in 1523. Coningsby had come into his patrimony at Rock by 1509 at the latest, and probably by 1504, when he was added to the commission of the peace for Worcestershire. In 1510 he built the south aisle and steeple of Rock church, where a painted window once portrayed him in a scarlet gown with his family; and in 1513 he founded Rock School.Coningsby died on 2 June 1535, having requested burial in the Whitefriars, Rock or Aldenham, depending on the place of his death. He left two surviving sons, both by his first marriage, and five daughters (Elizabeth, Amphelice, Margaret, Jane, and Elizabeth). From his eldest son, Thomas, who predeceased him, was descended the Earl Coningsby (the peerage, created in 1719, was extinct in 1729). His second son, William Coningsby, followed in his footsteps as a bencher of the Inner Temple, proto honouree of the common pleas, and justice of the king’s bench. His daughter Elizabeth married Sir John Fitzjames, chief justice of the same court.