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Letters Written to Mr. William Plompton, esquire. who dyed primo Ed. 6, To Mr. Robert Plompton, esquire. who dyed 38: of Hen: 8., and to Mrs. Isabell Plompton who dyed 6: Ed.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2010

Abstract

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Type
Plumpton Correspodence from Sir Edward Plumpton's Book of Letters
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1839

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References

page 222 note a In the Cartulary is the copy of a bond for a thousand marks from William Babthorpe, esq. to William Plumpton, esq. dated 27 June, 11 Hen. VIII. 1519, to be void upon condition “that the said William Babthorp and Agnes his wife, and all seised to their use, or to the heirs of the said William Babthorp, should perform the award of Robert Brudnell and Humphrey Coningsby, knights, two of the King's Justices, arbitrators indifferently chosen between the above bounden William Babthorp and Agnes his wife, and the said William Plompton and Isabel his wife, upon the right and title of the lands that were Sir Ralph Babthorpe, knight, or any of his ancestors; the award to be given before the feast of St. Luke next ensuing, and if no award given, then the parties to abide the umpirage of Thomas Lord Cardinal, Legate of the See of Rome, Archbishop of York, prymate and Chauncler of England, if given before the feast of All Saints.” (Chartul. No. 850.) This proposed settlement of the difference between the families must, however, have failed, for the bond was again renewed 2 May, 16 Hen. VIII. 1524, when Sir Lewis Polard and Sir Richard Broke were the Justices chosen for arbitrators, with whom were joined Sir William Gascoigne, Treasurer to Cardinal Wolsey, and Raufe SwilUngton, the King's Attorney. (See note to Letter CLXXX.) The award was to be given at the feast ef Pentecost; but if ever made, it was set aside. This letter implies a third attempt to adjust matters, which was also of no avail, for the ancient claims were revived inthe next generation, and not finally set at rest until 20 Oct. 3 Klix. 1461, when Richard Weston and John Walsh, two of the Omen's Justices of the Commsn Pleas, awarded to Sir William Babthorpe, kt. the manors of Babthorpe and Osgodby, and to William Plumpton, esq. the manor of Watterton, and lands in Estoft and Hunesley, in com. Ebor. and in Hotoft and Caldby Ayncotes, in com. Line. (Toroneley MS. of extracts from the evidences at Plumpton.)

page 222 note b Quære Hackney ?

page 222 note c Thomas Burgh of Gainsborough, com. Linc. kt. summoned to Parliament 3 Nov. 21 Hen. VIII. 1539.

page 223 note a Christopher Hudson was at this time tenant of the Babthorpe lands in Beverley, mentioned in Letter CLXXX., near which town is Hunsley, perhaps the most ancient residence of that family; for round the early seal of a Ralph de Babbetorp, engraved in the volume relating to the Priory of Finchale, published by the Surtees Society, 1837, is the inscription, Sigill. Radulphi de Hundesle. This vill, in the township and parish of Rowley, five miles from Beverley, gives name to the division of the wapentake of Hart-hill, called Hunsley-Beacon.

page 225 note a Marmaduke Wyvill, of Little Burton, com. Ebor. esq. ancestor to the Baronets of that surname, resident at Constable Burton, in Richmondshire.

page 226 note a Henry Percy, eldest son of Henry, fifth Earl of Northumberland, succeeded his father in the 18th Hen. VIII. 1526, but the day his father died appears to be unascertained.

page 226 note a Leland in his Itinerary says, “From Helagh pryory, scant a mile to Helagh village, I saw great ruins of an ancient manor of stone, with a fair wooded park thereby, that belonged to the Earl of Northumberland. It was, as far as I can perceive, gum-tymes the Hagets' land.” Geoffrey Haget was the founder of the monastery in Helagh-park, for Regular Canons, of which Richard Ronndale was at this date Prior; but how or at what time the lands and representation of the Hagets were acquired by the Percies, I have not seen any account.

