Robert Radcliffe of Hunstanton

Sir Robert Radcliffe or Radclyffe (died 1497) was an English landowner.

He was a son of Sir Thomas Radcliffe, and not, as is sometimes stated, a member of the Attleborough branch of the family. His estates were at Hunstanton in Norfolk. He was Steward of the Lincolnshire estates of the Duke of York.[1]

Robert Ratcliffe married Joan, Lady Cromwell, commemorated by a brass at Tattershall

Radcliffe married Joan Stanhope in 1472. She was a daughter of Sir Richard Stanhope and Maud Cromwell, a sister of Ralph Cromwell, 3rd Baron Cromwell. Joan Stanhope's first husband was Sir Humphrey Bourchier, son of Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex, who was killed at the battle of Barnet in 1471.[2] Joan was an heir of Ralph Cromwell and was known as "Lady Cromwell".[3] Robert Radcliffe became lord of the manor of Tattershall.[4]

Joan Stanhope, Lady Cromwell died on 10 March 1489–90 and was buried at Holy Trinity, Tattershall, near Ralph Cromwell's home at Tattershall Castle,[5] where there is a commemorative brass image formerly including the Radcliffe coat of arms.[6] Radcliffe subsequently married Katherine Drury, a daughter of Roger Drury of Hawstead in Suffolk. Her first husband was Henry Le Strange (died after 1483) of Hunstanton.[7] By her first husband, Katherine had three sons, Sir Roger le Strange, knight, eldest son,[8] who married Amy,[9] daughter of Sir Henry Heydon,[10] knight,[11] and had John le Strange who died young; Robert le Strange, second son, who married Anne,[12] daughter and coheiress of Thomas le Strange of Walton in Warwick, Esq., and had Sir Thomas le Strange and his two sisters; and John le Strange of Massingham in Norfolk, a judge, third son, who married Margaret,[12] daughter and coheiress of Thomas le Strange of Walton in Warwickshire.[8][13][14]

Katherine's children by Robert Radcliffe included Ann Radcliffe and Elizabeth Radcliffe. In his will, written in 1496, Robert Radcliffe bequeathed Ann four gold rings, one engraved with an image of the five wounds of Christ, with a bed of gold or gold beads. Elizabeth was given an enamelled gold jewel or beads decorated with Catherine wheels. Ann would keep an embroidered purse containing holy relics and let Elizabeth have it when needed. He gave a vestment embroidered with Joan Stanhope's arms to the church at Tattershall and also paid for the painting and gilding of an image of the Virgin Mary in the collegiate church.[15] Radcliffe left his own gown of crimson velvet (but not its fur collar) to Hunstanton Church, to make a cope with a cloth of gold orphrey embroidered with his and "Dame Kateryne's" heraldry. The tomb and brass, "latten", he mentions in his will for Hunstanton may never have been erected.[16]

Radcliffe's bequest of vestments at Hunstanton was emulated by John Le Strange (died 1517), a stepson, his wife Katherine's younger son by her first husband.[17] Le Strange made a bequest of vestments to St. Andrew's at Little Massingham to be made "after the rate of Sir Robert Ratclyffe's cope".[18]

Elizabeth Radcliffe married Sir Roger Woodhouse or Wodehouse (died 1560).[19] Their son Thomas Woodhouse married Madge Shelton. He was present at the battle of Pinkie in September 1547, some sources suggest he was killed there.[20] With his wife Madge, he had the son Roger Woodhouse of Kimberley in Norfolk,[21] and Elizabeth Woodhouse (d. 1608), the Mrs. Jones who was Mother of the Maids in 1588–1591. In 1588, she married Thomas Jones and by November of that year she was Mother of the Maids. On October 17, 1591, she was sent to the Tower after Katherine Leigh, one of the maids of honor in her charge, gave birth to a child at court. Katherine Leigh and Sir Francis Darcy, father of the child, were also sent to the Tower. Elizabeth died in 1608. In her will she describes herself as ‘of London’, making bequests to Lord Hunsdon and Lady Scrope.[22][23][24]

The daughter of Elizabeth Radcliffe and Sir Roger Woodhouse was Anne Woodhouse,[25] who married firstly Christopher Coningsby,[26] of Wallington,[27] Esq.,[28] who was slain in the first of Edward VI at the battle of Muscleborough in Scotland.[28] He was the son of William Coningsby[29] and his wife Beatrix Thursby, the daughter of Thomas Thursby (d.1510) and the sister of Thomas Thursby (d.1543). After her first husband's death, Anne remarried to Sir Thomas Ragland.[30] Christopher Coningsby had by Anne Woodhouse three daughters and coheiresses, Elizabeth, who married Francis Gawdy, Esq., Anne, who married Alexander Balam of Elme in Cambridgeshire, and Amy, who married Thomas Clarke of Avington in Northamptonshire.[28]

