Events
Date of Birth: unknown.
Place of Birth: unknown.
Date of Death: after 1427.
Place of Death: unknown.
For the date, see the information about the patrons of the church of Wistaston in the Evidence section below.
Relationships
Father: Adam de Praers.
Mother: Ellen [de Blackenhall?].
See the Commentary section.
Spouse: Hugh de Malpas.
See the Commentary section.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
Margaret de Malpas married Richard Peshale.
Ellen de Malpas married Nicholas Peshale.
Evidence
Patrons of the church of Wistaston (Ormerod 3:334-5):
1388, viij die Julij.
Marg’ie que fuit ux’ Willi’ de Penreth, Elene que fuit ux’ Ade’ Praers, Joh’is fil Joh’is de Brascy & Elene ux’is ejus.
1392, ix die Septembr’.
Johannem filiu’ Willi’ Bressy Margar’ ux ejusd’ Hugone filiu’ Rog’ de Malpas Elena’ ux’ ejusd’.
1427, t’tio die Octobr’.
Joh’em Brescy de Bettiley & Elena relictam Hugonis de Malpas.
from the Chester Plea Rolls:
Chester Plea Roll. No. 114. 13. Hen. 4. [1411-1412]
Cestria. – Margery, late wife of John, son of Wililam le Brescy, and Hugh de Malpas and Elena, his wife, and John de Birchenhall sued Joan, late wife of Roger de Brescy, for land in Wystaston, which Avice, lady of Wystaston, gave to William, her son, and to the heirs of his body.
The attached pedigree shows:
[1] William, son of Avice, was seised temp. Ed. 1.
[2] His son was William.
[3] His sons William [ob.s.p.] and Hamon [ob.s.p.] were succeeded by their sister Annora.
[4] Annora’s daughters were:
(a) Margery, mother of Margery the wife of John le Brescy, plaintiff;
(b) Elena, mother of Elena wife of Hugh de Malpas, plaintiffs; and
(c) Joan, mother of John father of John de Byrchynhull, plaintiff.
Commentary
Ellen’s identity.
The records of the patrons of the church of Wistaston name the wife of Hugh son of Roger del Malpas as Ellen, as does a case from the Chester Plea Rolls (see the Evidence section).
The Plea Rolls give Ellen’s mother as Ellen, a daughter of Annora, sister and heir to Hamon and William, the sons of William, son of William, son of Avice, lady of Wystanton.
Edward Williamson (Ormerod 3:332) states that a moiety of the manor of Wistanton passed in marriage to Adam de Praers on his marriage to Ellen, daughter and co-heiress of Hamon de Wistanton. The list of patrons of the Wistaston church confirms that Adam’s wife was named Ellen. Howver, the Chester Plea Rolls suggest that in fact Hamon died without any children. His heir was his sister Annora, whose heir was her daughter Ellen. This suggests that Adam de Praers’ wife was Annora’s daughter Ellen.
Helsby (Ormerod 3:332), who is unaware of the Plea Roll case, argues based on other evidence that that Ellen was not a daughter of Hamon, but rather a daughter of Thomas Chanu (Cheyney). This would make sense if Thomas Chanu was Annora’s husband. (Helsby notes that Roger de Brescy of Morefeld bequeathed 10 marks to Elen, daughter of Thomas Chanu, in aid of her marriage, for the payment of which, by Joan widow of Roger, John de Hatton, of Chester enters into a recognizance 11 Henry IV [1409-10]. Joan was the defendant a couple years later in the case from the Plea Rolls above.) However, the wife of Thomas Chanu appears to have been named Joan (Ormerod/Helsby 3:487-490).
In his account of Checkley (3:514), Williamson identifies Hugh de Malpas’s wife Ellen as a daughter of Richard de Blackenhale. I am not sure what specific evidence Williamson was using, but he seems to be using the descent of the manor of Checkley. Ormerod notes that, like Wistaston, Checkley seems to have been divided between the families of Penreth, Brescy of Wistaston, and Praers. The parts belonging to Penreth and Brescy were bought by the Delves family. Williamson states (in Ormerod’s paraphrase) that the remaining third passed “with _____, daughter and heiress of Robert Praers, to Hugh de Blakenhall …and subsequently...with Ellen, daughter and heiress of Richard de Blakenhall, to Hugh de Malpas, ‘whose daughters and coheiresses, Margery and Ellen, brought it to the Peshalls of Chetwynd and Horseley, brothers.’”
This account seems inconistent with the case from the Plea Rolls, which suggests that the manor must have been divided between the three heiresses of Annora. From this, it appears that:
(a) One third of the manor passed to Annora’s daughter Margery, who married William Penreth. Margery the widow of William de Penreth is a patron of the church of Wistaston in 1388.
(b) One third of the manor passed to Annora’s daughter Ellen, who must be the Ellen widow of Adam de Praers, who was another patron of the church of Wistaston in 1388. Ellen’s daughter Ellen married Hugh de Malpas.
(c) The third part of the manor passed to Annora’s daughter Joan, who married a Byrchynhull according to the Plea Rolls, and had son and grandson both named John. Ormerod notes that John Birchenhall had remitted all right in the manor of Wistanston to his cousin John Brescy junior by 1405, but it appears that this may already have happened by 1388.
In 1392:
(a) Margery the widow of William Penreth has died, and their daughter Margery and her husband John son of William de Brescy are presenting to the church.
(b) Ellen the widow of Adam de Praers has died, and [their? her?] daughter Ellen and her husband Hugh son of Roger de Malpas are presenting to the church.
(c) Does not appear to be represented among the patrons of the church.
Some sources suggest that Ellen the daughter of Richard de Blackenhall whom Williamson makes the wife of Hugh de Malpas was in fact married to Adam de Praers. This seems not inconsistent with the evidence above, but I am not sure what specific evidence really supports it.
References
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).
Wrottesley, George. Pedigrees from the Plea Rolls collected from the Pleadings in the Various Courts of Law, A.D. 1200 to 1500. (1905).