Events
Date of Birth: unknown.
Place of Birth: unknown.
Date of Death: unknown.
Place of Death: unknown.
Relationships
Father: John Stanley (died before 1485).
Mother: Elizabeth Weever (died 1512).
See the Commentary section.
Spouse: Ralph Ravenscroft. Married before 1499.
The inquisition post mortem of Anne’s mother, Elizabeth Weever, gives Anne’s husband as Ralph Ravenscroft, Esq. (Earwicker 2:597 fn). The 1580 visitation of Cheshire (Rylands, p. 195; informant Anne’s great grandson, George Ravenscroft) gives “Rafe Ravenscroft of Bretton in Flint nere Chester” as her husband. Ormerod (3:577) states that she and her sisters were all married before 14 Hen. VII.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
George Ravenscroft married Elen ferch Richard.
John Ravenscroft married Margaret Dod. Started the line of “Ravenscroft of Hawarden.”
Elianor Ravenscroft married John Redishe.
Cicily Ravenscroft married Gibbon Wood.
Alice Ravenscroft (died July 1579) married (1) Adrian d'Ewes (died 5 July 1551); married (2) William Ramsey.
Commentary
Anne’s parentage
The 1512 inquisition post mortem (Earwicker 2:597 fn) of Elizabeth Weever records as one of Elizabeth’s children Anne, wife of Ralph Ravenscroft, esquire.
Elizabeth had been married twice, to John Stanley and then to Sir John Done. The fathers of the children are not specified in the inquisition, but the evidence consistently points to John Stanley as Anne’s father:
(1) Elizabeth’s daughters seem to have been listed in order of age. The daughter listed after Anne, Jane, was recorded as a daughter of John Stanley in her 1497 marriage covenant (Ormerod 2:209).
(2) Ormerod and Helsby (3:575) refer to a 1499 settlement of property on Elizabeth’s children which named the husbands of (all) her daughters, making it chronologically necessary that they were children of her first marriage (Elizabeth’s second marriage was in 1485).
(3) Elizabeth’s second marriage was in 1485, and Elizabeth’s grandson George was referred to as “George Ravenscroft esquire” 27 years later, in 1512/3. This seems chronologically impossible unless George was the son of a daughter from Elizabeth’s first marriage.
(4) The Ravenscroft pedigree in the 1580 Visitation of Cheshire describes Anne as “3d d. to John Stanley brother to Thos Earle of Darby.” The informant seems to have been George Ravenscroft of Bretton, Anne’s great-grandson.
References
Rylands, J. Paul. The Visitation of Cheshire in the Year 1580 ... (London, 1882).
F.R. Raines (ed.) The Visitation of the County Palatine of Lancaster made in the year 1567 by William Flower.[ p. 87 citing Harl. MS. fo. 74. and Chetham MS. fo. 12.]
Earwaker, J. P. (John Parsons). East Cheshire, past and present, or, A history of the hundred of Macclesfield in the county Palatine of Chester - from original records. (London: Printed for the Author, 1878-1880).
Lloyd, Jacob Youde William. The history of the princes, the lords marcher and the ancient nobility of Powys Fodog and the ancient lords of Arwystli, Cedewen and Meirionydd. (London: T. Richards, 1881-1887).
Ormerod, George; Peter Leycester; William Smith; William Webb; and Thomas Helsby. The history of the county palatine and city of Chester:compiled from original evidences in public offices, the Harleian and Cottonian mss., parochial registers, private muniments, unpublished ms. collections of successive Cheshire antiquaries, and a personal survey of every township in the county, incorporated with a republication of King's Vale royal and Leycester's Cheshire antiquities. (London: G. Routledge, 1882).
Elizabeth Weever had survived both her husbands, 13 Hen. VII. as appears by a deed of that date, Harl. MSS. 2077. 43. b. whereby it is convenanted "between dame Elizabeth Done, late wife of sir John Done, kt. and John Hawerden of Grayes Inne, that Jane, daughter of the said Elizabeth, and of John Stanley, her late husband, brother to the earl of Darbie, should marrie the said John Hawarden."
Ravenscroft, William, and Raymond Bathurst Ravenscroft. The family of Ravenscroft. (London: Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1915), [page 4.]
Richardson, Douglas, and Kimball G. Everingham. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2005), [p. 126.]