FAMILY

Family, Friends and Associates

HENRY PERCY, 4^TH EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND. Blood is thicker than water in medieval life, and the, seemingly, remote connection to the Percy family was kept alive in the Burgh family heraldry to the very end.

A ‘cousin’ to Sir Thomas Burgh, Henry Percy was the eldest son of Henry, 3^rd Earl of Northumberland, killed at Towton in 1461. The Percy family were sentenced to an Act of Attainder although the young Henry was in exile, in Scotland. It was not until 1464 that he was handed over to Edward IV and imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Edward IV seems to have won the young Henry over and arranged a marriage to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke’s daughter, Maud. In October 1469 Henry swore an oath of fealty to Edward IV, witnessed by Sir Thomas Burgh, and fully restored to the Earldom of Northumberland, recently taken from John Neville, brother of Richard, Earl of Warwick, who was recompensed with an ‘advance’ to Marquis of Montague. The King’s attempt to weaken the dangerous Neville family, by restoring Percy, was almost his undoing.

With the Earldom came the appointments of Sheriff of Northumberland, Warden of the Eastern and Middle Marches, Knight of The Garter, Privy Councillor. The Earl took part in the invasion of France in 1475, served under Richard, Duke of Gloucester in Scotland, 1482, and supported his bid for the crown in 1483, was present at Bosworth in 1485, but appears not to have engaged the Tudor forces. Imprisoned by the new King Henry VII for a short time, but released and later fought for the king at Stoke Field in 1487. In 1489 Earl Henry was murdered during a tax riot at Topcliffe, Yorkshire, in 1489. Sir Thomas Burgh acted as an executor for the Earls will, buying some of the fine plate from the estate.

SIR THOMAS MONTGOMERY. Born in 1433, Sir Thomas was the son of Sir John Montgomery of Falkborne Hall in Essex (died 1448/49) and Elizabeth (died 1464), Lady Say. Sir Thomas had an elder brother, John and two sisters, Anne (who never married) and Alice who married John Fortescue Esq. Sir Thomas had spent his childhood and youth in the Royal Household of Henry VI and Queen Margaret. Along with his brother, Sir Thomas rose quickly in royal service, becoming one of the Marshall’s of the Hall, Keeper of the Exchange in the Tower of London, Warden of the gold and silver coinage within the kingdom. At some point John and Thomas fell out, Thomas going over to the Yorkist cause and actually facing his brother at the battle of Towton in 1461. Thomas was knighted by Edward IV and was richly rewarded for his support and political expertise. John Montgomery was beheaded for treason in 1462

whilst Sir Thomas cemented his personal relationship, along with Sir Thomas Burgh, with King Edward, serving as a Knight of The Body, Privy Councillor, friend and confidant.

Both Montgomery and Burgh were named, by Richard, Neville, Earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker), as being amongst those who gave the King bad advice. Warwick actually had several of the others murdered after the battle of Edgecote in 1469. Weathering all the storms, Sir Thomas served as Sheriff in several counties, Member of Parliament, was appointed the Stewardship of Havering-at-Bower, London, Hadleigh Castle, Forest of Essex, Constable of Bristol, Treasurer of Ireland, Knight of the Garter and he also served on various important Embassies, took part in the invasion of France, 1475, acting as one of the signatories, along with Burgh, to the Treaty of Piquexny and receiving a pension from the French King, Louis XI. Sir Thomas was married, firstly, to Phillipa, daughter of John Helion Esq of Bumpstead-Helion, and his second wife was Lorna, daughter of Sir Edward Berkeley of Beverton, widow of Sir John Blount, Lord Mountjoy, a friend of Sir Thomas and Burgh. There were no children. Lorna, Lady Montgomery, later married Thomas, Earl of Ormonde.

A close personal friend of Sir Thomas Burgh, serving alongside him at court, on various commissions, fought together at Barnet and Tewkesbury, supported each other and may well have both been responsible for Edward IV’s intelligence and espionage operation.

Like Burgh, Sir Thomas actively supported Richard, Duke of Gloucester’s bid for the throne, being rewarded with the Earl of Oxfords forfeited estates, but unlike his friend, he fought at Bosworth but was pardoned by Henry VII, and handing back the Oxford estates to the Earl.

