Alice Knyffe

Events

Date of Birth: unknown.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Date of Death: unknown.

Place of Death: unknown.

Relationships

Father: Richard Knyffe of Chalvey.

See the Commentary section below.

(supposed) Mother: Lettice Smart.

Lipscomb (3:238 fn) cites Harl. MSS.n^o 1391. as giving this, which is a manuscript associated with the 1634 Visitation.

“Cousin”: Nicholas Clopton of Langley Marish.

In the Berkshire pedigree cited above, Alice is described as Nicholas’s cousin and heir. She is also described this way in Ashmole. Nicholas was clerk of the courts of St George’s chapel, Windsor, and a member of parliament for Chipping Wycombe in 1422.

Relatives: John Wyot. Thomas Thorne. … Rous of Westminster.

Alice is described as heir or coheir to these men in the 1634 Visitation of Buckinghamshire. The arms of Thorn and Wyatt appear after those of Knyffs in the heraldic glass from 1599 that used to be in the mansion at Norton Folgate described by Nichols (p. 225). The glass was probably made for Sir Edmund Bowyer.

Spouse: Richard Bulstrode. Married 20 April 1455.

This relationship is given in the pedigrees cited above. It is implied by the arms on the stained glass formerly at Norton Folgate. Richard’s wife is named Alice in contemporary fines and in his inquisition post mortem.

Children:

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

Richard Bulstrode

John Bulstrode

John Bulstrode

Thomas Bulstrode

Robert Bulstrode

Edward Bulstrode (born about 1474 - died 3 August 1517) married (1) Mary Empson in 1496; married (2) Ellen (Brent?); married (3) Margaret Colwick.

Edmond Bulstrode

Thomas Bulstrode

Richard Bulstrode

Margaret Bulstrode

Elizabeth Bulstrode

Anne Bulstrode

Lettice Bulstrode

Mary Bulstrode married John Fyfield alias Lowe.

Joan Bulstrode

Margery Bulstrode

Ellen Bulstrode

Alice Bulstrode married Thomas Penyston of Hawridge, Buckinghamshire.

Bridget Bulstrode

Evidence

In the chancel of the church of St Mary the Virgin at Langley Marish :

In the chancel there is a slab with matrices for two shields, and a brass inscription to William and John Wyot, the latter of whom died in 1410. There is also a slab with the matrix for a figure, and a brass inscription to Elizabeth daughter of Roger Giffard of Twyford and wife of Nicholas Clopton, who died in 1434. (Buckinghamshire VCH 3: sub Langley Marish).

I am not sure if it is the same Nicholas Clopton who was the seneschal of Sir William Molyns, as recorded in Sir William’s 1429 inquisition post mortem. (CIPM 23-392)

Commentary

Alice’s relationship to Richard Knyffe.

These pedigrees give this relationship:

1. “Boulstrode, of Upton: in the 1634 Visitation of Buckinghamshire (p. 12). It reads (with italics for insertions by a later hand, but possibly one with access to the original manuscript on which the original good copy of the Visitation was based) :

   1. Alice da. and h. to Rich. Kniffe of Chalve(y) quaere Chalf hunt T(emp.) H.6.which Alice was after (alsoe) heire (coheir) to John Wyet, Thomas Thorne(y), Nicholas Clopton of Langley-Marsh, and to ….Rous of Westminster.

2. “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. It reads:

   1. Alice da: & heire of [Rich^d] Swift [Snyff][Richard Kniffe of Chaluey temp: K.H. 6^th Visit. Bucks. 1634] Cosen and heire of Nicholas Clopton [Clopton of langley].

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

   1. Alice, dau. and heir of Rich. Kniffe, kinswoman and heir of John Wyott, of Coltney, and of Thos. Thorne, Nich. Clopton, of Langley Marsh, and Rouse, of Westminster.

