William Bulstrode

Events

Date of Birth: unknown.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Aungier (p. 495) has William attested in 1 Hen. V. (1413).

Date of Death: 1478 or after.

Place of Death: unknown.

Gyll (p. 217) states that William died in 1472, but he is named as an overseer in his son William’s 1478 will.

Relationships

Father: John Chopinden.

Mother: Agnes Bulstrode.

These relationships are given by Aungier and Gyll, who state that John took Agnes’s surname. John took Agnes’s surname. Ashmole (3:309-310) and the Visitations trace the Bulstrodes through John. I assume that the more atypical account is the more likely to be correct (analogously to lectio difficilior potior). Bulstrode is quartered with Chopinden in heraldic glass installed by Agnes Norreys’s brother John Norreys in Ockwells Manor House at Bray in the mid-1400s (VCH Berkshire vol. 3, sub Bray).

Spouse: Agnes Norreys.

This relationship was recorded on the monumental brass inscription given below. It is given in a pedigree added to the Visitations of Berkshire (p. 79), citing MS. Ashmole 852, p. 31. It is also given in the pedigree given in Aungier (p. 495) and in the pedigree given in Ashmole.

Children:

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

Richard Bulstrode (died 19 May 1502) married Alice Kniffe 20 April 1455.

Sir Robert Bulstrode married Margaret, daughter of John Abrahall of Archenfield, Herefordshire before 1465. Margaret was the widow of Richard Penyston.

Isabella Bulstrode married William Langley of Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire.

John Bulstrode

William Bulstrode (died 1478), draper of London, married Joan. Joan is variously described as the daughter of Edward Franklin, Edward Strangles, and Edward Strangwick.

Edmund Bulstrode of London, fishmonger, married Catherine, daugher of John Shaw of Cheshire.

Agnes Bulstrode married Thomas Cheyne of Checkendon, Oxfordshire.

Thomas Bulstrode.

Roger Bulstrode married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Thomas Thomas of Sittingbourne.

Henry Bulstrode married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas More of Rochester.

George Bulstrode, merchant of London.

Evidence

Green’s description of the heraldic glass at Ockwells installed in the mid-1400s by John Norreys, brother of Agnes Norreys, William Bulstrode’s wife. (Green was Somerset Herald).

The eighteenth and last light at Ockwells has the armorial ensigns of Richard Bulstrode, of Upton, in Buckinghamshire, Keeper of the Great Wardrobe to Queen Margaret of Anjou, wife of our Henry VI., and afterwards Comptroller of the Household to our Edward IV. He was son and heir of William Bulstrode by Agnes, daugher of William Norreys, of Ockwells, and grandson of John Chopinden, who on his marriage with Agnes, daughter and heir of Robert Bulstrode, of Upton, assumed his wife’s name and arms, but kept his own crest.

The blazon of the shield at Ockwells is : Quarterly : 1 and 4. Sable, a buck’s head caboshed argent, attired and ensigned with a cross or, pierced through the nose with an arrow barwise of the last, for BULSTRODE. 2 and 3. Argent, a chevron gules, between three squirrels sejeant sable. The shield is ensigned with a side faced silver helmet, garnished gold, mantled argent and gules, wreathed gules and argent, and the crest is a squirrel sejeant gules, holding in his dexter paw a bunch of nuts or. The second and third quartering, and the crest, belong to the family of Chopinden or Shopingdon.

An inscription on a monumental brass in the parish church in Upton, now lost, once read:

Orate p’aīabus Willī Bulstrode & Agnetis uxīs filie Willī Norrys de bray ac pro Aiābus Ricī. Robtī. Isabelle. Johīs. Willī. Edmūdi. Agnetis. Thome. Rogeri. Henrici georg’ libor’ p’dcor’ Willī Bulstrode et Agnetis que quidem Agnes mat’ obiit xxi^o die Aprilis Anno dni M^oCCCC^o LXXII^o et Ano. Regni Reg’ Edwardi quarti XI^o et p’dcus Willms. Bulstrode pater etatis….(?)

Burne’s translation: Pray for the souls of William Bulstrode and Agnes his wife, daughter of William Norrys of Bray, and for the souls of Richard, Robert, Isabella, John, William, Edmund, Agnes, Thomas, Roger, Henry and George, children of the aforesaid William Bulstrode and Agnes, which Agnes, the mother, died April 12th, A.D. 1472, and in the 12th year of the reign of King Edward IV., and the aforesaid William Bulstrode, the father, being …(?) years old.

[Burne (p. 44).]

The will of William’s son William Bulstrode, citizen and draper of London, made 28 December 1478 and proved 1 February 1478 mentions:

-property in the City of London, and in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Middlesex;

-bequests to the parish church of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, where he wants to be buried;

-his wife Joan;

-his son Thomas Bulstrode (underage);

-his daughter Elizabeth;

-his daughter Joan;

-the child now in the womb of his wife Joan;

-his brother Roger Bulstrode;

-his brother Henry Bulstrode;

-his brother George Bulstrode;

-his sister Margaret wife of his brother Robert Bulstrode;

-Thomas Penystone;

-his executors: his wife Joan, his brother Robert Bulstrode, Richard Butts citizen and draper of London;

-his overeers his father William Bulstrode and his brother Richard Bulstrode.

References

“Abrahall, John” in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421. (1993).

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).

'Bray with the borough of Maidenhead: Introduction, borough and manors', in A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 3, ed. P H Ditchfield and William Page (London, 1923).

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).

Calendar of the close rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Henry VI. vol. 5, vol. 6; Henry VII vol. 1 (Public Record Office).

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).

Green, Everard. “The Identification of the Eighteen Worthies commemorated in the Heraldic Glass in the Hall Windows of Ockwells Manor House, in the Parish of Bray, in Berkshire” in Archaeologia vol. 56, issue 2. (1899).

Gyll, Gordon Willoughby James. HIstory of the Parish of Wraysbury, Ankerwycke, Priory, and Magna Charta Island; with the History of Horton and the Town of Colnbrook, Bucks. (London, 1862).

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

Liber Famelicus of Sir James Whitelocke, a judge of the court of the King’s Bench. (Camden Society, 1858).

Lipscomb, George. The history and antiquities of the county of Buckingham. vol. IV (London, 1847).

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

'Parishes: Hawridge', in A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3, 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; 1959).

The Visitations of the County of Oxford taken in the years 1566, 1574, and 1634 (W. Harry Rylands, ed.) (Harleian Society LVIII; 1909).

Will of John Norreys of Bray, Berkshire. Proved 1466 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.

Willis, Browne. The History and Antiquities of the Town, Hundred, and Deanry of Buckingham. (London: 1755).

Will of Thomas Cheyne of Checkendon, Oxfordshire. Proved 1494 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.

Will of William Bulstrode, citizen and draper of London. Proved 1478 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.