THOMAS DANVERS OF WATERSTOCK

Thomas Danvers of Waterstock, eldest son of John Danvers and Joan Bruley, was born about the year 1422, and died in the year 1502; that is to say, he lived from the year of the death of Henry V, through the long reign of Henry VI, and the reigns of Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III, and the greater part of that of Henry VII.

Wives of Thomas Danvers of Waterstock

Thomas inherited from his father the Brancestre property in Banbury, and also that of both branches of the Bruley family at Henton, Waterstock, Corston, and elsewhere.  He was twice married—first to a sister of Lord Say,6.1 who is often mentioned in genealogies of the family, though her Christian name is nowhere given.  She was a daughter of the James Fiennes, Lord Say, who was beheaded in the year 1450; sister, therefore, to William, second Lord Say.  The arms of one of the wives of Thomas Danvers upon his tomb in Waterstock Church were those of Fiennes, Lord Say, and over it written, ‘the daughter of Jacobus Fynes, his worde Thanke God.’  Edmondson, in his Baronagium Genealogicum, gives William three sisters, of whom one, named Elizabeth, married William Cromer; the matches of the other two sisters, Emmeline and Jane, are not mentioned, and it was doubtless one of these whom Thomas Danvers married.  His second wife was Sybil Fowler, daughter of William Fowler and Cicely Englefield, who was otherwise related to the Danvers family, since her aunt Sibyl married Richard Quatermayn, and her brother, Richard Fowler, married her husband’s sister, Joan Danvers.

We know from her will that Dame Sybil had two husbands, Thomas Danvers and Robert Breknoke, and as in her will she calls herself Danvers, it would seem that Robert Breknoke was her first husband.  Moreover, we learn from Lee’s Gatherings in Oxfordshire that in the year 1157 there was in Haseley Church, on a gravestone, a shield bearing the arms of Breknoke and Fowler, and the inscription, ‘Richard Brecknok son of Robert Brecknok Esq. and Sibell his wife, ob. 28 March 1435.’

Thomas Danvers lived in the old manor-house of Waterstock, the windows of which he decorated with the arms of the families with whom he was related, as well as with those of William of Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, and George Neville, Archbishop of York, prelates with whom politics and business matters allied him.  His house has long since disappeared.  That is not matter for wonder, for the ancient ‘manoir’ was not suited to the enlarged ideas and views of comfort of even Tudor times; but with the house has gone the church also— the church in which Foliots, Bruleys, and Danvers worshipped—the church which Thomas Danvers enlarged and was careful to adorn, and in which he and his two wives were buried.  All has been swept away by modern restorers; not a vestige of the ancient tombs and of the painted glass with which the windows of the church were once profusely decorated now remains.  The modernized tower is the only part of the old church (excepting perhaps the north aisle) that has been left standing.  A pleasant church is the present one, well kept and garnished, but alas! no longer an example and a monument of the work and piety of ancient days, Waterstock Church does but repeat the story of too many church restorations of the present century.

Thomas Danvers, as his letters and the society in which he moved give evidence, was an educated and cultured man; and while we have made use of the lives of his brothers Robert and Richard in illustration of the fact that, amidst the turbulent conditions of their time, the apparatus of justice was maintained, and trade became vigorous, that of Thomas may remind us of another feature of the period, namely, the ‘new culture,’ ‘the existence of which,’ writes Dr Bright, ‘more than anything else separates the middle ages from modern times,’ 6.2 and was then beginning to make its way.  ‘As the leader in this direction, Humphrey of Gloucester may be mentioned.  In spite of his turbulent and disorderly character, he was a sincere lover of literature.  He was in communication with several of the greater Italian scholars.  More than one classical translation was dedicated to him.’  ‘He did not stand alone in his literary tastes.  Tiptoft, the Earl of Worcester, was likewise impregnated with Italian learning, and among the newer nobles Lord Rivers gave distinguished patronage to the art of printing, which Caxton introduced into England in the year 1469.  Altogether it would seem that among the upper classes the rudiments of learning were beginning to be widely spread, and that the laity were gradually becoming sufficiently cultivated to rival the Churchmen, and to take their proper part of the government of the country.’

And of this revival of learning in England the foundation of Magdalen College by Bishop Waynflete was a consequence and a sign.  For the Bishop was moved thereto, writes his biographer, Dr Chandler, by his observation of the low estate to which his University had fallen—an estate so low that the University of Paris had broken off its ancient connection with that of Oxford, counting it as a school of learning beneath its notice.  And Thomas Danvers, the friend of Waynflete, and actively engaged about the business of the foundation, must have hailed with delight the rising walls of the splendid building, which to all time will be a monument of Waynflete’s taste and munificence.  In a letter which Danvers addressed about this time from Waterstock to Mayhew, President of the College, then in London, the jovial nature of the good knight breaks forth, and he tells Mayhew that ‘he was yesterday at the College, and had full good cheer with the bowsers’ (bursars).  But the greatest of the bursars of Magdalen was not yet there, nor till late in life did Danvers see the noble tower of the College rise under the care of Thomas Wolsey.

So that Thomas Danvers, though he may scarcely have aspired to the title of a ‘literate,’ was by no means an unlettered country gentleman.  Indeed, the experiences of his life must have been very varied.  He was a justice of the peace for the counties of Oxford and Southampton, was at one time a member of the household of the Bishop of Winchester, and at another of that of the King.6.3  By the Bishop he was freely employed in arrangements for the endowment of his college, and at one time he served as collector of the customs of the Port of London.6.4  He was, too, a member of three Parliaments, and, a pronounced Lancastrian, was amongst those who were attained for non-attendance at a Parliament of 2 Edward IV (1462).6.5

Thomas Danvers of Waterstock in Parliament

The Parliaments in which he sat were those of 38 Henry VI (1459), which met at Coventry, and of 12 and 17 Edward IV (1472 and 1477), which met at Westminster.  In each of these he represented the borough of Downton, Wilts, and as the right of election to Downton was vested in persons having a freehold interest in tenements held of the Bishop of Winchester, who was lord of the borough, the choice of Thomas Danvers as their representative is readily explained.

The first of these Parliaments met at Coventry on November 20, 1459 or 1460, and was wholly made up of stanch friends of the House of Lancaster.  On the day of meeting, the King sitting in his chair in the chapter-house of our Lady of Coventry, Chancellor Waynflete made a notable declaration why the Parliament was called, taking for his text the words, ‘Gratia vobis et pax multiplicetur.’  The Parliament quickly did all that was required of it; the Duke of York and his followers of any note were attainted, and then, with the thanks of the King, the Parliament was dissolved.

The King, as we learn from the French Rolls,6.6 was at this time seeking an alliance with the powerful Duke of Burgundy, and a commission was appointed, dated November 26, to treat with the Duke’s commissioners regarding the continuance of the truce and for mutual intercourse in trade.  Of the King’s commissioners one was Thomas Danvers, and with him were John Danvers, possibly his nephew, Osbert Mountford, Richard Heron, and others.  But the commission can scarcely have begun negotiations before they were interrupted by the termination of the short-lived triumph of the Lancastrians.  In the following July the Yorkist Earls, Salisbury and Warwick, landed in Kent, having with them the young Earl of March, afterwards Edward IV, and rapidly rallied around them the people of the South, who were as loyal to the Yorkists as were those of the North to the Lancastrians.  London was captured, and Warwick, advancing northwards, met the King’s army at Northampton on July 10, 1460.  The Lancastrians were defeated with terrible slaughter, and the King, who was found deserted in his tent, was carried a prisoner to London; a Parliament was called, which met at London in October, when all the Acts of the Parliament of Coventry were annulled.

Twelve years after this we find Thomas Danvers again in Parliament, for though, like his friend Waynflete, warmly Lancastrian, like him he submitted to the new dynasty so soon as Edward became firmly seated on the throne.  At Tewkesbury the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Somerset, and the other few remaining Lancastrian nobles were slain, and shortly after the old King was murdered in the Tower.  Then the clergy and the lesser nobles made their peace with the reigning House, and at the last the Wars of the Roses seemed to be at an end.6.7  The Parliament met at Westminster in October of 1472 in the Painted Chamber, and was opened by Lord Chancellor Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells.  The King was contemplating a renewal of the war in France in alliance with Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and obtained from the Parliament a grant of 14,000 archers.  His eldest son’s patent as Prince of Wales was confirmed, and as an act of mercy many attainders were reversed.  The Parliament was shortly after prorogued, but met again and again chiefly with regard to attainders and the disposal of estates, the owners of which had disappeared during the Civil Wars.  It was not finally dissolved till March 1474-75.

Thomas Danvers sat again in the Parliament which met at Westminster in January, 1477, and was opened by Lord Chancellor Rotheram, Bishop of London.  The Chancellor took for his text the words, ‘Dominus regit me et nihil mihi deerit,’ and took occasion to show by many examples from the Old and New Testaments the obedience which subjects owed to their King, and the evils that have happened to the rebellious.

The principal business of the session was the attainder of the King’s brother, the Duke of Clarence.  The trial took place before the House of Lords, the King in person being the accuser, and after a hot personal quarrel, in which the King charged the Duke with all sorts of ungrateful acts of treason, he was condemned, and was shortly after put to death in the Tower.