4. “Bulstrode of Upton” in Ashmole’s Antiquities of Berkshire (vol. 3, 309-310):

   1. Alice, Daughter and Heir to Richard Snyff, Heir to Nicholas Clopton, of Langley.

Lipscomb in his The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham (3:238), after noting some inconsistencies concerning the parentage and marriage Agnes, daughter of Thomas Knyffe, who appears elsewhere in the Bulstrode pedigrees, states this in a footnote:

[In another account]...son of Richard Bulstrode by Alice, daughter and heir of Richard Knyfe of Chalvey; [Harl. MSS. n^o 1391.] (by Lettice, daughter of ….Smarte) and in another, that …son of Richard, by Alice, daughter and heir of Richard Knyfe; that the last named Richard was the son of Thomas, son of John Knyfe, Lord of Chalvey, (in the Harl. MSS. eroneously written Halvey) that the former husband of the said Agnes Bulstrode was John Shobingdon, alias Bulstrode ; which latter account, making allowance for the errors in the orthography of the MS. in the Harleian collection, seems to bear marks of authenticity…

Alice’s relationship to Richard Knyffe is consistent with the heraldic glass installed at Norton Foregate in 1599, probably by Sir Edmund Bowyer, a descendant. In it, Fifield alias Lowe and Kirktofte quarterly impale quarterly:

1. Bulstrode

2. Norris

3. Knyffs

4. Thorn

5. Wyatt

6. Shobington

7. Bulstrode

8. Spelling

9. Palton or Freisell

10. Pultenay

The arms suggest a female Bulstrode married a Fifield alias Lowe. (This is, I argue, the marriage of Mary Bulstrode with John Fifield alias Lowe). With the next few names, the heraldic glass is consistent with other evidence:

1. The heraldry suggests a female Norris married a Bulstrode. This is true. Richard’s father, William, married Agnes Norreys.

2. The next name, Knyffs, should represent either a female who married into the male Bulstrode line later, or a female ancestor of Agnes Norreys. The first possibility is consistent with the pedigrees.

3. The next names, Thorn and Wyatt, are names of Richard Knyffe’s mother and grandmother, which provides additional evidence that the relationship is correct.

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. This also represents a male Bulstrode marrying a female Knyffs, and is arguably independent of the other heraldic glass, as Cecily was the daughter of Richard and Alice’s son Edward, whereas Sir Edmund Bowyer was descended from Edward’s sister Mary.

The mention of John Wyot and Nicholas Clopton in the pedigrees is consistent with other evidence. Richard Wyot, M.P. died without children in 1431. One of his executors was Nicholas Clopton (Woodger HoP). Wyatt, (p. 76) states that his heiress was his sister, Isabel, who had married John Knyffe.

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.

The statement in the pedigrees that Alice was a Knyffe and heir to John Wyott seems consistent enough with other evidence. The 1564 Visitation of Northamptonshire (p.6), however, omits Richard Knyffe and makes Alice the daughter and heir of Richard Knyffe’s father Thomas.

References

Ashmole, Elias. The Antiquities of Berkshire volume 3. (1723)

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

Burne, Richard V. H. A History of the Parish of Upton-cum-Chalvey, Buckinghamshire, commonly known as Slough. (1913).

Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry VII, vol. II (PRO; London, 1915).

The Four Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, 1623, 1665-6; Vol. II Additional Pedigrees and Notes. (W. Harry Rylands, ed.) (Harleian Society vol. LVII; London, 1908).

Hardy, W. J. (William John), and W Page. A calendar of the feet of fines for London & Middlesex. (London: 1892-1893).

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

King's College London, 2014. | Mapping the Medieval Countryside [online]. Available at http://www.inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/view/inquisition/23-389/392 [Accessed: 10/5/2022]

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).

A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3, (Victoria County History) ed. William Page (London, 1925).

The Visitation of the County of Buckingham made in 1634 by John Philipot (W. Harry Rylands, ed.) (Harleian Society V; 1859).

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

Woodger, L.S. “Wyot, Richard (d. 1431), of Wyrardisbury, Bucks. and Westminster and Stanwell, Mdx” in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993

Wyatt, Stanley Charles. Cheneys and Wyatts. (1959)