The Armburghs

THE Armburgh correspondence covers the period from 1417 to the early 1450s and largely concerns an ongoing and complex dispute over three properties. The characters with whom I am concerned are Robert Armburgh, a minor gentleman who in 1420 married Joan Kedington (née Sumpter), and Joan's children by her first husband Philip Kedington (d.1406–10), Robert Kedington d.1430) and Margaret Walkerne (née Kedington). As Robert's father died before he was of age, Robert was brought up as a ward in the household of the Earl of Oxford.

The Celys

The history of the Celys is not known prior to 1449, but by the time the correspondence starts in 1474 they were a well-established merchant family who traded in wool. They owned property in London, Essex and Calais.

Richard Cely (senior) (d.1482) was a prominent enough figure in London society that he stood for election as sheriff in 1481, although he lost to Sir Richard Chawdry. He married Agnes Andrew (d.1483), probably in the early 1450s, who was the sister of Richard Andrew, Dean of York from 1452 to 1477. They had three sons: Robert, Richard (junior) and George.

Robert Cely (d.1485) married young, sometime before 1474, but his youthful marriage does not seem to be evidence of maturity: he was regularly in debt and after the death of his wife in 1479 got embroiled in a disastrous engagement to Joan Hart.