Foundation of Magdalen College

When Bishop Waynflete gave up the seals in the year 1460, he returned to the discharge of his duties as Bishop of Winchester, and began to occupy himself in preparations for the foundation of Magdalen College moved, thereto, as we have already noted, by the low estate to which the University of Oxford had fallen.  As early as the year 1448, the year after he obtained the mitre, Waynflete founded a hall in Oxford for the study of divinity and philosophy, but it was not till May 5, 1474, that the foundation-stone of Magdalen College was laid, and it is a transaction of that year which gives us the earliest note we have of the connection of Thomas Danvers with the affairs of the college.  This is a release from John, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, to Thomas and William Danvers of his rights in the manor of Stanlake, a manor which was subsequently transferred to the college.6.8  It would be tedious to detail the long list of transactions which may be found recorded in the calendar of the archives of the college, and in the Close Rolls and Fines in which Thomas Danvers bore a part.  To mention only a few of them.  In the year 1464,6.9 John Lynham, who married Thomas Danvers’ niece, Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir John Fraye and Agnes Danvers, lent to Sir Robert Corbet and his son Robert the sum of £409 as a mortgage on their Stanlake property.  Then in an Oxon Fine of 1 Richard III we have Thomas’s brother-in-law Richard Fowler, and Richard Quatermain, buying from Robert Corbet and Elizabeth his wife the manor of Tubney, and lands in Denchworth, Frylleford, and Abingdon, and we have Margaret Lynham, widow of Sir John, selling the manor of Tubney and the advowson of the church to the Bishop of Winchester, and receiving from the Bishop, at the hands of Thomas Danvers, £46, the balance of the purchase-money of the manor.6.10

Amongst the muniments of the college is a long series of documents regarding the manor of Chalgrave, the earliest of which,6.11 dated A.D. 1200, is a grant from Robert, son of David of Chalgrave, to Ralph Quatermain of lands there, and in connection with this manor we find in successive documents frequent mention of the families of Quatermain and Barantyne.  The final destination of the manor was to form a part of the endowment of Magdalen College, but it went through the hands of Thomas Danvers, for in an Oxon Fine6.12 he buys the manor of Elizabeth, who was wife of John Botiller, a widow, and of her son, John Barantyne and his wife, Margaret.  This, however, can have been only a part purchase, for in the year 14856.13 we have record of a mortgage by John Barantyne to his cousin, Thomas Danvers, of his manor of Chalgrave, and his wife Elizabeth receives £5 from her cousin Danvers.  Following this is an engagement, dated June 29, 1485, from John Barantyne, that ‘he will never ask the King or any other earthly creature to desire’ his cousin Danvers to prolong the day of payment, and that if it is not paid in November next, the said Thomas Danvers shall foreclose the mortgage.  The money was not paid, Thomas foreclosed, and shortly sold the manor to the Bishop of Winchester.6.14

In the Close Roll of 1 Richard III (1483)6.15 is another record of a transaction between Barantyne and Danvers.  The former releases to Danvers all his rights, in the manors of Henton and Wynnale, and the advowson of the chapel of Henton juxta Chynnore, Oxon, and in Bledlawe, and in Touresey, in Bucks; and in the same roll:6.15 ‘Be hit knowen to all peple that, I John Barantyne, Esqre., confesse myself by this present to have recyved of Thomas Danvers the daye of makyng this present thyrty pounds of sterling in full payment and contentacion of all some of money for the purchase of the manor of Hendon and all oder landes in Hendon, Chynnore, and Touresey.’  The manor, and the manor of Rufford also, went to the college.

Then, in the Close Roll of 8 Henry VII (1492),6.16 we have John Cottesmore conveying to William Danvers, Thomas Englefield, Thomas Danvers, and William Rabbes, for the son of Thomas Danvers, all his rights in the messuages, tofts, and lands in Great Milton, and in Great and Little Chilworth, which formerly belonged to John Cottesmore, a Justice in Banco.  In the Close Roll of 4 Edward IV6.17 we find Thomas Danvers engaged in the sale, by William Fenys, Lord Say, of the Manor of Oterbourne to William, Bishop of Winchester; and again, in the Close Roll of the twenty-first year of the same reign, we have William, son and heir of John Newman, releasing to Thomas Danvers, William Danvers, Henry Danvers, John Frowyk, and Thomas Burton, the lands in Iver and Langley, Bucks, which were formerly those of John Newman.

Letters of Thomas Danvers of Waterstock

One of the originals of these deeds is amongst the charters belonging to the British Museum6.18—a slip of parchment about two inches across by eight or nine in length.  The signature of Thomas Danvers, firm and distinct, is appended to it; his seal bears the device of a dragon holding a sword in one of its fore-paws.

Besides the short letter already quoted, in which Thomas Danvers mentions his visit to Oxford, and his good cheer with ‘the bowsers’ of Magdalen College, we have two other letters of his, one of which is amongst the muniments of Magdalen College, and the other is included amongst the Paston letters.  The former is dated from Waterstock, August 15, 1494. 
‘At Waterstoke, on oure Lady Day the assumpsion, from Thomas Danvers to President (of Magdalen College) Mayew.  Has received his letter from Kilyngeworthe of 11 August.  The King’s delaying his going to Rome for all this year is gladder tidings to the writer than winning of £20, considering the great trust that Waynflete put in him for the help of the College.  Desires him to remember the matters about land in Shipton upon Cherwell, and at Edyngdon, and to move the King about them.  Advises him to get Lord Husse safe to him, for his wisdom may do most for the College next the King.  The King hath not another such man to do him service in attendance about him, for the Chief Justice is homo universalis; and I pray you, whenn ye see the Kyng at good leysere that ye say that I prayed his Grace to remember the erandys that my Lord Waynflete before his dethe commaundyd me to opyn to hym for the execucion of Kyng Henry the Sixtes laste wylle, College of Etin, and Cambrigge, your college, and Tatishall, with other matters, and these woordes that my lorde sent to the Kyng in Latin, cum defecerit virtus mea ne derelinquas me, Domine, and shalle show the Kyng more when he wylle commaunde mee.’  Will ride to-morrow to London on errand known to the Kyng’s mother.  Suggests that he should write a letter to the Bishop of Winchester about Bryerton’s matter (money owing to Waynflete).

The letter shows that Thomas Danvers was at the time taking an active interest in the affairs of Magdalen College, in those of kindred institutions, and in the affairs of his late friend, Bishop Waynflete, and that he was in communication regarding them with the King and the King’s mother (Margaret, Countess of Richmond).

The Lord Hussey,6.19 whom Thomas Danvers mentions, was at the time Chief Justice, an office which he held during four reigns.  He died, full of years and honours, in 1495.

Letter from T. Daverse to Sir John Paston, January 29, 1467 (?):6.20

‘My right especiall good mayster, I recomand me to yow, thankyng you right hertely of your gentell letter late sent to me.  And as to Pynchester mater, etc., I wulde I were youre nygh kynnesman, yef hit plesed God, and than shuld I know yef hit shuld greve your herte as meche as hit dothe other of my kynne and frendes to see me thus cowardly hurte and maimed by Pynchester, causeless; and if myn entente in that mater, Wylliam Rabbes shall telle you more.  All so I beseche yow to recomand me to my Lordes good grace as to hym whom of erthely estates, next my dewte, I moste love and drede, and that shuld he well knowe, and hit lay in my power, praying you hertely to declare his Lordship such mater as Wylliam Rabbes shall enfourme yow, and to send my Lordes answere.

‘All so in as moche as I understoode by yow that money shuld cause you conclusion in your mater this next terme, and ye wull be at London on Monday at nyght or Tewsday by none, I truste I have studyed such a mene that, up on surete as ye may make, to gete yow an C. li.  or C.C.  marke, to be lante unto yow for an half yere, with oute any chevysshaunce or losse of goode by yow, as Wylliam Rabbes shall telle you more, etc.

‘And as to Ovyde “de Arte Amandi,” I shall send hym you this next weke, for I have hyt not now redy, but me thenkeyth Ovide “de Remidio” were more mete for yow, but yef (unless) ye purposid to falle hastely in my lady Anne P. lappe, as white as whales bon, &c.  Ye be the best cheser of a gentell woman that I knowe.  And I pray you recomaunde me to my Lord of Oxford and to my good Maysters Nedeham, Richemond, Chyppenham, Stavely, Bloxham, Stuard, and Ingulton in speciall, and all other good masters and frendes in generall.  And, sir, Maystres Gaydade recomand me her (?) to yow and said blessyng fare for charite, and she said me she wuld fayne have a new felet, &c.  

Wreten at London this 29th day in Janyver, with herte and servyse your T. D.’

In the year 1501 Thomas was in London, and on the occasion of Prince Arthur’s marriage was made a ‘knight of the sword,’ and on the same day his brother, William Danvers, and his nephew, John Danvers, of Dauntsey, received the same order, that of the sword; but it is probable that they were already knighted.  Sir Ralph Verney, Sir William Cottesmore, and Sir William Clopton, all connected with the Danvers family, were on the same occasion made knights of the same order.6.21

Thomas Danvers was now an old man, yet in a green old age genial and hearty, right glad to welcome at his house at Waterstock visitors from Oxford, that with them he might talk over old times and of the new learning and of the doings and sayings of Erasmus and Grocyn, of Linacre and of Colet.  And as the old knight was able to journey to London, he would make but a light matter of a ride to Oxford, where, as he crossed the river, he would see and admire the rising tower of Magdalen College, the college with the foundation and building of which so many of his best memories were connected.  There he would find Thomas Wolsey, who held office in the college, and under whose guidance the tower was built, and passing on to Grocyn’s house Danvers would meet Erasmus, who was Grocyn’s guest—‘patronus et preceptor’ Erasmus calls him—and there, too, he would find the young Thomas More, afterwards Chancellor, now the pupil of Grocyn.  And though the old man has no children of his own, for his only son died young, he has about him many cousins and nephews and nieces, young and old—Danvers and Langstons, Fowlers and Verneys, Frays and Says, Englefields and Westcotes, Raleighs and Chamberlains; and with him are his old and faithful servants, John Fulmer and William Rabbes, while his wife, Dame Sybil, hearty and strong, when his last days approach, is able to support his faltering steps across the lawn, that he may see the progress of the chancel which he is building, and concerning which, as in his will he writes, ‘she knows his mind.’  Early in the year 1502 Thomas Danvers died, and was buried in the tomb which he had prepared during his life—an altar tomb of gray marble against the north wall of the chancel of Waterstock Church.

Tomb of Thomas Danvers of Waterstock

The tomb remained until the latter part of the eighteenth century, and is described by Anthony Wood in one of his MSS.,6.22 but it disappeared with so many other memorials of that period, when the church was rebuilt.  Upon the monument ‘was the picture of a man in armour kneeling upon a cushion, upon his surcoat were his arms, viz., arg.[ent] on a bend gu.[les], 3 martlets vert (Danvers).  On one side was a woman kneeling, over whose head was this coat: erm.[ine] on a canton gu.[les], an owl arg.[ent] with a collar about its neck (Fowler).  On the other side was another woman with this coat over her:  quarterly, 1 and 4 quarterly or and gu.[les] (de Say), 2 and 3 az.[ure], three lions rampant or (Fiennes).’  The pictures of the man and women praying were repeated in a window, and with them Saints Barbara, Trinitas, Anna, also the motto ‘Thank God,’ and the inscription:

‘Orate pro aiabz .  .  .  filia Jacobi Fenys qui istam ecclesiam “fecerunt” [so it seems to be written in the margin, Wood’s note], anno 1480.’