Sir Thomas Montgomery held manors, lands and rents in; Falkborne, Bluntshall, Rivenhall, Much Tye, Mulsham, Brayhams and Warrocks in Great Lees. Boure-hall in Mersey, and Great Braxted in Essex as well as Shipton in Oxfordshire, and Chawton, Hampshire.

Sir Thomas Montgomery died on the 11^th of January 1494, aged 55. He was buried in the Chapel of Our Lady, commissioned and paid for by Sir Thomas, in the Abbey of St. Mary of Graces on Tower Hill in London.

Falkborne Hall, a fine brick built manor house (its style was copied by Burgh at The Old Hall) near Witham in Essex, descended to Montgomery’s sister’s husband, John Fortescue Esq, along with the rest of the estate.

SIR WILLIAM HUSSEY. The longest known associate of Sir Thomas Burgh. Hussey’s family appear to have served the Beaumonts of Folkingham and after their Attainder, acted as estate supervisors for the King. Originally from Sleaford in Lincolnshire, Hussey served, with Burgh, on dozens of Commissions (Sewers and Array), was MP for Grantham, Lincolnshire, in 1467, appointed Attorney-General by Edward IV on the 16^th June 1471, and Serjeant-at-Law on the 17^th October 1477. Described as ’of’ Gray’s Inn, London, Hussey went on to be appointed Chief Justice of The Kings Bench on the 7^th of May 1481. He continued to serve Richard III, Edward V and Henry VII, after Edward IV’s death in 1483 Sir William married Elizabeth Berkeley (Leicestershire family) and their son, Sir John, went on to become Lord Hussey.

Sir William died on the 8^th September 1495 and was buried in Semperingham Priory, near Sleaford. The Hussey family had a large house at Boston, Lincolnshire, all that remains now is the brick built tower, similar to the one at Gainsborough Old Hall.

SIR ROBERT SHEFFIELD. Known until his father, Roberts, death in 1467 as ’the younger’, Sheffield served on many Commissions with Burgh and was also an MP, he was also a prominent Lawyer for the Duchy of Lancaster. The family came from West Butterwick in the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire, a few miles from Gainsborough. A staunch Yorkist, who also served as an MP . He married, firstly, Eleanor ? And secondly, Anne; we have, at present, no information about either wife, although Anne is bequeathed ‘C Marks yearly out of the park of Conysby and West Butterwick’. Sheffield died in mid 1518 and was buried in the Augustine Friary, London. His will, written on the 8^th of August 1518, gives four daughters; Anne, Elizabeth, Margaret and Bridget, and bequeaths them money and lands that were his first wife’s.

His son and heir is also named Sir Robert and he married Jane, daughter of George Stanley, Lord Strange. Sheffield’s grandson, Edmund became 1^st Lord Sheffield and set the family on the path to become, eventually, Dukes of Buckingham & Normanby, thus eclipsing the Burgh’s. The family line failed in 1735 but there are still Lords Sheffield and their stately home, at Normanby Hall, near Scunthorpe, is open to the public.

HENRY, LORD GREY OF CODNOR. Born in 1435 and aged 9 when his father died in 1444, his mother was Margaret Percy, youngest daughter of Sir Henry Percy d’Atholl, and sister of Sir Thomas Burgh’s Mother Elizabeth - co-heiresses to their father.

In 1452 John, Viscount Beaumont paid 400 marks for the wardship of the young Henry and, in 1457, aged 21, he allowed to enter his title and lands.

Named in Commissions from 1448, Lord Grey initially supported Henry VI, appointed Keeper of The Kings Armoury in the Tower of London, fighting at 2^nd St.Albans with Queen Margaret, and at Towton before making his peace with Edward IV. Lord Grey had also inherited a nasty feud with the Vernon family of Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, who had fallen out with the Gresley family of Drakelow. In 1464 Lord Grey indented with William, Lord Hastings as a retainer,

Sir John Gresley and Sir Henry Vernon did the same, but this did not prevent Vernon’s uncle, Roger (and, possibly, his father, Sir William, being murdered, in 1467, by Lord Greys men during a battle/riot with the Earl of Shrewsbury’s men. In 1468 Lord Greys cousin, Sir Thomas Burgh, was acting as one of the arbitrators to settle the dispute, which had also involved riots in Nottingham over elections.