In her will, made December 1562 and proven 18 February 1563, Anne left a ring with an emerald to her husband but otherwise stipulated ‘that Sir Thomas Ragland shall not by any ways or means take any benefit or advantage of this will’.[30] She apparently did not trust him to manage the inheritance left to her daughters.[31]

In 1519, when Sir Thomas Le Strange's wife Anne Vaux, the aunt of Katherine Parr, gave birth to her third or fourth child at Hunstanton, her own mother was dead and her mother-in-law had remarried and moved away, leaving it to two of her husband’s aunts, Elizabeth Radcliffe, Lady Woodhouse and Anne Banyard, to attend her for the three weeks leading up to the birth.[32]

## References[edit]

1. ^ Rosemary Horrox, Richard III: A Study of Service (Cambridge, 1989), p. 84.
2. ^ Colin Richmond, The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century: Endings (Manchester, 2000), p. 20 fn. 6.
3. ^ Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Testamenta Vetusta: Illustrations from Wills, vol. 1 (London, 1826), p. 434: TNA PROB 11/11/383.
4. ^ George Nathaniel Curzon & Henry Avray Tipping, Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire: A Historical & Descriptive Survey (London, 1929), pp. 101-2.
5. ^ James Wright, 'Tattershall Castle and the Newly-built Personality of Ralph Lord Cromwell', The Antiquaries Journal, 101 (September 2021), pp. 301-332 doi:10.1017/S0003581520000505
6. ^ A topographical account of Tattershall (Horncastle, 1813), pp. 12-3.
7. ^ Colin Richmond, The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century: Endings (Manchester, 2000), p. 20 fn. 6.
8. ^ a b Rye, Walter; Hervey, William; Cooke, Clarenceux; Raven, John. The visitacion [i.e., visitation] of Norfolk, made and taken by William Hervey, Clarencieux King of Arms, anno 1563, enlarged with another visitacion [sic] made by Clarenceux Cook : with many other descents, and also the vissitation [sic] made. Family History Library. pp. 271–272.
9. ^ "Lestrange (Lestraunge), Amy, widow, late the wife of Sir Roger Lestraunge, kt, of Honyston - Norfolk Record Office Online Catalogue". nrocatalogue.norfolk.gov.uk. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
10. ^ Rye, Walter; Hervey, William; Cooke, Clarenceux; Raven, John. The visitacion [i.e., visitation] of Norfolk, made and taken by William Hervey, Clarencieux King of Arms, anno 1563, enlarged with another visitacion [sic] made by Clarenceux Cook : with many other descents, and also the vissitation [sic] made. Family History Library. p. 152.
11. ^ Hundred of South Erpingham: Baconsthorp, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: volume 6 (1807), pp. 502–513 Retrieved 3 October 2013.
12. ^ a b Dugdale, William (1730). The Antiquities of Warwickshire Illustrated: From Records, Leiger-books, Manuscripts, Charters, Evidences, Tombes, and Armes: Beautified with Maps, Prospects, and Portraictures. J. Osborn and T. Longman. p. 577.
13. ^ Harvey, William (1878). The visitation of Norfolk in the year 1563. Norwich, Printed by Miller and Leavins. p. 64.
14. ^ "Smethdon Hundred: Hunstanton Lordship | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 October 2023. "Henry Lestrange, Esq. left by his lady, Katherine, 3 heirs, Roger, Robert and John, who married Margaret, one of the daughters and coheirs of Sir Thomas Le Strange of Walton Deivile in Warwickshire [...] Robert L'Estrange, Esq. married Anne, daughter and coheir of Sir Thomas L'Estrange, of Walton D'Eivile in Warwickshire, by whom he had Sir Thomas his son, and died in 1511."
15. ^ Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Testamenta Vetusta: Illustrations from Wills, vol. 1 (London, 1826), p. 434 includes "bed of gold": Maurice Keen, English Society in the Later Middle Ages (Allen Lane, 1990), p. 278: See TNA PROB 11/11/383
16. ^ J. F. Williams, 'Some Norfolk churches and their old-time benefactors', Norfolk Archaeology, 27:3 (1941), p. 341: See TNA PROB 11/11/383. doi:10.5284/1077808
17. ^ Charles Parkin, An essay towards a topographical history of the county of Norfolk, vol. 10 (London, 1809), p. 318.
18. ^ Ronald Fisher McLeod, Massingham Parva Past and Present (London, 1882), pp. 99-100
19. ^ G. Dashwood, Visitation of Norfolk in the Year 1563, vol. 1 (Norwich, 1878), p. 104.
20. ^ Barbara Harris, 'A rhetoric of requests: genre and linguistic scripts in Elizabethan women's suitors' letters', James Daybell, Women and Politics in Early Modern England, 1450–1700 (Routledge, 2000): G. Dashwood, Visitation of Norfolk in the Year 1563, vol. 1 (Norwich, 1878), p. 104.
21. ^ "WOODHOUSE, Roger (c.1541-88), of Kimberley, Norf. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