In the chancel window were the arms of Bruley and Bruley impaling Quatermayn, and of Danvers impaling Bruley.  In the north aisle Danvers quartering Bruley impaling Danvers quartering Bruley over all, on a shield of pretence Quatermayn.  In the west window beneath:

‘Orate pro aiabz John Danvers armiger et Dom Johan Mauntell ux.  sue, fil: et hered: 

John: Bruley et Matild: de Quatermayn ux.  sue quondam patronissa istius ecclesie.’

In window of the tower Brancestre quartering Bruley, impaling Pury (arms of Sir William Danvers, of Chamberhouse), Danvers and Bruley impaling Verney (of Bucks) with the inscription:

‘Orate pro anibz Henrici Danvers et Beatrici ux.

sue filie Radulphi Verney milit.’

In a south window:

‘Orate pro animabus Joh: Danvers et Dne Johe: Bruley ux sue ac . . . 

Richardi Danvers de Prescote et Joh’nis . . . Wald . . . de Rufford.’

The aunt of Richard Danvers, (refer Chapter Three), married William de Rufford.

In another window the pictures of two bishops, under one the arms of George Neville and the See of York, under the other the arms of William Waynflete and the arms of the See of Winchester.  Beneath the inscription:

‘Orate pro anibz Georgii Neyle quondam Archep: Ebor ac Willi Waynflete Wynton Epi et Thos.  Danvers, et sroy-geri-eoru p nichs.’

Wood has dashed the last few letters in red ink.  Evidently he copied what he saw, but was unable to interpret it.

In the south window of the church were the arms of Margaret Breknoke.  Margaret was the wife of the David Breknoke mentioned in Dame Sybil Danvers’ will, and was one of the daughters and heirs of John Syfrewast.  She held a moiety of the manor of Cleware and land in the parish.6.23 Also in the church, coupled together, were the arms of Bruley, with (over it) Henry Bruley, Miles, and a bend between six fleurs-de-lys, with ‘this is Brules wyffe Fitzellis.’ The match explains the connection of William Bruley with the Fitzellis Manors, Oakley and Waterperry; (refer the end of this Chapter).  Probably this Henry Bruley, who had a wife Fitzellis, was Henry, the father of Agnes Bruley, whose son, John, married Maude Quatermayne.

Many other shields, bearing the arms of Danvers and allied families, were present in the windows of the church and those of the neighbouring manor- house, for notes of which we may refer to Lee’s notes, published in the Harleian Society’s vol. v, and to Wood, MS. E. 1, now in the Bodleian Library.

Will of Thomas Danvers

Will of Thomas Danvers, Knt.  (10 Blamyr).

In the name of God Amen.  The 1st day of November in the ‘fest of alhallowen’ 1501.  I Thomas Danvers of Waterstok do make this my testament and last will as follows: 

I give my body to be buried ‘where God dispose it.’  And if I died at Waterstok then to be buried in the Chancel before St. Leonard.

I bequeath towards the reparation of the Mother Church of Lincoln 13s. 4d.

Also to each of the houses of the four orders of friars in Oxford 13s. 4.  Also to the Warden and Fellows of New College Oxford to say mass and dirge for my soul 26s. 8d.

I bequeath to the parson of Waterstok 13s. 4d.

I bequeath to my brother Sir William Danvers one bason and one ewer of silver in the which are graven my fathers arms and my mothers together, for a remembrance for my soul.  I bequeath to the Churches of Milton, Ikford, and Aldebury 20s. each; also to every Church where I have any livelihood 6s. 8d.

I also give towards the exhibition of two virtuous priests being scholars in Oxford 40s. each yearly for two years to say mass for my soul at all times of the year except at the eight principal feasts when I desire that they say mass for my soul in the Church of Waterstok.

I bequeath to Richard Croke son of Agnes daughter of my brother Henry Danvers when he comes to his full age, and it is thought by my Executors that he will thrive, 10 marks.  To my Godson Robert Croke brother to the said Richard £10 to be employed after he come to the age of 21 years towards his help and preferment.

I will that my Executrix have all my goods moveable and unmoveable in what place soever they be to pay my debts and wrongs.

I will that William Rabbes my old servant have for his true service to him and heir heirs all the houses in Whateley and the lands that I bought of Richard Laughton and Agnes his wife.

I bequeath to John Fulmer ‘to be good and true to my wife’ 10 marks; 20s. to each of his other servants.

I will that my Executrix sell any purchase land that I have in Oxfordshire, that is to say, the crown of Oxford, in Woodstoke, Clever, and Bensington to do for may soul as shall seem most expedient.

As to my ‘ieveloode’ at Langstoke in Hampshire I will that my Executrix dispose of it to the house of St. ‘Swethums’ in Winchester to pray for my soul and for that of Lord Wayneflete.

I bequeath to Whately bridge and Ikeford bridge and high ways £20.

I will that the ‘Ile’ in Waterstoke Church be finished ‘in as goodly haste as it may be and covered with leede;’ also that there may be a new Chancel made in Waterstoke Church according as I have begun and as my wife knows my mind.

I will that my feoffees in the manor in Waterstoke, Chilworth and Combe with the appurtenances make an estate to my wife for the term of her life if she remain unmarried, if she marry, then it shall go forthwith to my right heirs.

The residue of all my goods after my debts and the costs of my burying paid I bequeath to Dame Sibyl my wife whom I make my sole Executrix.  I appoint my brother Sir William Danvers, Justice, to be Overseer of this my present will.

Witnesses: Master Christopher Bainbridge Archdeacon of Surrey, Master John Whithers, John Walker, Thomas Darell, Richard Grenefeld, John Fulmer, and others.

Proved at Lambeth the 26th day of September 1502.

Richard Croke

Excepting his wife, his great nieces, daughters of his nephew John Danvers, and his brother Sir William Danvers, Richard and Robert Croke are the only relatives whom Sir Thomas Danvers mentions in his will.  They were sons of Agnes Croke,6.24 daughter of his brother Henry and Beatrice his wife, the daughter of Sir Ralph Verney.  They boys are interesting, for their mention by Thomas Danvers gives us almost certainly the parentage of a man of some note in his day, Richard Croke.  Sir Alexander Croke, in his History of the Croke Family,6.25 devotes a chapter to Richard Croke.  He believes him to have been a member of the family, but is not certain where in the pedigree to place him.  He knows that Richard was born in London about the year 1492, of an ancient and honourable family, this Richard Croke tells us himself in one of his orations, and adds that he was in early years deprived of his inheritance by the iniquity of his relatives.  He had a brother, Robert, whom he mentions in his will, and there can be little doubt that these are the brothers to whom Thomas Danvers leaves a legacy.

Richard Croke was sent by Archbishop Warham from Eton College to King’s College, Cambridge, where he matriculated April 4, 1502.  He studied Greek under Grocyn, and became one of the first restorers and most successful cultivators of the language.  Leaving England, he became public reader of Greek successively at Cologne, Louvain, Leipsic, and Dresden.  Thence he was recalled by Henry VIII, with whom and with the nobility that were learned he became a great favourite,6.26 and succeeded Erasmus as Professor of Greek at Cambridge, where he was public orator 1522-28.  He was employed by the King to visit Italy, and especially the University of Padua, with a view to agitating the question of the unlawfulness of the King’s marriage with his brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon.  Many of his letters to the King are amongst the Cotton MSS. at the British Museum.  Richard Croke finally became Rector of Long Buckly, Northamptonshire, where he died in the year 1558.  His brother was Sir Robert Crooke, or Croke, of Water Horton, Warwick.

Dame Sybil Danvers survived her second husband nine years.  Her will, a copy of which follows, mentions her husbands, Thomas Danvers and Robert Breknoke, also her brother, Thomas Fowler, and other members of the Fowler family, one which, by marriage, and by many business transactions of which we have record, was intimately related to that of Danvers.

FOWLER FAMILY

The Fowler family6.27 appears to have first acquired position by the marriage of Sybil’s grandfather (probably named Henry) with Elizabeth, sister and heiress of John Barton of Thornton, Buckingham.  This Henry (?) is said in the pedigrees to have been son of John Fowler, of Foxley, Bucks, by the heiress of Loveday, but no authentic evidence of this is forthcoming.  After the match with Barton, the Fowlers frequently used the Barton arms, namely, ermine on a canton gules an owl argent, and from this coat the owl of their crest was manifestly derived.  William Fowler, the son and heir of Henry (?) Fowler by Elizabeth Barton, married Cecily, daughter and coheiress of Nicholas Englefield by Joan Rycote, who was the daughter and heiress of Nicholas Clerk, or Rycote, by Katherine, daughter and heiress of John Rycote, of Rycote.

Richard Fowler

Richard Fowler, the eldest son of William and Cecily (and brother of Dame Sybil Danvers) became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and married Joan Danvers.  He died in the year 1478, and his will, which is lengthy and curious, is given almost in full in Browne Willis’s History of the Hundred of Buckingham.  He desires to be buried in the aisle of the church of St Romwold, Buckingham, and orders a new shrine curiously wrought for the bones of the saint, and directs that he himself should be buried under a flat stone with images and escutcheons.  He mentions his wife, Joan, his aunt Sybil Quatermayn, his daughter Sybil Chamberlayn, his sisters Alice Roks and Sybil Danvers, and his brother Thomas Fowler.  He wills that his daughter Joan, when fifteen years of age, shall be married to his ward, Edward Stradling, and to have a portion of four hundred marks.

Richard’s heir was his son Richard, born in the year 1466, who evidently became, as described by Leland, ‘a very onthrift.’  He married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Windsor, and sister to Lord Windsor.  Elizabeth’s father was descended from Sir James Windsor, brother of the Sir William Windsor who, in 1378, married Alice Perrers, daughter of Richard Perrers.  Sir William died in 1383.  Elizabeth’s husband, Richard, died in 1528, when the Fowler estate devolved to Richard’s uncle Thomas.  Richard’s will,6.28 is proved 19 Henry VIII (1527) in which his children are mentioned and he is described as ‘son of Richard Fowler, late Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.’  George, his son and heir, was aged 30 and more.6.29

Dame Sybil Danvers mentions Thomas’s grandson6.30 in her will as ‘Thomas Fowler, cousin and heir apparent of my brother, Thomas Fowler.’

Will of Dame Sybil Danvers (nee Fowler)

Will of Dame Sybil Danvers. (2 Fetiplace)

In the name of God Amen.  The 13th day of May 1511, I Dame Sybil Danvers do make my last will in form following: I give my body to be buried in the ‘yle’ of St. Anne in the church of Waterstoke.  I bequeath to the Cathedral Church of Lincoln 20d., also to the high altar of Waterstoke 3s. 4d., and to the high altar of Mylton 3s. 4d., for tithes forgotten; to the Church of Mylton 20d.; to the St. Anne in the Church of Waterstoke 20d., and to her light 20d.  I bequeath to the lights of Our Lady, the Roode, St. Leonard & St. Katherine, 12d. each; to the bells of Waterstoke 3s. 4d.; to the Church of Aldebury 3s. 4d.; to the Church of Ykford 22d.; to the 4 orders of friars at Oxford 13s. 4., to be equally divided among them.