The dispute was settled with recognisances of £1,000 each from Sir Henry Vernon and the Earl of Shrewsbury and an oath to ’do no harm to Henry, Lord Grey’ and he none to them. The affair was still causing trouble in 1469 when Burgh was in Nottinghamshire on, yet another a Commission, when his own feud with the Welles erupted. These disputes (including the Paston/Suffolk and Paston/Mowbray ones) needled Edward IV into introducing legislation to prohibit retaining in 1468, but it proved quite ineffective as he found out to his cost in 1469.

Lady Margaret Grey, Henry’s mother, married again, to Sir Richard de Vere, probably a younger brother of the 12^th Earl of Oxford, who was killed at the 2^nd battle of St. Albans in 1461. Margaret died in 1464.

In 1463 Lord Grey was applying himself to the quest for a method of turning base metals into solid gold - transmutation. He received a license from Edward IV to pursue this but it appears that he was as successful as all those who had tried before…………

Lord Grey married three times, firstly to Catherine Strangeways, secondly to Margaret ?, and thirdly to Catherine Berkeley, but he left no legitimate heir by any of them, only bastards.

A Privy Councillor from 1473, and granted him rents and other privileges within the Earldom of Ulster in Northern Ireland for forty years as the King’s Steward, along with the right to mint the ’accustomed money’ there. Lord Grey lent his support to Richard III, along with Burgh and Mongomery, all being rewarded for good service against the rebels (Buckingham’s 1483 rebellion), and he fought at Bosworth for him in 1485. Henry VII obviously bore no grudge against Grey because in 1486 the King appointed him as one his Commissioners of the Mines.

This Commission made arrangements for Lord Grey to search for tin, lead, copper, silver and gold, obviously he had learnt a great deal about these during his transmutation experiments and his knowledge was recognised by the new King.

Henry, Lord Grey died in 1496 (he had made his cousin Sir Thomas an executor but he died before him) and gave his wife the rule of his three bastard sons, Richard and two Henry’s, until they were all aged 18. Henry, Lord Grey of Codnor is buried at Aylesford Priory in Kent, now a working Monastery and open to the public. The Lordship of Codnor was sold off or divided between Henry’s three aunts and the title remained dormant and unclaimed until, 493 years later, in 2002, the Barony was revived for Charles Cornwall-Legh (aged 86), who was able to prove his decent through twenty generations to Henry Greys aunt Lucy. The present Lord Grey of Codnor lives near Knutsford in Cheshire.

We are pleased to recommend our cousins retinue to you – visit Lord Grey’s Retinue at – www.lordgreys.org

JOHN WHICHCOTE ESQ. Originally from Shropshire, John Whichote was a merchant who rapidly climbed the career ladder, serving as Escheator for Shropshire 1450-51, then Deputy Butler of the port of Kingston-upon-Hull 1458-67. MP for Bletchingley, Surrey in 1460. Whichcote identified himself with the Yorkist’s, acting as feoffee in Lincolnshire for Richard, Duke of York, Edward, Earl of March and Richard, Earl of Warwick, and, no doubt, sponsored by Sir Thomas Burgh, he was appointed on many Commissions (one to resist Henry VI in Lincolnshire, November 1461), seized the forfeited lands of the Tailboys, with Burgh in 1461, was granted custody of Sleaford Castle by the Bishop of Lincoln in 1462 (John Chedworth) and the Stewardship of his Episcopal Manors in northern Lincolnshire. Whichcote was Justice of The Peace for Lindsey 1463-78, Sheriff of Lincolnshire 1465-66, and was pardoned, as a merchant of Calais. He also had lands and rents in Retford, Nottinghamshire. Whichcote married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Tytwhit of Kettleby, Lincolnshire (another, long term associate of the Burgh’s). Their son, another John, married, firstly, Katherine, daughter of Sir John Bussey of Hougham, and secondly, Katherine ?.

John Whichcote esq. died in 1467/68. The family went on to become knights, Sir George Whichcote, the last of the male line, lived at Aswarby Hall near Sleaford, and the last Lady Whichcote died in 1996 - ‘The last of a great family’.