22. ^ Colthorpe, Marion E. Court: Women at Court; Royal Household (PDF). Folger Shakespeare Library. p. 23.
23. ^ Colthorpe, Marion E. "The Elizabethan Court Day by Day - Folgerpedia". folgerpedia.folger.edu. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
24. ^ Emerson, Kathy Lynn (11 October 2020). A Who's Who of Tudor Women. Kathy Lynn Emerson. pp. Entry for ‘Elizabeth Woodhouse (d. 1608)’.
25. ^ Dashwood, G.H. (ed.). The Visitation of Norfolk in the year 1563, taken by William Harvey, Clarenceux King of Arms: Volume 1 (PDF). Norwich. p. 104.
26. ^ Dashwood, G.H. (ed.). The Visitation of Norfolk in the year 1563, taken by William Harvey, Clarenceux King of Arms: Volume 1 (PDF). Norwich. p. 50.
27. ^ "GAWDY, Francis (d.1605), of Wallington and Shouldham, Norf. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
28. ^ a b c "Clackclose Hundred and Half: Wallington | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2023. "Thomas Gawsell, (son of John,) and Catherine his wife, convey their manors of Wallington and Thorpland to William Conningsby, Esq. (one of the justices of the King's Bench, in the 32d of the said King,) son of Sir Humphrey, who was made justice of the King's Bench, May 21, in the first of Henry VIII. descended from Roger de Coningsby, lord of Conings by in Lincolnshire, in the reign of King John. Sir Humphrey was son of Thomas Coningsby, Esq. second son of Thomas Coningsby, Esq. of New Solers in Shropshire, who lived in the reign of Edward IV. William Coningsby, Esq. aforesaid (who first settled here) was father of Christopher Coningsby, Esq. who was slain in the first of Edward VI. at the battle of Muscleborough in Scotland, and left by his wife Ann, daughter of Sir Roger Woodhouse of Kimberley, 3 daughters and coheirs; Elizabeth, the eldest, was married to Francis Gawdy, Esq. who in her right became lord of this place, and Thorpland; he was the 3d son of Thomas Gawdy, Esq. of Harleston in Norfolk, by his 3d wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, or (as some say) Oliver Shyres; in the 30th of Elizabeth, he was serjeant at law, and Queen's serjeant, May 17, 1582, and in the 20th of the said Queen, bought of Sir Thomas Mildmay, the manor of Sybeton in this town; in 1589, he was made a judge of the King's Bench, and August 25, 1605, chief justice of the Common Pleas, being then a knight: he died of an apoplexy at Serjeant's Inn, London, before he had sate a year in the station, and was buried in the neighbouring church of Rungton.—Sir Henry Spilman says, that having this manor, &c. in right of his wife, he induced her to acknowledge a fine thereof, on which she became a distracted woman, and continued so, to the day of her death, and was to him for many years a perpetual affliction; he had by her an only daughter and heir, Elizabeth, married to Sir William Hatton, who died also without issue male, and left a daughter and heir, Frances, brought up with her grandfather the judge, and was secretly married, against his will, to Sir Robert Rich, (afterwards Earl of Warwick,) son of Robert Earl of Warwick. The judge being shortly after made Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, (at a dear rate, as was reported,) was suddenly stricken with an apoplexy, and died without issue male, ere he had continued in his place one whole Michaelmas term, and having made his appropriate parish church a hay-house, or a dog-kennel, his dead corps being brought from London to Wallington, could for many days find no place of burial, but growing very offensive, he was at last conveyed to the church of Rungton, and buried there without any ceremony, and lyeth yet uncovered (if the visitors have not reformed it,) with so small a matter as a few paving stones. And indeed no stone or memorial was there ever for him, and if it was not for this account it would not have been known, that he was there buried."
29. ^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rigg, James McMullen (1890). "Gawdy, Francis". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 21\. pp. 79–81.
30. ^ a b "RAGLAND, Sir Thomas, of Carnllwyd, Glam. Roughton Holme, Norf. and Walworth, Surr. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
31. ^ Emerson, Kathy Lynn (11 October 2020). A Who's Who of Tudor Women. Kathy Lynn Emerson. pp. Entry for ‘Anne Woodhouse (1520–1563)’.
32. ^ Emerson, Kathy Lynn (11 October 2020). A Who's Who of Tudor Women. Kathy Lynn Emerson. pp. Entry for ‘Anne Vaux (1494–1548+)’.

## External links[edit]

* Description of the brass for Joan, Lady Cromwell at Tattershall, Nicholas Rogers