I also give £8 to two virtuous priests scholars at Oxford, to sing for my husband’s soul and for mine, and to come to my year’s mind held at Waterstoke for 2 years.

To Mary Wescott I bequeath £3 6s. 8d. towards her marriage, with a featherbed, a bolster, &c. &c.; to Agnes Ewstas 40s., a featherbed, a bolster, &c.  To Sybil Barker 40s., to John Fowler a standing cup with a cover when he attains the age of 21 years; if he should not live so long then I will that his brother Edward have the said cup.  To Bridget Fowler a ‘serkelett sett wt perlys’; to Bridget Raleigh a flatt piece of silver; to John Wellysbourne £20 in sheep & other cattle, with all the stuff in his chamber.

I will that my housholde stand and be kepte hole tyll my monethes mynde be past.  And then I will that the outwards servants called hyndes have their quarter wage and their beddg they lye yn.  My feoffees in all my lands & tenements in ‘Stanys’ in Co. Midd.  I will shall stand & be feoffees after my decease to the use of John Batter my servant for his life, he to keep the same in repair; after his decease I will that an estate be made out of the said premises to Thomas Fowler cousin & heir apparent to my brother Thomas Fowler & to his heirs for ever, if he be then living, otherwise I will that the premises be sold by my Executors, & the money to be distributed for my soul.  I will that my feoffees in Dachett, Southlee, Upton, Farnham, Stokepugies, Eastburham and Chippenham in Co. Bucks immediately after my decease do suffer my executors to take the issues and profits of all the lands & tenements aforesaid towards the performance of this my will until such time as they may make sale of all the premises, and when sale thereof has been made to such persons as my Executors shall think most convenient, then I will that my feoffees make a sufficient estate in the law of all the said lands & tenements to such persons to whom the sale shall have been made.  When this has been done I will that my Executors pay to Edward Raleygh for his Exhibucon 20 marks in money, & to Thomas Fowler abovementioned 100 marks.

The residue of all my goods I give to Sybil Chamberleyn, Thomas Langstone, John Bowes, & John Wellyborne whom I ordain my Executors, and I will them to dispose of all my goods &c,.  for the health of my soul ‘and myn husbonde souls Thomas Danvers & Robert Breknoke,’ and for the souls of my father & mother, and for the souls of David Breknoke Margaret and John, and for all Christian souls.  I ordain Sir Thomas Ynglesfeld Knt. supervisor of this my will.

Witnesses, Sir Robert Wright, Sir Robert Barker, Sir Robert Yevan, John Batter and John Fulmer.

Proved on the 29th day of June 1511.

RALEIGH FAMILY

Sir Edward Raleigh

The Raleighs6.31 whom Dame Sybil mentions belonged to the even then ancient Warwickshire family of that name.  The first of the name of whom we have mention was Sir Henry, of Farnborough, who married Isabel, daughter and coheir of Sir John Pincherdon.  Their son John married Joan de Grey, of Rotherfield.  Sixth in descent from John and Joan was Sir Edward Raleigh, of Farnborough, who married Margaret, daughter of Sir Ralph Verney, sister to the Beatrice Verney who married Henry Danvers.  Sir Edward was sheriff of the counties of Warwick and Leicester 7 Edward IV (1467).  He left money to the abbot and monks of Combe, to pray for his soul and the souls of Ralph Verney and his wife Emma, father and mother of his wife Margaret.6.32

Sir Edward had a son, another Sir Edward Raleigh, who married Anne, daughter of Sir William Chamberlyn, or Tankerville.  The Bridget Raleigh to whom Dame Sybil leaves ‘a flatt piece of silver’ was probably Bridget, the daughter of Edward Raleigh and Anne Chamberlyn.  This lady took as her second husband Sir John Cope, of Canons Ashby, near Culworth.  Sir John had three wives, of whom Bridget Raleigh was the first.6.33  They had three sons— Erasmus, George, Anthony—and two daughters, one of whom married John Dryden, Esq.  Sir John died seized of all the possessions of the monks of Canons Ashby.  Edward, his grandson, succeeded to part of his estates, and the remainder went to John Dryden.  The Chamberlyns were otherwise connected to the families of Fowler and Danvers,6.34 Richard Chamberlyn having married Sybil Fowler, daughter of Dame Sybil’s brother Richard.  The Mary Wescott or Westcote6.35 to whom Dame Sybil Danvers left a legacy was descended from the Matilda Quatermayn who married Thomas Littelton, of Frankley, Worcester, and had by him a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Thomas Westcote.  Thomas had a son, Thomas, of much legal fame, a judge temp. Edward IV (1461-1483), who took his mother’s name Littelton, and another son, Guy Westcote, who married Alice Greenvile, of a Gloucestershire family: they had a son, Thomas Westcote, who married Mary, daughter and heiress of Westcote, of Porlock, Somerset.  Probably it is this Mary Westcote6.35 whom Dame Sybil mentions in her will.

The Wellesbourne6.36 family were connected with that of Danvers by the marriage of Elizabeth, sister to Sir Thomas Danvers, with Thomas Poure of Blechingdon, whose daughter Margaret married Thomas Wellesbourne of Wickham and West Hanney.  Dame Sybil’s executor, ‘John Wellysborne,’ was probably Sir John Wellesbourne, of Fulwell, Oxon, son to Thomas Wellesbourne and Margaret Poure.

Of Dame Sybil’s executors, Thomas Langston was son to John Langston and Amys Danvers.  Sir Thomas Englefield, the supervisor of the will, married Margery, daughter of Richard Danvers half-brother to Dame Sybil’s second husband, Thomas Danvers.

WILLIAM DANVERS OF CHAMBERHOUSE

We now come to William Danvers, the second son of John Danvers and Joan Bruley.  His great-granddaughter, Dorothy Raynsford, married John, great-grandson of his half-brother Richard, thus linking the descendants of the two wives of John of Calthorpe, and William Danvers is therefore in the direct line of descent of the present family of Danvers.

William was born about the year 1430.  In the year 1487 (December 17) he was made one of the King’s Justices ‘de banco,’ and in the following year (February 5, 1488-89) one of the Justices of the Common Pleas.6.37  William married, sometime between 1470 and 1475, Anne, daughter and heiress of John Pury, of Chamberhouse, Thatcham, Berks, by whom he had several children, of whom six—John, Thomas, William, Anne, Alice, and Isabel—survived him.  The eldest son, John, was aged 26 and more when William died in 1504.

William appears, with his brothers Thomas and Richard, and with their kinsmen Langstons and Fowlers, in many deeds recorded in the Close Rolls and Fines, and amongst the muniments of Magdalen College.  The earliest mention of his name which we have been able to find is in the year 1464.  In the year 1467 he sat as member for Taunton, and again for the same borough in the Parliament of 1472.

Contemporary Events

The Parliament of the year 1467 was opened by William, Bishop of Lincoln, in the absence of George, Archbishop of York, who was Chancellor.  This was the George Neville, brother to the Earl of Warwick, whose arms, though he was Chancellor to Edward of York, appeared in the windows of Waterstock House along with those of Waynflete, the Lancastrian Bishop of Winchester.  But, two or three years before the period in question, a quarrel had arisen between the Nevilles and the King, because of the latter’s marriage with Elizabeth Grey (Woodville) at a time when Warwick was negotiating for him an alliance with Bona of Savoy.  The quarrel became an open rupture, and, as a consequence, Lord Chancellor Neville, when dismissed from office, joined his brother in a secret league with Queen Margaret and the Lancastrians.  Thus it came about that George, Archbishop of York, was absent at the opening of this Parliament, and that Thomas Danvers placed his arms, with those of William Waynflete, in a window of Waterstock Church.

Of this Parliament Sir John Say  was Speaker.  He was not, however, as yet brother-in-law to William Danvers, and to him, and to William and his fellow-members, the King made a speech as follows:

‘John Say, and ye sirs, come to this my court of Parliament for the Commons of this my realm.  The cause why I have called and summoned this my present Parliament is that I purpose to live upon mine own, and not to charge my subjects but in great and urgent causes, concerning more the weale of themselves, and also the defence of them and of this my realm, rather than mine own pleasure, as theretofore by Commons of this lande hath beene done and borne unto my progenitors in time of need.  Wherein I trust that yee sirs and all the Commons of this my land will be as tender and kinde unto me in such cases as theretofore any Commons have been to any of my progenitors.  And for the good-will, kindness, and true hearts that yee have borne, continued, and shewed to me at all times heretofore I thanke you as heartily as I can.  Also, I trust you will continue in time coming; for which, by the grace of God, I shall be to you as good and gracious a King, and reigne as righteously upon you as ever did any of my progenitors upon Commons of this my realme in days pat, and shall also in time of need apply my person for the weale and defence of you and of this my realme, not sparing my body nor life for any jeopardy that might happen to the same.’

The Parliament was frequently prorogued because of the unquietness of the times, but met for serious business in May, 1468, when the Chancellor showed how much the King had done at home and abroad to restore the poor estate to which the crown had fallen, and especially that he had allied himself with the Dukes of Burgundy and Brittany for the recovery of France and the King’s patrimonies.  Subsidy was granted, bills of attainder were dealt with, the Queen’s dower was confirmed, many good laws were made for the encouragement of the woollen manufactures of the country; and a Bill was brought in, aimed probably at the Lollards, against such as should rob churches of pax, cope, Mass-books, etc.; such were to be deemed traitors, and to be burnt without benefit of clergy.  This Parliament appears to have been terminated by the rebellion which Warwick instigated, and which for a time made the King his prisoner.

In the year 1472 William Danvers again sat in Parliament for Taunton, and with him in that Parliament was his brother Thomas, who sat for Downton.  In the year 1487 William Danvers was raised to the Bench.

