Agnes Roper

Events

Date of Birth: unknown.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Date of Death: 2 December 1457.

The date is given by Attree (p. 58) and Weever (p. 69).

Place of Burial: Goudhurst, Kent, England.

The place is given by Attree (p. 58).

Relationships

Father: Edmund Roper.

This relationship is given by her tombstone at Goudhurst (Weever, p. 69), by Attree (p. 57), by Blaauw (p. 154), and by the Colepeper pedigree in the 1619 Visitation of Kent and the Culpepper pedigree in the Visitations of Sussex (which names him "Edmund Roberts").

Mother: unknown.

Spouse: John de Bedgebury.

This relationship is given by Attree (pp. 57-58) and by Fleming.

Spouse: Walter Culpepper. Married 1424 or 1425.

This relationship is given by Attree (p. 57) and by the monument quoted by Weever (p. 69), and by the 1592 Visitation of Kent (Bannerman p. 91). The date of marriage is given by Fleming.

Children (by Walter Culpepper):

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

Sir John Culpepper (died 22 December 1480) married Agnes Gainsford before 1460.

Thomas Culpepper died s.p.

Richard Culpepper (died 1516) married Margaret Wakehurst.

Nicholas Culpepper (died 24 May 1510) married Elizabeth Wakehurst.

Elizabeth Culpepper married John Hardes, of Hardes, Kent.

Margaret Culpepper (died 19 January 1488) married Alexander Clifford.

Commentary

Agnes’s parents

There is disagreement in various sources about the parents of Agnes. Berry (p. 214), Hasted (1:473), and the Roper pedigree in the 1619 Visitation of Kent give her parents as Ralph Roper and Beatrix Lewknor.

The Colepeper pedigree in the 1619 Visitation of Kent gives her father as Edmund Roper of St Dunstans, Canterbury. Attree and Fleming agree with this, as it is supported by the monumental inscription quoted by Weever (p. 69) ("Agnes erat filia Edmundi Robar iuxta Cantuar").

The evidence for Edmund being Agnes’s father appears to be stronger.

Agnes’s first husband

Hasted (7:73-74) has Bedgebury coming into the Colepepper family through Agnes, the daughter of the John de Bedgebury who died in 1424, marrying John Colepepper. Weever (p. 69) also gives this. However, Attree (p. 57) cites a Chancery proceeding (undated, temp. Hen. VI) where "Walter Coulepir and Agneis, his wife, late the wife of John, son of John de Beggebury" appear as plaintiffs in a dispute relating to property in Goudhurst, Cranbrook, and Hawkhurst that John son of Roger de Bedgbury had left in a will.

Fleming describes Agnes as "daughter of Edmund Roper of Canterbury and widow and heir of John Bedgebury."

Attree seems to be correct that Hasted is in error.

References

Attree, F.W.T., and Booker, J.H.L. “The Sussex Colepepers. Part I.” in Sussex Archaeological Collections (Lewes: Sussex Archaeological Society, 1904), Volume XLVII, pages 47 to 81.

Bannerman, Bruce (ed.). The Visitation of Kent taken in the Year 1592. (Harleian Society, 1924).

Bannerman, William Bruce; Robert Cooke; and Thomas Benolte. The visitations of Kent, taken in the years 1530-1 by Thomas Benolte, and 1574 by Robert Cooke. (London: [Harleian Society], 1923).

Berry, William. County genealogies : pedigrees of the families of the county of Kent. (London: Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, 1830)

Blaauw, W.H., “Wakehurst, Slaugham, and Gravetye,” in Sussex Archaeological Collections (London: Sussex Archaeological Society, 1858) Volume X, pages 151-167.

Fleming, Peter. ‘Culpeper family (per. c.1400–c.1540)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/52784, accessed 24 April 2014]

Hasted, Edward. The history and topographical survey of the county of Kent. (Canterbury: W. Bristow, 1972)

Hovenden, Robert, and John Philipot. The visitation of Kent, taken in the years 1619-1621 by John Philipot, Rouge Dragon, marshall and deputy to William Camden, Clarenceux. (London: [Harleian Society], 1898).

Weever, John. Ancient funerall monuments within the United Monarchie of Great Britaine, Ireland, and the islands adiacent, with the dissolved monasteries therein contained: their founders, and what eminent persons haue beene in the same interred, as also the death and buriall of certaine of the Bloud Royall, the nobilitie and gentrie of these kingdomes entombed in forraine nations. (London: T. Harper, 1631)