page 227 note b Henry Percy, sixth Earl of Northumberland, K. G. ob. 1537, s. p.

page 227 note a This letter was copied into the manuscript the 2 of June, 1636; and a note by the copyist written in the margin informs as that “this Lady Rokesby lived and died at Plompton.” We learn from a subsequent letter that a Newport of Boynton, com. Ebor. was her son, and that her husband Rokeby was buried at Resby Church. Risby is in the township and parish of Rowley, and was the seat of the family of EUerker in the reign of Hen, VIII. There does not, however, appear to have been any chapel erected there, with a right of sepulture; but as the name of Rowley is of modern growth, the place being not named in Domesday, perhaps the parish church commonly went under the name of Risby. We have in that case a clue to her identity; for in the curious Memoir of the family of Rokeby, entitled, Oeconomia Rohebiorum, printed by Whita-ker in his Richmondshire, and of which the date is 1565, mention is made of a Richard Rokeby, third son of Ralph Rokeby, of Mortham, com. Ebor. esq. a soldier and servant to the Lord Scrope of Bolton, whose standard he bore in Flodden-field, who had issue by his wife ——— daughter of ——— Ellerker of Risbye, esq.

page 228 note b Sir Robert Constable of Holme in Spaldingmore, and of Flamborough, com. Ebor. kt. succeeded his aged father, Sir Marmaduke Constable, 29 Dec. 10 Hen. VIII. 1518; and having taken part in the insurrection known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, he was executed for high treason, and his body hanged in chains over Beverley Gate, at Hull, in the month of June, 28 Hen. VIII. 1536. (Memoirs of the Constable family, penes me.)

page 228 note a On a stone in Boynton church was this inscription: Hic jacet Thomas Newport et Elizab't uxor ejus, fllia, et heres Joh'is Boynton, filii et heredis Do'i Rob'ti Boyn ton militis, q1 Tho's obiit xv°. die Novembr. A°. D1. M°CCCCXXIII. quorum animabus propitietur Deus. Amen. On another, Hie jacet Will's Newport, armiger, qui obiit decimo die mensis Novembris, Anno. Do'. M.CCCCLXXX° cuius ale propitietur Deos. (Bointon church, 14thNov. 1620. Dodsw. MSS. in Bib. Bodl. v. CLX.)

page 228 note b In the 24th of Hen. VIII. 1532, Master Thomas Portington paid to the fabrick of the collegiate church of St. John of Beverley 3d. 6s. for the free rent of three cottages and one oxgang of land in Bentley, then in his tenure. (Scaum's Beverlac, p. 24.) Bentley adjoins Risby in the parish of Rowley. Portington, from which this family took their local surname, is at no great distance, in Howdenshire.

page 228 note c Thruff-stone, a tomb-stone. Sax. thruh. (Brockett's Glossary.)

page 228 note d Sir Marmaduke Constable, of Everingham, com. Ebor. kt. in right of his wife Barbara, daughter and eventually sole heir of John Suthill of Everingham, esq. She died 4 Oct. 32 Hen. VIII. 1543, and he 12 Sept. 1545.

page 230 note a Sir Robert Sheffield of Butterwicke, com. Line. kt. died 14 NOT. 24 Hen. VIII. 1533.

page 231 note b Sir Robert Nevill of Liversedge, com. Ebor. kt. son of Thomas Nevill, esq. and Isabel, daughter of Sir Robert Sheffield, kt. Recorder of the City of London, named in a former Letter. (See Letter CXIV.) He died 10 Aug. 1516, and had by Ellen, daughter of John Delves, esq. Sir Robert, his successor, Isabel or Elizabeth above named, and other children.