Disposal of Waterstock

On the death of his brother Thomas, William Danvers inherited the manors of Adderbury, Calthorpe, and the family property in Banbury, Bourton, Cropredy, Milton, and elsewhere.  Neither he nor his eldest son and heir, John, lived at Waterstock, for the manor-house was to remain for life in the possession of Dame Sybil, who outlived them both.  Indeed, Sir Thomas and his father were the only male members of the Danvers family who lived at Waterstock as lords of the manor, for when Dame Sybil died, John’s son was a child of three or four years old, on whose death, not long after, the Waterstock property went to Thomas Cave, in right of his wife Elizabeth, one of the daughters of John Danvers.  As we learn from his will, William Danvers bought property at Upton and Ratley, in Warwick; and Dugdale6.38 tells us that ‘William Davers, afterwards knight, bought the manor of Upton from Morgan Kydwelly, and depopulated one messuage, and enclosed twenty-eight acres of land and two hundred acres of pasture, from whom it linearly descended to John Danvers, lord thereof in 1640, from which family it came to the Archers of Tysoe.’ William also bought property at Iver and Langley, in Buckinghamshire, and the manor of Chiselhampton and Grove, as well as lands there, and in Henley-on-Thames, and in Rotherfield-Grave.

Chamberhouse and Thatcham

With his wife, Anne Pury, he obtained as dowry the manor of Chamberhouse, and to this he added land which he bought in Thatcham, the parish of which the manor formed a part.  The manor-house has disappeared, nor could we with certainty learn its site, but it probably stood near to where is now Chamberhouse manor farm, on the banks of the Kennet, a little south of Thatcham.  In its time the house must have been one of some importance, for in the year 1447 John Pury, lord of Chamberhouse, had the King’s license to embattle his manor-house and to impark three hundred and forty-four acres of land.  The name ‘Chamberhouse’ is derived from that of the family of Chambre, who owned property in Thatcham.  So early as 1250, Roger de la Chambre and his wife Felicia were possessed of land in the parish.  ‘Chamberhouse Castle’ was nearly surrounded by water, having the river Kennet to the south, and a small stream on the north and east, flowing to join the river.  The site was, in 1881, occupied by a farmhouse.6.39

William Danvers was buried in the church at Thatcham, where his tomb remains.  Amidst all the tumult of the time his was a quiet life, for while the barons were slaying their fellows in battle or by the sword of the executioner, Sir William, at Westminster or on circuit, was dispensing justice, and upholding amongst the commons of England the majesty of the law.  While amongst the nobles the slaughter was so great that of the baronage of the Conqueror scarce a single male representative remained, the Danvers family were adding manor after manor to their inheritance, and left many sons to carry on the line of their descent.  They were, indeed, a typical family of the middle class of England—a class already strong in the land, and destined to become for a season its greatest power—the class from which the makers of the present England were to spring.

Will of William Danvers

William Danvers’ will has been preserved, and a full abstract of it follows:

Will of William Danvers.  (5 Holgrave.)

In the name of God Amen.  The 18th day of April 1504 (19 Hen. VII), I William Danvers Knt. one of the Justices of the Common Bench of the said Lord the King, do make my will in manner following.

I give my body to be buried in the parish church of Thacham if I happen to die in that parish.

I bequeath to my daughter Isabel towards her marriage £100 upon condition that she only marry by the advice of my two Executors.

After all my debts have been paid I give the rest of my goods etc.  to Anne my wife, John Danvers my son and heir apparent, and to Thomas Danvers my son, whom I ordain my executors.

Witnesses: Master Philip Whitt M.A., Curate of the Church of Buckelbury, John Fowler, public notary, Curate of the Church of Thacham, and Sir Edward Barker, Rector of the Church of Hickeford.  Given at Chamberhouse in the parish of Thacham in Co. Berks.

This is true copy of the last will of Sir William Danvers Knt., written by John Fowler, public notary.

As to the manors of Chiselhampton and le Grove and all the lands and tenements in Chiselhampton and le Grove, Henley on Thames and Rotherfeld Grey, also in Upton, Rotly, Cuteherwik and Tysho in Co. Warwick, that if out of my moveable goods there be not enough to pay my debts, then I will that the said debts shall be paid out of the money, issues and profits of the said manors and lands.  After my debts and legacies shall have been contented and paid, then Anne my wife shall have all the said manors and lands for her life without impeachment of waste, and immediately after my decease she is to have all the lands and tenements in Bannebury, Cropredy and Bourton, also my tenements which I purchased in the parishes of Iver and Langley and in the towns of Colbroke, Horton, and Dachet in Co. Bucks, and in the parish of Thacham in Co. Berks. and in the town of Newtowne in Co. Southampton for her life.  After the decease of the said Anne, all the lands and tenements aforesaid in Bannebury, Cropredy, Bourton, Upton, Rotley, Cuytherwik and Tysho shall remain to Thomas Danvers my second son and to his heirs male; for default of such issue, to William Danvers my third son and his heirs male, and for default to John Danvers my son and heir apparent.  For default of such issue, the tenements in Bannebury, Cropredy and Bourton, which formerly belonged to John Danvers my father, shall remain to the heirs male of Henry Danvers my brother, now deceased; for default, the remainder thereof to the heirs male of the said John; for default, to the daughters of the said John my father and to their heirs, with remainder to the right heirs of the said John.  For default of such issue, I will that the residue of all the tenements in Bannebury, Cropredy and Bourton, Upton, Rotley, Cuteherwik and Tysho shall remain to the heirs of my body; and for default to my right heirs for ever.

And further I will that the said Manors of Chiselhampton and Grove and the tenements in Chiselhampton, Grove, Henley-on- Thames, and Rotherfeld Grey immediately after the death of the said Anne shall remain to my said son William and to his heirs; for default, the remainder thereof successively in tail male to his brothers Thomas and John; for default, to the heirs of my body.  For default of such issue, the Manor of Chiselhampton shall remain to the right heirs of John Beke for ever, and the Manor of Grove shall remain to the right heirs of the Lady Joan my mother for ever.  The tenements in Henley-on-Thames and Rotherfeld Grey shall remain to the right heirs of Richard Quatermayn Esqr. for ever.

Witnesses: Master Philip Whitt M.A., Curate of the Church of Buckelbury, John Fowler, public notary, Curate of Thacham, Sir Robert Barker, Rector of the Church of Hickeford, and others.

Given at Chamberhouse in the parish of Thacham in Co. Berks on the 18th day of April 1504, 19 Hen. 7.

It is not my intention that this my will should extend to any tenements already assigned to John Danvers my son and to Margaret his wife, which they have for life.  If Anne my wife survive them, then she is to have the said tenements for her life, she giving to the heirs of the said John All necessaries until they come to their full age.

After my death and after the death of the said Anne, my son John shall have all the tenements purchased by me in the Counties of Bucks, Berks and Southampton.

Proved at Lambeth on the 8th day of May 1504.

Family of William Danvers

William assigned Chamberhouse to his son John, who after his father’s death lived and died there, and then Chamberhouse, as directed in her husband’s will, returned to Dame Anne Danvers, who lived there till her death, in the year 1531.  This we learn not only from her will, but also from the Lay Subsidy Rolls, in which, in the years 15, 16, and 18 of Henry VIII, Dame Anne Danvers heads the list of taxpayers in the parish of Thatcham.  She was by her husband’s desire bound to give to the heirs of John all necessaries until they came to their full age; and in all probability two of them, John and Mary, died in her house, while thence were married the other children, Anne, Elizabeth, and Dorothy.  To Thomas, his second son, William left the Calthorpe (Banbury) and Warwickshire properties; but as Thomas died without male heirs, these went to William, the third son, together with the Chiselhampton, Grove, Henley, and Rotherfield estates.

Besides these three sons, who all survived him, William had four daughters6.40—Anne, Margaret, Alys, and Isabel.  Anne, Margaret, and Alys married during his lifetime; to Isabel, who was unmarried, he left £100 as a marriage portion.  Anne, the eldest, married Richard, son of Edmund Verney, of Compton-Murdack, Warwick; Margaret, the second, married John Ramsey; Alice, the third sister, married John Raynsford; and Isabel, the youngest, Martin Docwray.6.41

DAME ANNE DANVERS (PURY)

Death of Dame Anne Danvers

Dame Anne Danvers survived her husband many years, and must have been of a great age when she died in the year 1531.  To each of her great- grandchildren, the children of her grandson George, she left 20d. to pray for her.  Her son Thomas died before her, and to the next son, William, she leaves her house and lands at Banbury, and all the stuffs that remained there for all the chambers.  To his wife Cicely she leaves a good black gown ‘purfylid’ (embroidered) with velvet.  To John Raynsford, of Micheltiue (Tewe Magna or Great Tew), she leaves two gilt salts, and to his son the new house which she had built in Thatcham; Alice, her daughter, John Raynsford’s wife, she makes executrix of her will.  The bequests to her daughter Isabel were to remain to the heirs of Chamberhouse for ever.

Docwray Family

The Docwray family retained possession of Chamberhouse for some years.  Thomas, son of Martin and Isabel Docwray, died in 1529, and was buried in Thatcham Church.  The first parish register book was given to Thatcham Church by Edmund Docwray in 1576, and contains several notices of the family.  In 1573 Edward Docwray of Chamberhouse and his wife Dorothy mortgaged the estate to the Earl of Leicester, and in 1583 sold it to Nicholas Fuller.  Edmund Docwray represented New Windsor in the Parliament of April, 1572.  In the Lay Subsidy Roll (Berks) of 38 Henry VIII (1546), Edmund Docwray pays a large subsidy in Thatcham, but for five months only.  In the roll of 3 and 4 Edward VI (1551) and in that of 13 Elizabeth I (1570), he pays a much smaller subsidy; and in the full roll of 31 Elizabeth I (1588) the name of neither Danvers nor Docwray appears amongst the inhabitants of the parish of Thatcham.

Thatcham Church

Anne Danvers was buried in Thatcham Church, in the chapel ‘which she had newly made in a vault of fayer bricke for her poore body, nye the stone that lyeth oon my good husband;’ and doubtless, as directed, her daughter Alice bought the six torches to be held about the hearse by six poor women.

In the year 1717, when Dr Rawlinson visited Thatcham,6.42 he saw in the chancel called “Lady Fuller’s isle,” on a noble raised tombe, ye brass figure of a lady remaining, yt of a man torne off; 4 escutcheons of armes remaining, a groupe of boys torne off, a groupe of four girls remaining.  Of ye inscription wh once round only remains this, William Danvers, late oon of the Kyng .  .  .  of the comon place and .  .  .  Pury of Chamberhous, in the countie of .  .  .’  The tomb still remains in the fine parish church of Thatcham, filling the bay on the south side of the altar—a large brick tomb, surmounted by a slab of a black-coloured stone.  The figures in brass which were once upon the slab are gone, as are also the shields, the groups of children, and the inscription which ran round the verge.6.43 The arms on the four shields were as follows: At the head, A, Brancestre, 1 and 4, quartering Pury, 2 and 3.  B, Pury, 1 and 4, quartering a fess (or bar) wavy between 3 swans, 2 and 3 (Wawne?).  At the foot, A impaling B, and A repeated.6.44  The ends of the tomb are concealed by walls, but the sides, which are visible, are divided into compartments, in each of which was formerly a shield.