Sir William Skypwyth. Born in 1418 and of South Ormesby, Lincolnshire; Justice of the Peace (JP) for Lindsey 1447-58 & 1461-83, Sheriff of Lincolnshire 1458 & 1463, Escheator 1449 & 1458, Steward of Hatfield and Conisborough, South Yorkshire, for Richard, Duke of York. Skypwyth was a member of the Duke’s retinue and, in 1455, he refused to support York at the Battle of 1^st St.Albans and was dismissed. From 1457 he was regularly on Commissions with Viscount Beaumont. He was re-appointed by Henry VI on York’s forfeiture in 1459 and also made Constable of Conisborough Castle (?). By 1461, however, he was a Knight of the Body to King Edward IV and appointed to many Commissions, alongside Burgh, and also acted as feoffee for him. Skypwyth was made Steward of the lordship of Burwell and served the Duchy of Lancaster in Lincolnshire, acting as Deputy Steward of the Honor of Bolingbroke to Sir Thomas Burgh. Skypwyth held lands in South Ormesby, Ingoldmells, Covenham, Calthorpe, and in Saltfleetby, held of Louth Park Abbey.

He also had lands in Yorkshire, but, by 1483 only Ingoldmells was still held in his name, all the rest having been settled on his only son and heir, Sir John.

Sir William’s mother was the daughter of Lord Willoughby d’Eresby and her second husband was the prominent Yorkist, Sir William Oldhall, Speaker of the House of Commons. Skypwyth married 1^st Joan Mortimer and 2^nd Agnes, daughter of Sir John Constable of Constable Burton, Yorkshire, also an associate of Burgh. Sir William died on the 27^th November1482, leaving his son John and two daughters, Joan and Alice.

LEONARD THORNBURGH. Hailing from Cumberland and Westmoreland, the Thornburgh’s were very active there and they may well have had connections with the Burgh’s holdings in Kendal. Leonard’s involvement in Lincolnshire came from his marriage to Agnes ? ,bringing lands in Burgh-le-Marsh, Boston, Wainfleet and Holbeach.

In 1460 he was appointed troner and pesager of the Port of Boston, and from 1460 – 1485 he served as Justice of the Peace for Holland (except during Henry VI’s Readeption) and from 1473 – 1474 in Kesteven. Sheriff of Lincolnshire 1471, he served on many, varied Commissions, alongside Sir Thomas Burgh and other associates, becoming a Customs collector for Boston in 1469 and an Alderman of the Corpus Cristi Gild 1473 – 74.

Thornburgh also served alongside Burgh as a Duchy of Lancaster officer, and in 1468 held the county Inquisition Post Mortem for George, Duke of Clarence. In 1483 he was made Controller of the Customs of Boston and continued to serve on various Commissions of Array, tax and treason. Thornburgh was a loyal and very able Yorkist, who administered the government of Lincolnshire and is a, largely, forgotten career civil servant.

THOMAS TOTOFT Snr & Jnr. Thomas Totoft Snr was a Calais stapler of Boston in 1454, and was exporting wool from the port in 1464. Married to Alice Thurland, they had Thomas Jnr, Robert (eldest, dead by 1485) and Antony. Thomas Jnr married Elizabeth Austin. It appears that Thomas Snr was associated with Lord Beaumont in the late 40’s and early 50’s. Both Thomas Snr and his wife were members of the powerful gilds in Boston and he was known as Thomas Totoft esquire by the late 1460’s.

Father and son served as joint Receiver for the Richmond Fee (manors, lands and rents of the Earldom of Richmond, held by George, Duke of Clarence then the crown and later Lady Margaret Beaufort, the Kings mother, in Lincolnshire), surrendered in 1485 with the other office of Keepers of Somerton Castle (Burgh was Constable). Both, confusingly, served on many Commissions, and it is difficult to separate them, however, it was most certainly Thomas Jnr who served as a Justice of the Peace in Holland from 1470 – 1493, being very closely associated with the Yorkists, and, especially, with Sir Thomas Burgh. Although he surrendered offices in 1485, Thomas Jnr was soon in the Tudor’s fold, being appointed an officer of the Duchy of Lancaster and was an Usher of the Chamber by 1488, continuing to serve on many, varied commissions. Thomas Jnr was also a Calais stapler and was known as ‘of Winthorpe esquire’. In 1493 he was dismissed from various offices, for incompetence, and died on the 28^th April 1515 leaving his son Anthony to carry on the name. Heraldry – Azure, a chevron argent between three cross-crosslets or, in chief a lion passant of the last.