Agnes Bulstrode

Events 

Date of Birth: unknown.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Date of Death: unknown.

Place of Death: unknown.

Relationships

Father: Robert Bulstrode.

This relationship is given by Wake (p. 8). See the Commentary section. Robert (or Richard) was presumably a descendant or relative of the Adam, son of Geoffrey Bulstrode mentioned in the the Buckinghamshire VCH’s account of Chalfont St Peter. 

Mother: Agnes Sampson.

See the Commentary section. Robert and Agnes may have been Agnes Bulstrode’s grandparents rather than parents.

Spouse: John Chopinden. Died by 1398.

See the Commentary section.

Spouse: William Brudenell. Died by 1422.

See the Commentary section.

Children (by John): 

(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)

William Bulstrode (born by 1398 - died in 1478 or after) married Agnes Norreys.

Children (by William): 

Edmund Brudenell (born by 1402 - died 1469) married (1) Agnes Dipden; married (2) Philippa Englefield.

Evidence

from the Calendar of the Patent Rolls (Richard II, Volume VI, A.D. 1396-1399, p. 429):

[1398] September 21. Leicester

Pardon to Roger Starky of the county of Chester alias Roger Stark, servant of John Macclesfeld, parson of Denham, indicted for breaking the close of Agnes, late the wife of John Bulstrode, in the parish of Upton, and ravishing her on Thursday in Whitsun week alias on Thursday before Trinity in the twenty-first year.      By p.s.

Commentary

On Agnes’s husband(s):

Aungier (p. 495) has Agnes’s first husband as John Chopinden, who afterwards took the name of Bulstrode, and her second husband as William Brudenell. This order is consistent with primary evidence, such as the 1398 rape case given in the Evidence section above. In a footnote, Lipscomb (3:238) notes two accounts which give the same order.

The Bulstrode pedigree in the additions to the Visitations of Berkshire (2:79) gives Agnes’s husband as William Brudenell and John Bulstrode (the father of the William Bulstrode who married Agnes Norreys) as her uncle. This is followed by the Buckinghamshire VCH (3: sub Chalfont St Peter’s). However, it is inconsistent with the 1457/1469 will of William Brudenell’s son Edmund, which describes William Bulstrode as his “brother” (Brydges, p. 491; Testamenta Vetusta, Vol. 1. p. 283). 

On Agnes Bulstrode’s father:

The Bulstrode pedigree in the additions to the Visitations of Berkshire (2:79) gives as Agnes’s father:

1. Richard Bulstrode and Margaret, daughter and heir of Thomas Knyffe. Richard is the son of

2. Robert Bulstrode and Agnes Sampson of Hughley/Hurley (Hedgerley). Robert is the son of

3. John Bulstrode and Margaret, daughter of Hugh Mountforth of Chalfont St Peter’s. John is the son of

4. John Bulstrode of Upton and Agnes.

A footnote notes that the pedigree printed in Ashmole omits Richard.

Aungier (p. 495) has Agnes’s father as 

1. Robert Bulstrode of Upton, anno 12 Edward III [1338] and Agnes Sampson of Hedgerley. Robert is given as the son of 

2. John Bulstrode and Margaret, daughter of Hugh Mountfort of Chalfont St. Peter’s. John is said to be son and heir (anno 9 Edward II [1316] of 

3. John Bulstrode of Upton, Buckinghamshire (anno 5 Edward II [1312]) and Agnes.

The Brudenell pedigree in the 1564 Visitation of Northamptonshire (p. 6) describes Agnes as the daughter and heir of 

1. Robert Boustrode of Buckingham, son and heir of 

2. Richard Boulstrode of the said co. and of Alis his wife, daughter and heir of Thomas Knyff and of Margaret his wife, daughter and one of the heirs of Thomas Thorne and of Jane his wife,daughter and heir of William Spelling, gentleman.

Apparently Thomas Lord Brudenell inspected this pedigree, and that of the 1619 visitations, found them to be incorrect, and wrote a letter with the correct pedigree, in his view, which included this information ((p. 169): Agnes was daughter of Robert Bulstrode of Hugeley and Chalfont, son of Richard Bulstrode (no wives given).

Lipscomb gives several accounts.

In the main text (3:238) Agnes is the daughter of 

1. Robert Bulstrode esq., son of

2. Richard Bulstron esq. of Hedgerley Bulstrode and Agnes, daughter and heir of Thomas Knyffe.

In a footnote he acknowledges the accounts given in the Visitations, but prefers an account which gives Agnes’s father as

1. Robert Bulstrode, son of 

2. Richard Bulstrode and Alice, daughter and heir of Richard Knyffe, who was the son of Thomas Knyffe, son of John Knyffe, lord of Chalvey.

The Waller pedigree in Visitations of Hampshire (p. 140) (citing MS. Harl. 1544. fo. 199, 120) has Agnes as daughter and heir of Thomas Bulstrode.