Memorandum by Dame Anne

Besides Dame Anne’s will, we have a curious relic of her in a memorandum which she wrote on the last leaf of a MS. New Testament.  The book is said to be of about the date 1380, and was formerly in the possession of Lea Wilson, Esq.6.45  The memorandum is as follows:

Good Mr. Confessor of Sion wh his brethren.

Dame Anne Danvers, widowe, sumtyme wyffe to Sir Willm Danvers Knt., hoose soule God assoyle, hathe gevyn this present booke unto mastre confessor & his Brethrene encloosed in Syon entendying therby not oonly the honor laude & preyse to almighty god but also that she the moore tenderly may be commytted unto the mercy of or lord god by the hooly demerytes of mastre confessor and his Brethrene aforeseid, whiche she hertly desyrethe & specyally to remember the lyves and the soulys of suche persons hoose names heerafter be wryten.

The good astate of Dame Anne Danvers.

    Thomas Item pr Johis Pury
    Willm     Isabel, Elizabeth uxor eis
    Anne hir childerne alyve William Danvers Milit
    Alys Johis, Johis, Margarete filiors eis defunct.
    Isabel Johis Thome Fruorg eis
    Margaret langford

The aforesaid Anne Danvers hathe delyverd this booke by the hands of her son Thom’ Danvers on Myddelent Sunday.  In the 8th yeere of the reigne of King Henry the Eytethe.  In the yeere of or lord god a-m. fyve hundred and seventeene Deo g’cias.  

Will of Dame Anne Danvers

An abstract of Dame Anne’s will is appended:

Will of Lady Anne Danvers widow.  (4 Thower.)

In the name of Almighty God Amen.  The 13th day of February 1530 I Dame Anne Danvers widow do make my last will in manner following.

I give my body to be buried in the Church of Thacham in the chapel newly made by me in a vault of ‘fayer bricke for my poore body nye the stone that lyeth oon my good husband and me for a remembraunce.’

I bequeath to the Mother Church of Salisbury 10s. and to the high altar of Thatcham 10s.

To my son William Danvers I bequeath the house and lands at Banbury and all my stuffs that remains there for all the chambers; also my goodly standing cup well gilt, and to my daughter Ciceley his wife one good black gown ‘purfylid’ with velvet.

To George Danvers my godson 6s. 8d., and to each of his children ‘on lyve’ 20d. to pray for me.

To my son John Raynsford Lord of Micheltiue my two gilt salts.

To my daughter Isabel Docwray I give my black chamblytt gown purfled with velvet etc. with all the stuff of my chapel such as ‘stayned cloathes’ for the altar, and the best mass book and chalice; also all the implements of the great chamber.

To Edward Docwray her son and heir my great pot of ‘bulleyne’ brass etc., and for lack of Edward to Edmond and his heirs; also 20d. to each of her children.  Provided always that my bequests given to my daughter Isabel after her death remain to the heirs of Chamberhouse for ever.

To Robert Danvers I bequeath a whole bed etc. etc.

To my daughter6.46 Margaret Restall one of my worsted kirtles etc. and 40s. in money or cattle.

Legacies to servants: I will that my son Docwray find an honest priest to sing in my Chapel or Chantry, Chamberhouse and to pray for my dear friends, for me and for my children, my said Chantryhouse to remain to Martin Docwray and his heirs to find singing, bread, wine and wax.

To my Godson John Raynsford I bequeath my new house lately built at Thatcham, with all the ground within the pale, also £6 13s. 4d. in money.

To Sir Richard Alwood curate of Thacham 6s. 8d. to pray for me.

To my Goddaughter Anne Langton a flat piece of silver.6.47

The rest of all my goods I give to Alice Raynesford my daughter whom I ordain my executrix, Sir Thomas Justice Vicar of Thatcham being overseer of this my will.  I will that my executrix give in alms to poor people ‘peny meale’ 26s.  8d.  also that she buy 6 torches to hold about the hearse and 6 poor women to hold them, each of whom is to have 2d.

Proved at Lambeth 20th day of May 1531.

PURY FAMILY

Dame Anne’s family, the Purys, were settled at an early period in Sipnam (Chippenham).  John Purye of Sipnam had three sons, Thomas, Reginald, and Godfrey.  Thomas was known as the ‘good Pryor of Newarke’ (Newark in Surrey).  He was confirmed as Prior in December, 1387.6.48  Reginald had a son, John Purye, alias Sypnam, and another, Thomas, who is called ‘servant to King Henry IV.’  Berks Fine No. 3 of 23 Henry VI (1444) John Purye and his wife Isabel, buy of John Lysle and his wife Anna the manor of Chamberhouse, land and houses, for 300 marks.  The later Thomas Pury married Maude, daughter of William Atmore,6.49 of a family which, as was that of Purye, was at the time of good position in the county.  Thomas and Maude had a son, John, the Pury who embattled and emparked Chamberhouse.  His first wife was Elizabeth, sister of Sir John Sysley, by whom he had a daughter, Mary, who died childless; by his second wife, Isabel, daughter of Mr Wawne of Beverley, he had a daughter, Anne, who was his heiress, and married William Danvers.  The arms of the family were, argent on a fesse between three martletts sable three mullets of the field.  A younger branch of the family established themselves in Gloucester, and became distinguished citizens of that city.6.50

We are obliged to Lady Elizabeth Cust for further references to the Pury family as follows: Bigland’s Gloucester, Fosbrooke’s Gloucester, Rudder’s Gloucester, and Atkyn’s Gloucester.  Also Tighe’s Annals of Windsor (see indices to these works).  From the latter author we learn that, A.D. 1443, John Pury, Esq., and others granted land to the Provost and College of the Blessed Peter, near Windsor.  In the time of Henry VI (1422-1461), William Pury was one of the office-bearers of the borough of Windsor.  In 1463, Edmund Pury was Mayor of Windsor, and was an Alderman of the borough 13 Edward IV (1473).  In 1502 John Pury willed an anniversary (obit) in the church at Windsor.  In 1510 William Pury was Member for Windsor.  In Fosbrooke’s History of the City of Gloucester is mention of the monument in the Church of St Mary de Crypt, to Thomas Pury, died in 1580, late Mayor of Gloucester.  Amongst the quarterings of his coat-of-arms are those of Danvers (Brancestre) Pury, and Bruley.  The epitaph states that Thomas Pury was son and heir of William Pury, younger brother of the John Pury whose daughter Ann married Sir William Danvers.  As Sir William Danvers married about 1470-75, it is not improbable that the John Pury who willed an anniversary in 1502 was his father-in-law, and that William Pury, Member for Windsor in 1510, was this John Pury’s younger brother, and the father of the Thomas Pury of Gloucester.  The family is not, so far as we can learn, now represented in the male line.

JOHN DANVERS OF CHAMBERHOUSE

John Danvers, son of Sir William, as we learn from his father’s post- mortem inquisition, was twenty-six years of age and more in April, 1504.  From inquisition No. 62 of 1 Henry VIII (1509), and from those of John (Nos.18, 63, and 82 of the same year), it appears that John inherited the Waterstock estate, the manor of Adderbury, also his father’s half manor of Chilworth, and Combe Magna and Chilworth Parva, and lands in Whately, Chiselhampton, Milton and Waterperry, in Oxfordshire.  In Bucks, the manor and advowson of the church of Ickford and lands in Crendon, as well as lands in Horton, Colnbrook, Langley, and Iver, of which Richard Hampden was enfeoffed for the use of Margaret, John’s wife.  In Warwickshire John inherited lands in Aston Bruly and elsewhere.6.51

Death of John Danvers of Chamberhouse

John did not long survive his father, dying on October 30, 1508.  As we learn from his will, an abstract of which is appended, he lived at Chamberhouse, and was buried in Thatcham Church.  His wife was Margaret, daughter of William Hampden of Hartwell,6.52 of a very ancient Buckinghamshire family.  The heir of John Danvers was his son John, aged six months at the time of his father’s death.  But the son died when ten years old, and, as we learn from his inquisition No. 43 of 9 Henry VIII (1517), his heirs were his sisters, Anne, Mary, Elizabeth, Dorothy, aged respectively 18, 12, 11, 10 years.

Will of John Danvers of Chamberhouse

Will of John Danvers.  (14 Bennett.)

In the name of God Amen.  20th day of September 1508 (24 Henry VII).  I John Danvers of Chamberhouse in the parish of Thacham in Co. Berks Esqr.  do make my will in manner following: 

I give my body to be buried in the Church of Thacham aforesaid.

I bequeath to the Mother Church of Sarum 4s., and to the high altar of the Church of Thacham aforesaid for tithes and oblations forgotten 3s. 4d., also to the works (fabrice) of the said Church 3s. 4d.

Further I will that my Executors immediately after my death do ordain a fit priest to pray for my soul, for my father’s soul, and for the souls of others my friends now deceased, and also for the souls of all faithful Christian people deceased, in the Church of Thacham aforesaid for one whole year, he is to have for his salary £6.

I will that Margaret my wife shall distribute to poor people within one month after my death 40s. in money.

I bequeath to Thomas Danvers my brother a gold chain, that he may pray for my soul and for the soul of John Pury Esqr.

Further I declare it to be my will that the co-feoffees of Thomas Frowyk Knt. late Chief Justice of the Common Bench of the Lord the King at Westminster, now deceased, of & in the Manor of Waterstoke in Co. Oxon and in other the manors, lands & tenements, rents and services with their appurtenances to the same manor belonging, shall after the decease of the Lady Sybil Danvers widow, relict of Thomas Danvers Knt., make a sufficient estate of the said manor & other the premises to Anne, Mary, Elizabeth & Dorothy my daughters for their lives: after the deaths of my said daughters I will that the said manor of Waterstoke & other the premises aforesaid shall revert wholly to my right heirs lawfully begotten if my wife (who is now pregnant) shall bear a son, if not, then they shall remain to Thomas Danvers my brother and to his heirs male lawfully begotten.