page 232 note a Margaret, Lady Gascoyne, second wife of Sir William Gascoyne of Gawkthorpe, com. Ebor. kt. was daughter of Richard Nevill, Lord Latimer, who died 22 Hen. VIII. 1530, and sister of John Lord Latimer, among whose household servants the writer of this letter, the eldest son of an esquire of no mean degree, seeks to be admitted. This connection with Lord Latimer, who died in 1542, probably brought about the marriage of Robert Plumpton with Ann Norton, 2 Sept. 1538, he having attained his majority on the 17th of January preceding, and whose brother Richard Norton was married to this Lord's sister. At the date of this letter, Robert Plumpton was a student of the Inner Temple, and, it would seem, deeply imbued with the new doctrines, which the study of the Scriptures, now thrown open by the discovery of the art of printing to the interpretation of each one's private judgment, had lately introduced to the world. The zeal he here manifests for the conversion of his father and mother to the novel investigation was, however, fruitless; the family ever adhered to the ancient faith. He died at Waterton in the 38th of Hen. VIII. 1546, about Christmas, at the early age of thirty-one; but it is probable that his sentiments underwent a considerable modification after his connection by marriage with the Nortons, who were among the most zealous sticklers for Papacy in the North Country.

page 232 note b Robert Ughtred, of Kexby, com. Ebor. esq.

page 234 note a Denis Plumpton, seond son of the writer.

page 234 note b The person who answered to th e Court of Augmentation for the rents and profits. This Court was first erected in the 27th year of the reign of Hen. VIII.

page 235 note b Ralph Latham, of Upminster Hall in Essex, citizen and goldsmith, had, with other issue, a daughter Alice, married to John Twisleton, citizen and goldsmith, alderman of London.—Vide letter from their son Christopher, who was afterwards in possession of this property at Waterton, postea.

page 235 note c John Norton, of Norton Conyers, esq. whose daughter Robert Plumpton married 2 Sept. 30 Hen. VIII. 1538. This letter is apparently subsequent to that match.

page 235 note a Sir William Mydleton, of Stockeld, com. Embor. kt.

page 236 note b Sir Oswald Wilsthorp, of Wilsthorp, com. Ebor. kt.

page 236 note c Edward Oswald Lee, Archishop of york, ob. 10 Sept. 1544, æt. 62.

page 237 note a Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, the nearest market-town to Waterton, the residence of Robert Plumpton, called the younger daring the life-time of his uncle Robert Plumpton of Knaresborough. The writer of this letter, though in holy orders, appears to have acted as steward for Mr. Plumpton in his absence.

page 238 note a Thomas Compton wag perhaps of the family of that name at Willingham, com. Lincoln, and nephew in half-blood to the wife of William Plumpton. (See note to Letter CLXXX.)

page 239 note b Sir Philip Boteler, of Woodhall, in the parish of Watson-at-stone, com. Herts. kt.

page 240 note c Anne, daughter of Sir Philip Butler, kt. married Leonard Hide, esq. Pedigree in Clutterbuch's Herts.

page 241 note d In Sacombe Church, on the floor in the chancel, was a stone with this inscription, “Here lieth buried the bodie Of John Dodington, of Sacombe, gentleman, who deceased a faithfull Christian the viith daie of Januarie, in the yeare of our Lord. God 1544, and was husband to Eleanor Dodington, whose grave is joyned here to his on the right side; after whom he survived seven yeares and seaven weeks and left alive at his departure by her his only wife three sons and six daughters.

Cygnea qui terris modulati carmina mortis,

Dulce polo vita nunc melos usque canunt.”

page 241 note a Woolden Hall in Eccles parish was the seat of Thomas Holcroft, esq. in 1595. He probably purchased from the Holts.

page 243 note a Alured St. Leger, quare?

page 244 note a Richard Sharp, clerk, was, upon the death of Mr. John Petty, priest, admitted to the living of Sacombe 3 May 1543, upon the presentation of William Plumpton, in right of Isabella his wife. Clutterbuck's Herts, ex reg. Longland—where the name Palfreman is manifestly an error for Plumpton.