A problem seems to be that in the 1500s, both Brudenells and Bulstrodes thought they were heirs to a Knyffe, but the pedigrees in the Bulstrode sources trace the line in a way that places the Bulstrode split with the Brudenells earlier than the Bulstrode connection to the Knyffes. The Brudenell pedigree places the Knyffe marriage in a place where both families could trace their descent from the same Knyffe family. This would seem to be preferable, but chronology appears to favour the other account. I am not sure if there is a really satisfactory resolution.

A Geoffrey Bolstrode and his wife Agnes and son Adam are recorded in Chalfont St. Peter’s in a 1320 fine, and Adam is recorded there in 1356. It is not clear how they relate to the pedigrees above (assuming the pedigrees are not completely incorrect).

On Agnes Bulstrode’s mother:

There is conflicting information given in pedigrees from visitations and other sources, and I am not sure how to resolve it.

Agnes Bulstrode’s mother is given as Agnes Sampson by these sources:

1. “Pedigree of Bulstrode” in Aungier (p. 495), citing Vincent’s Bucks, No. 138, f. 66 [A 1574 manuscript], with additions from other manuscripts;

2. “Bulstrode of Upton” in Ashmole’s Antiquities of Berkshire (vol. 3, 309-310). Ashmole states that Sampson was of Hurley, Buckinghamshire;

3. “Boulstrode, of Upton” in The Four Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, 1623, 1665-6 vol. II: Additional Pedigrees and Notes (p. 79), citing MS. Ashmole 852, p. 31. It is of unclear origin, possibly material gathered for the 1566 Visitation but not included in its official copy. It is not clear what the date is, but the youngest children in the pedigree were born in about the 1470s or 1480s.

4. Arms on the funeral monument of Alexander Unton (died 1547) in the parish church at Faringdon show on the left side of his second wife Cecily Bulstrode: 1. and 4. Bulsrode, 2. Knyffs, 3. Chobington.

Agnes Bulstrode’s mother is given as Alice, daughter and heir of Thomas Knyffe and Margaret his wife, daughter and one of the heirs of Thomas Thorne and Jane his wife, daughter and heir the in the Brudenell pedigree in the 1564 Visitation of Northamptonshire  (p. 6).

There is also some evidence from heraldic arms:

1. In Faringdon church, there are arms on the funeral monument of Alexander Unton (died 1547) on the figure representing his second wife, Cecily Bulstrode, the granddaughter of Richard and Alice. The arms on her left side are 1. and 4. Bulstrode, 2. Knyffs, 3. Chobington. Cecily was the daughter of a great-grandson of John Chopinden.

2. Arms on heraldic glass probably installed by Sir Edmund Bowyer, probably a great-great-great-great grandson of John Chopinden, in 1599 at Norton Foregate, show: 1. Bulstrode, 2. Norris, 3. Knyffs, 4. Thorn, 5. Wyatt, 6. Shobington, 7. Bulstrode, 8 Spelling, 9. Palton or Freisell, 10. Pultenay.

3. Heraldic glass at Hassop Hall, Derbyshire (previously at Warkworth, Northamptonshire) shows: 1. Drury, 2. Freschill, 3. Saxham, 4. Brudenell, 5. At Grove, 6. Raans, 7. Blakett, 8. Bulstrode, 9. Knyffe, 10. Wyat, 11. Barnack, 12. Thorne, 13. unknown, 14. Pulteney, 15. Shobington. 16. Drury

There is also property to consider. In its discussion of Berkin Manor (a moiety of Horton Manor), the Berkshire VCH (3: sub Horton) notes:

[Thomas Dru]…quitclaimed the estate in 1428 to Richard Wyot, his wife Alice, and others, ….Later owners were Edmund Brudenell before 1451, and Richard Bulstrode, who held it in 1485 in right of his wife Alice.

References

Aungier, George James Aungier. The Hisory and Antiquities of Syon Monastery, the Parish of Isleworth, and the Chapelry of Hounslow (1840).

Brydges, Sir Egerton. Collins’s Peerage of England, Volume III. (London, 1821).

Calendar of the Patent Rolls: Richard II, Volume VI, 1396-1399. (London, 1909).

Lipscomb, George. The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham (1847).

Nicolas, Nicholas Harris. Testamenta Vetusta Vol. 1 (London, 1826). 

Nichols, John Gough. “Bowyer of Camberwell” in Surrey Archaeological Collections, Volume 3, pages 220 - 226, (London: Lovell Reeve & Co., 1865).

Nichols, John Gough. The Unton Inventories. (London, 1841).

'Parishes: Chalfont St. Peter', in A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London, 1925). 

The Visitations of Hampshire taken in 1530, 1575, and 1634. (Harleian Society Volume LXIV, 1913).

Shaw, A.P. “The Heraldic Stained Glass and Hassop Hall, co. Derby, Part II” in Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, Volume 32. (1910).

Testamenta Vetusta Volume 1 (1826) (Will of Edmund Brudenell, esq. pp. 282-284).

The Visitations of Northamptonshire made in 1564 and 1618-9, with Northamptonshire Pedigrees from various Harleian MSS. (ed. Walter C. Metcalfe) (London, 1887). 

Wake, Joan. The Brudenells of Deene. (1953).