I will also that the said co-feoffees after my death shall make a sufficient estate to Margaret my wife of & in my manor of Adderbury in Co.  Oxford with all & singular its appurtenances for her life; after her decease I will that the said manor shall remain to the right heirs of me the said John Danvers.

And I will that my said wife shall pay to the Abbot & Convent of Reading for the lands belonging to the said Monastery and now occupied by me as much as they in their conscience shall wish to take, from the time of my father’s death until the time of my own death.  The residue of all my goods I give to Margaret my wife whom I make my sole Executrix.

Proved at Lambeth 4th day of May 1509.

Family of John Danvers and Margaret Hampden

Of the sisters, Anne was the first to marry.  In the year 1518,6.53 Reginald Digby, her husband, was granted possession of her property, she being one of the four sisters of John Danvers.  In the year 1546, Reginald Digby, in right of his wife Anne, presented to the rectory of Horton, Bucks.6.54  In the year 1518, William Boughton, squire of the body to the King, was granted the wardship of the other sisters, Mary, Elizabeth, and Dorothy.

In the year 1523,6.55 Nicholas Hubbord (d. 1554) had livery (possession) of the lands of Dorothy Danvers, his wife, and in connection with this is a note of the death of the fourth sister, Mary Danvers in 1520.6.56  Anne, Elizabeth and Dorothy, her sisters, are Mary’s heirs.  Dorothy was to have her share of the estate of her brother John, and of her sister Mary; and further, the portion which would come to her of the lands of Anne, Lady Danvers, widow of Sir William.  Nicholas died in 1554 and John, son of Nicholas Hubard, or Huband, was sheriff of Warwick 18 and 35 Henry VIII (1526 and 1543).

In February, 1522,6.57 license is given to Thomas Cave to take possession of the inheritance of his wife, Elizabeth Danvers.  Thus were the children and property of John Danvers disposed of.  By some arrangement amongst them the manor of Waterstock and the advowson of the church, and the manor and advowson of the church of Ickford, with the land in Crendon, became the sole property of Elizabeth Cave and her husband.  Their representatives sold Waterstock some time before the year 1615 to Sir George Croke,6.58 a famous judge, who passed the last years of his life there, and whose monument remains in the church.  The Crokes were connected with the Caves6.59 by marriage, for Sir George’s Croke’s grandmother, Prudence, was sister to the Sir Thomas Cave of Stanford who married Elizabeth Danvers.

By the Crokes the property was sold to the Ashhurst family, whose representative, W. H. Ashhurst, Esq., is now lord of the manor of Waterstock in succession to the families of Foliot, Bruley, Danvers, Cave, and Croke.  In the year 1780 Sir William Ashhurst pulled down the old manor-house which had been erected in 1695 on the site of an older house.  He built the present Waterstock House close to, but not upon, the old site.

FAMILY OF WILLIAM DANVERS AND ANNE PURY

Thomas Danvers and Eleanor Lyford

Thomas,6.59 the second son of Sir William Danvers, married Eleanor Lyford, but he left no issue, and was dead in the year 1524, when we learn from the Lay Subsidy Rolls that Alianor Danvers, no doubt his wife, was taxed in Nethrop and Cothropp, and made the highest payment there.6.60 His father bequeathed to Thomas the Banbury and Warwickshire property, to go in default of male issue to his brother William.

Thomas Danvers’ inquisition6.61 states that he died September 10 last past, 15 Henry VIII (1523), and the inquisition states that his heirs (Waterstoke) were his cousins, daughters of John Danvers, Anne wife of Reginald Digby, Elizabeth wife of Thomas Cave, and Dorothy wife of Nicholas Hubburde.  This, therefore, was an inquisition taken after the deaths of John, son of John Danvers, and his fourth sister Mary.

William Danvers and Cicely Done

William married Cicely Done, of the old Cheshire family of that name; she and her son George are mentioned in Dame Anne’s will.  From William sprung three branches of the family tree, the Danvers of Banbury, Adderbury, and Warwickshire (who will be noticed in Chapter Seventeen).  He died October 29, 1558.

Anne Danvers and Richard Verney

Of the daughters of Sir William and Anne Pury,6.61 the eldest, Anne,6.62 married Richard Verney, son of Edmund Verney, of Compton, Warwick.6.63  Edmund died in the year 1494, when Richard, his son and heir, was thirty years of age, ‘which Richard was in that esteem with King Henry VIII that, being informed of some infirmity in his head, he afforded him a special license 2 Jan., 8 Henry VIII (1516), that he should wear his bonnet at all times and in all places, as well in the said King’s presence as elsewhere, according to his own pleasure, without the interruption of any man whatsoever.’ Richard in his will bequeathed his body to be buried in the new chapel on the north side of Compton Church, where his monument, with the portraiture of himself, his wife and children, in brass, may yet be seen.  The following inscription runs round the verge:

‘Of your charitie pray for the soules of Richard Verney and Anne his wife, which Richard departed out of the present world the 28th day of September, Ano Dni 1527.’

Richard and Anne had nine sons and five daughters.  One of the sons, Richard, married a daughter of George Raleigh, of Farnborough, of whose granddaughters one, Dorothy, married John Danvers, of Calthorpe, Banbury.

Alice Danvers and John Raynesford

Alice, the second of Sir William’s daughters, married, in 1527,6.64 Sir John Raynesford, and their descendant, Dorothy, married John Danvers of Culworth, of whom more hereafter.

Isabel Danvers and Martin Docwray

Isabel, the third daughter, married Martin Docwray,6.65 descended from an old Kendal family, one of whom, James Docwray, married Katherine, daughter of Mr. John Haspedine, or Haselden, of Morden and Chesterford, Cambridge.  It was his grandson, Martin, who married Isabel Danvers.  They had sons Edmund, Edward, and Anthony.  Edmund and Edward are mentioned in Dame Anne’s will, and they lived for a while in Thatcham after her death.6.66

Margaret Danvers and John Ramsey

Margaret, the fourth of Sir William’s daughters, married John Ramsey, of Hedsore and Hitcham,6.67 Bucks, of a family descended from Adam Ramsey, squire of the body to Richard II.  John and Margaret had a son, Thomas, who married Parnell, daughter and coheir of Sir John Baldwin, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

HENRY DANVERS

We have yet to notice a son and two daughters of John Danvers and Joan Bruley.  Henry, their third son, was a citizen of London and a mercer, which may mean that he was a mercer by trade, or merely that he was a member of the Mercers’ Company.  Baker, in his History of Northampton, states that he was cofferer to King Henry VII.  ‘The cofferer,’ writes Cowel, ‘was a principal officer of his Majesty’s Court, next under the Comptroller, that in the compting house and elsewhere hath a special oversight of other officers of the household for their good demeanour in their offices.’

Family of Henry Danvers

Henry Danvers married Beatrice, daughter of Sir Ralph Verney, of Middle Claydon, who, like his son-in-law, was a citizen and mercer of London.  They had three daughters, one of whom, Agnes, married Richard Croke, and was, we believe, the mother of the Richard and Robert Croke6.68 who are mentioned in her uncle Thomas Danvers’ will.  Dorothy, the second daughter (born 1470), married in 1492, Thomas Dayrell, of an ancient family which came from Airele, in Normandy, at the time of the Conquest.6.64  Thomas was Sheriff of Bucks and Beds in 1495, and was buried at Lillingstone-Dayrell.  The Dayrells still hold the manor, and have a well-sustained pedigree reaching back to the Conquest.

A third daughter, Emma, was in 1520 unmarried.6.69

Besides these daughters, Henry Danvers had a son, John, who died young, and was buried in the church of Aldbury, Herts, where some of his mother’s family are also buried.  Against the west pier of the chancel-arch is a brass plate of small size, less than a foot in height, bearing the effigy of a young man, or boy, habited in a robe which reaches to his feet, with tight-fitting sleeves.  He wears the pointed shoes of the period, and has a girdle round his waist, from which depends a pouch, or purse.  His hair falls long over his shoulders, but is cut short across the forehead.  Beneath is the inscription:

‘Hic jacet Johes Davers filii Henric.  Davers Mercaria Londe q quide Johes 

obiit xxviii. die Augustii Ao Dm MCCCCLXXVIII. cuj aie ppciet deus.’

Henry Danvers, as we learn from the Coram Rege Rolls,6.70 lived in the parish of St Vedast, and from his house Richard Pole abducted the young Edward Stradling, a story to which we shall return hereafter.  We have no record of the death of Henry, but he was dead when his brother William made his will in the year 1504.  He is noticed in three or four of the Hustings Rolls of the City of London.

Verney Family

The father of Henry’s wife was Sir Ralph Verney, a notable man in his day, Lord Mayor of London in 1465, and Member of Parliament for London the following year.  He purchased Middle Claydon, Bucks—where his descendants are still seated—from the Zouch family.  Sir Ralph was succeeded by his son, Sir John, who was buried first at Ashridge, whence, after the Dissolution, his remains were removed to Aldbury Church.  Sir Ralph had another son, Ralph, of King’s Langley, and two daughters, of whom one, Margaret, married Sir Edward Raleigh, of Farnborough, Warwick, and the other, Beatrice, married Henry Danvers.

The Verney family were otherwise related to that of Danvers, for Sir Ralph Verney, father of Beatrice Danvers, married Eleanor,6.32 daughter of Sir Geoffrey Pole,6.71 whose second wife was Bona, sister to Henry Danvers.  Sir Geoffrey was, therefore, grandfather to Beatrice, and husband of her sister-in-law, Bona Danvers.  Sir Geoffrey Pole, of the Welsh family of Pull, or Poule, of Worrall, Cheshire, held the manors of Ellesborough, near Aylesbury, and of Wythurn, in Medmenham.  His first wife was Edith, daughter of Sir Oliver St. John, of Bletsoe, by his wife, Margaret Duchess of Somerset, and half-sister therefore to Margaret, Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII.  Sir Geoffrey was, therefore, near of kin to the King, and to this the advancement of his eldest son, Richard, may be ascribed.  Richard Pole was Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and was subsequently married by the King to Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, a match of which we shall have more to say hereafter.  Sir Geoffrey Pole died in the year 1474.  He desired, in his will, that he might be buried in the church of the Monastery of Bisham in the same grave with his first wife Edith.  To his wife Bona he left his mansion near the abbey for her life and a silver cup.

Bona Pole also appears in two of the records of Magdalen College, Oxford (Corston, 11 and 18), in which she is described as widow of Sir Geoffrey Pole, and resigns, as do her brothers then (1482) living, William and Henry, their rights in the manor of Corston.