page 245 note a Christopher Twisleton married Anne, daughter of John Beer of Dartford, com. Kent, esq. The family afterwards settled in Yorkshire, and were of Barlow, otherwise Barley, in the parish of Brayton, near Selby.

page 246 note a Sir Henry Savill of Thornhill, Taukersley, and Elland, com. Ebor. K.B. The monastery of Kirkstall and nunnery of Arthington had been part of the religious plunder acquired by Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, in exchange for other lands, 34 Hen. VIII. 1543, in trust for whose younger son, Thomas Cranmer, it was held by Peter Hammond and others in the 4th of Edw. VI. (Burton's Man. Ebor.) The bargain for the lease spoken of in this letter it may be presumed was adhered to on the part of the Savills only. Robart Savill of Howley, the illegitimate son of Sir Henry Savill, must have afterwards also acquired the reversion in fee, as this estate has descended with his other property to the Brudenells. Of the other parties who were to be admitted to a share in the speculation, Henry Savill of Lupsett, the surveyor, was ancestor to the legitimate branch of Savill, and William Plumpton and John Gascoigne were related in equal degree to Sir Henry Savill, whose lineal ancestor had married a Gascoigne. The dating of this letter from aboard ship at Tyne-mouth furnishes a new biographical feature in the life of Sir Henry, whose letters show him to have had all the heartiness of the sailor, unbounded in his hospitality, and devoted to sporting.

page 248 note a Sir Henry Savill was owner of Soothill in the parish of Dewsbury, com. Ebor. in right of his wife Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Thomas Soothill of Soothill, esq. who had died 29 Dec. 27 Hen. VIII. 1535.

page 248 note b Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, attainted in 1546.

page 248 note c Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, created Duke of Somerset 16 Feb. 1547.

page 248 note d Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.

page 248 note e Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, ob. 1545.

page 249 note a The context of this letter has plainly reference to some hoped for settlement in marriage of the writer's illegitimate son, Robert, to which matter an allusion is also made in the preceding letter. The affair, however, seems never to have reached at proposal, because it was perceived the mother of the intended thought a bastard “to light” to wed with her daughter.

page 252 note a Robert Gargrave, esq. was the fourth husband of Elizabeth Paston, the mother of Sir Henry Savill, kt. The family had afterwards their residence at Nostell-priory, com. Ebor.

page 252 note b Robert Savill, afterwards of Howley, the illegitimate son of Sir Henry Savill before spoken of, ancestor of the Earls of Sussex.

page 253 note a Thomas Bill, esq. one of the King's physicians, had granted to him, by indenture dated 16 Nov. 1 Edw. VI. 1547, the wardship and marriage of William Plumpton, cousin and heir of William Plumpton, esq. deceased, which he by indenture of the 9th Feb. 3 Edw. VI. 1547–8, transferred to Isabel Plumpton, widow, late wife of William Plumpton, esq. deceased. (Towneley MSB. G. 24.)

page 253 note b Robert Girlingtoa, see his letter postea.

page 253 note c Sir Arthur Darcy, kt. next brother of George, Lord Darcy of Aston.

page 254 note d d Howell, or Holywell Grange, Was the grange on the lands that had belonged to Nostell Priory, in the parish of Thurnscoe, com. Ebor.

page 254 note e William Woodriff or Woodruffe, the writer of this letter, was apparently a younger brother of the house of Wolley, and uncle of Francis Woodruff, of Wolley, com. Ebor. esq. (See Pedigree in Hunter's South Yorkshire.)

page 254 note f Howell Grange was at this date the property of James Lord Montjoy, in right of his wife Cathariae, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Leigh, kt. the original purchaser of the possessions of Nosteff Prioiy in the reign of Henry VIII. Mr. Wodriff may have acted as his agent, and perhaps through him application had been made for the interest of his master at Court by Mrs. Isabell Plumpton, to which this letter was considered a reply; hence the endorsement.