Le Poer of Oddington

Elizabeth, the other daughter of John Danvers and Joan Bruley, married Thomas Poore, of Bletchingdon, Oxon, descended from the famous Bishop of Salisbury, whose strange career we have already noticed.  The Poures are not to be confused with another family of a similar name, the Le Poers, Pohers, or Powers, descended from a noble family of Brittany of that name.  Gentischivre le Poer,6.72 of Ottendum, or Odington, was the contemporary of Robert Chevauchesul and his sister, Emma Danvers, and is frequently mentioned in the early charters of Thame Abbey.  His son Walter was a Justice Itinerant in the year 1227, and his grandson William signs as a witness to many of the charters of Bicester Priory; he is found also as of Odington in the Roll of the Hundreds.  In the year 1303 the manor was held by another Walter, who was succeeded by Roger le Poer, whose grandson Thomas,6.73 of Blechingdon, married Elizabeth, daughter of John Danvers, of Calthorpe.  John Danvers of Calthorpe gave the manor of Epwell as dowry to his daughter Elizabeth, on her marriage to Sir John Wilcotes, and it thus passed from the Danvers family.6.74 Elizabeth took as her second husband Sir Thomas Blount, and her third Thomas Poure.  Thomas Poure and Elizabeth had two sons and three daughters; one of the latter married Sir Robert Brudenell, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and another, Margery, married Thomas Wellesborne.

NOTES TO CHAPTER SIX

6.1 Harleian Roll, p. 10.

6.2 Bright’s History of England, vol. i, p. 353.

6.3 Roll series, vol. vii, p. 868.

6.4 Materials for history of the reign of Henry VII, Roll series, vol. ii, p. 85.

6.5 Sir W. Ducket’s Ducketiana, p. 22.

6.6 Vol. ii, p. 346.

6.7 Bright, p. 336.

6.8 Magdalen College Calendar, Stanlake 21 A.

6.9 Magdalen College Calendar, Stanlake 29 A.

6.10 Tubney, 72.

6.11 Magdalen College, Manor of Chalgrave documents, 15 A.

6.12 Oxon Fine, No. 2 of 2 Richard III, 1484.

6.13 Magdalen College Calendar, Chalgrave 30 A.

6.14 Magdalen College Calendar, Chalgrave 21 A.

6.15 Close Roll (m.i., No. 171 and No. 74) of 1 Richard III (1483).

6.16 Close Roll (25 in margin), of 8 Henry VII (1492).

6.17 Close Roll 4 Edward IV (M. 13 and 20).

6.18 British Museum; Additional Charter, 20329.

6.19 Campbell’s Lives of the Chief Justices, vol., p. 154.

6.20 Paston Letters, Gairdner’s edition, vol. ii, p. 296.  The letter is not dated.

6.21 Metcalfe’s Book of Knights.

6.22 Wood MS. E. 1, Bodleian.

6.23 Vol. ii of Ancient Deeds, Record Office, B. 3690.  The deed is dated March 5, 16 Edward IV (1476).  See also vol. i of Ancient Deeds, B. 1112 and C. 1106.  See also, for Breknoke family, Gyll’s History of Wraysbury.

6.24 Harleian Roll, p. 10, makes them the sons of Richard Croke and Agnes, daughter of Henry Danvers.

6.25 History of the Croke Family, vol. i, p. 439.

6.26 Wood’s Athenae Oxoniensis, vol. i, p. 259; and Forster’s Alumni Oxoniensis.

6.27 Fowler family. Cf. W. H. Carter in vol. vii of Marshall’s Genealogist, and in Miscell. Genealog. et Herald. NS, vol. iii, p. 345; also Harleian MS., 4031, 105b.  For a somewhat legendary account of the family, see Burke’s Extinct Baronetcies, and Wotton’s Baronetage, iv, 102.  See also notices of the family in Dr Lee’s History of the Church of St Mary, Thame.

6.28 Will: Porch 40.

6.29 PM Inquisition, V.O., bundle 2, No. 71 of 20? Henry VIII, 1529?

6.30 Had the younger Thomas been ‘son of Thomas,’ Dame Sybil would have so called him.  ‘Cousin’ was the title commonly applied to grandchildren.

6.31 Dugdale’s Warwick, vol. i, p. 529, and Harleian Society’s vol. xii, p. 77.

6.32 Sir Ralph Verney’s wife is Emma on page 6–9 and Eleanor Pole on page 6–17. It is not impossible that Sir Ralph was married twice but the discrepancy could simply be an error. -Ed.

6.33 Betham’s Baronetage, vol. i, p. 87.

6.34 Harleian Society’s publications, vol. v, p. 235, and vol. xv, p. 146.

6.35 Westcote, Harleian Society’s vol. vi, p. 302. Westcote’s Devonshire, edited by G. Oliver and P. Jones, xii, 621.  Visitation of Devon, by F. T. Colby. Also Lyttelton Charters at Hagley, by J. H. Jeayes.

6.36 Ashmole’s History of Berks, edition 1723, vol. iii, p. 299, and Harleian MS. 1081, fol. 61.

6.37 Materials for the history of the reign of Henry VII, Rolls series, vol. i, pp. 217, 237.

6.38 Dugdale’s Warwick, vol. i, p. 541, refers to Close Roll, 30 Henry VI, d. m. 24.

6.39 ‘Transcripts from the Parish Registers of Thatcham,’ made by Richard Rawlinson, printed in Hearne’s History of Glastonbury; reprinted with notes by Walter Money, F.S.A., Newbury, 1881.

6.40 Aske in the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. i, p. 20, and Harleian Society’s Publications, vol. V, p. 188.

6.41 Macnamara is in conflict here over the positions of the daughters in the family of William Danvers and Anne Pury. On page 6–12 the daughters are listed from eldest to youngest as Anne, Margaret, Alice and Isabel; on page 6–16 they are listed as Anne, Alice, Isabel, and Margaret.  -Ed.

6.42 Journey to Lancaster.  Rawlinson MS., 116 (Bodleian), p. 125.

6.43 The edge inscription was replaced in 1937 and reads:

Here resteth the body of William Danvers late one of the King’s Justices of the common Pleas, and the body of Anne the wife of the said William Danvers daughter and heir of the Right Worshipful Squire John Pyry of Chamberhouse in the County of Berkshire. Deceased . . . April in the year of our Lord God 1504. And the said Anne deceased the . . . day of the month . . . in the year of our Lord God 1531 on whose souls Jesu Have Mercy.  - Ed.

6.44 Ashmole MS., 850.

6.45 The original MS. was later in the possession of Lord Ashburnham (No. 156 in Forshall and Madden).  The text was printed in 1848 for Mr Lea Wilson by Pickering.  In a preface the editor ascribes the MS. to Wyclif, believing it to be an early version of a translation made by him; but on this point see Father Gasquet’s The Old English Bible, and Other Essays Nimmo, London, 1897, essays 4 and 5.

6.46 Probably a grandchild.

6.47 The Anna Langton to whom Dame Anne leaves a ‘flat piece of silver’ was her granddaughter, the daughter of Alice Raynsford, who married Thomas Langton, of Thatcham—Harleian Society’s publications, vol. v, p. 167.

6.48 Monasticon, vol. vi, p. 386.

6.49 Harleian Roll, p. v, and Harleian Society’s publications, vol. v, for pedigrees of Pury and Atmore. Also Harleian MS. 1413, and Metcalfe’s edition of the Visitation of Gloucester, p. 140.

6.50 Notes and Queries, series 5, ix, 45, 241, 304, 423.

6.51 Patent Roll, 19 Henry VII (1503), part 2.

6.52 Lipscomb’s Bucks, vol. ii, p. 302.

6.53 Rolls Series, Letters and Papers of the Time of Henry VIII, vol. i, p. 131.

6.54 Gyll’s History of Wraysbury, p. 209.

6.55 Burke’s Heraldic Illustrations, plate 82.  John, son of Nicholas Hubard, or Huband, was sheriff of Warwick 18 and 35 Henry VIII (1526 and 1543).  Nicholas died in 1554.

6.56 Inq. V.O. bundle 1, No. 235, 12 Henry VIII (1520).

6.57 Vol. v, Rolls Series, p. 892.  See also Gyll’s History of Wraysbury, p. 209.

6.58 Sir Alexander Croke’s History of the Croke Family, vol. i, p. 563.  In same work, history and pedigree of Cave family.

6.59 Aske in Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. i, p. 20; and for pedigree of Lyford, The Genealogist, vol. v, p. 286.

6.60 Oxon Lay Subsidy Rolls, 161/178 and 161/198.

6.61 Thomas Danvers’ inquisition is in File 795 of No. 2 series of Escheators’ Accounts, Record Office.

6.62 Anne Danvers was probably born in 1470 (cf. 1992 LDS International Genealogical Index). -Ed.

6.63 Dugdale’s Warwick, p. 565.

6.64 The dates for various births and marriages are drawn from the 1992 LDS International Genealogical Index. -Ed.

6.65 Harleian MS. 1233 and Clutterbuck’s Hertfordshire, vol. iii, p. 82, and Harleian MS., Visitation of Oxon, 5812, p. 9.

6.66 Lay Subsidy Rolls, Berkshire.

6.67 Visitation of Bucks, Harleian MS., 1533, p. 616 and Visitation of Oxon, Harleian MS., 5812, p. 9.

6.68 Refer Aske’s pedigree.

6.69 Aske’s pedigree of the Danvers family in vol. i, Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica.

6.70 Coram Rege Rolls, Hilary term, 2 Richard III (1484), No.7.

6.71 Lipscomb’s Bucks, vol. i, p. 178.  Lansdowne MS., No. 260, p. 106b. Harleian MS., No. 1412, p. 1-8.  Notes and Queries, series 2, vol. xi, p. 77 and series 1, vol. v, p. 164.  Philip’s Life of Reginald Pole.  Testamenta Vetusta (Nicholas), p. 338, and Dugdale’s Baronage vol. ii, p. 292.

6.72 Dunkin’s History of Oxfordshire, vol. ii, p. 108.  Kennett’s Parochial Antiquities, vol. i, p. 496.  Lee’s History of St Mary’s, Thame.

6.73 Harleian Society’s publications, vol. v, p. 209.

6.74 De Banco Roll, Mich., 19 Henry VI (1440), M. 475; also ‘The Wilcotes Family’ in the Bucks, Berks, and Oxford Archaeol. Journal of January 1898.

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Digital edition first published: 1 Mar 2020             Updated: 12 Jul 2023                garydanvers@gmail.com