page 255 note a Ursula, daughter of Richard Aldburgh, and niece of “Ralph Audbrough,” the writer of a letter which follows, was married 4th July, 1 Edw. VI. 1547, to Denis or Dyonisius Plumpton, born 9 Oct. 1519, the feast of St. Denis. She left one son, Richard Plumpton, having, it seems, survived her marriage little more than a year.

page 255 note a By charter dated 6th Jan. 5 Edw. VI. 1551–2, Isabella Plumpton granted to Robert Sittills, for term of his life, an annuity of 26l. 8S. 8d. issuing out of lands in Kirkby-upon-Wharfe, or elsewhere within the county of York, (Towneley MSS. g24).

page 256 note b A Nicholas Girlington was one of the many friends and lovers who rode with Sir Robert Plumpton to York, to maintain him in his suit with Suttell and Rocliffe, at the Lammas Assize in the year 1502, and to William Girlington, gent. William Plumpton, and Isabel or Elizabeth his wife, by their deed dated 3 Mar. 22 Hen. VII. 1508, conveyed their lands and tenements in Eastofts, in the county of York, for 33l. 15s. (Chartul. No. 830.) Burton, in the Pedigree of Babthorpe, printed in his Specimen History of the parish of Hemingborough, marries Robert Babthorpe, the father of Isabel Plumpton, to Joan the daughter of Nicholas Girlington; but this statement is disproved by the evidence that Glover had seen, which renders it more than probable that she was by birth a Hagthorpe. I venture, therefore, to infer from the testimony of this letter a marriage between the father of Robert Girlington, mistaken for Robert Babthorpe, and Joan, half-sister of Isabel Plumpton, of the family of Elson of Selby; for it is only upon this supposition that I can account for her being addressed by him as “ my singuler good Aunt.” (See the Note to Letter CLXXIX. p. 118.)

page 257 note a Joan, daughter of Ralph Constable of Halsham, com. Ebor. esq. and widow of Sir Christopher Hildyard of Winestead, com. Ebor. kt. who died 29 Hen. VIII. 1538.

page 257 note b “Ralph Aldburgh was third son of Sir Richard Aldburgh, of Aldburgh, kt. by Jane, daughter of Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Walton, kt. He had apparently married a sister of Robert Girlington, niece of Mrs. Isabel Plompton, as he speaks of his father-in. law-sending on letters to him from the latter. This letter will have been written from Wa-terton, which is in the parish of Luddington, the place where he meant to have purchased the gea-fowl called barnacles. Waterton had been the residence of Robert Plumpton, and the manor, in the 7th of Eliz. 1565, was yet charged with a rent of 22l. 2s. 8d. to Ann Moreton, then surviving, late wife of Robert Plumpton, for term of her life, by way of dower. At the same date, the manor of Sacombe, com. Herts, was charged with 54s. 4d., descendible, after the death of Dame Isabella Plumpton, to Aldburgh and Garlington, to each of them 26s. 8d. per annum. This letter appears to have been written about the year 1548, after the death of William and Robert Plumpton, during the minority of the son of the latter. Ralph Aldburgh was the steward at Waterton, and his “Mistres,” the above-named Mrs. Ann Plumpton, after ward wife of Robert Moreton, of Bawtry, com. Ebor. esq.

page 258 note a German Pole, the husband of Ann Pole, the writer of this letter, died 4 Jan. 5 Edw. VI. 1551–2, when German Pole was found to be his cousin and heir, son of Francis, son and heir of the said German, and of the age of seven years. (Esc. 2 July, 6 Edw. VI. No. 21.) Mrs. Isabel Plumpton, to whom these letters are addressed, died on the 10th of June in this same year, leaving her second son, Dennis, her only surviving child, to whom Mrs. Ann Pole, his aunt, had stood godmother; on which account the here calls him her son, and sends him God's blessing.