Clearing Up Some Clarell Chronology

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Brad Verity

Clearing Up Some Clarell Chronology

Legg inn av Brad Verity » 25 aug 2006 11:20:50

Elizabeth Clarell, heiress of Aldwark, Yorkshire, and wife of Sir
Richard Fitzwilliam of Wadworth, Yorkshire, was 7th in an unbroken
female-to-female line descent from Edward I. There has been some
uncertainty about her chronology, stemming from a misprint/mistake in
Foster's 'Yorkshire Pedigrees', which says that she was found to be age
15 in 9 Henry VI (1430-31), and that her mother Elizabeth Scrope, Dame
Clarell died 8 March 1430, and her father Thomas Clarell of Aldwark
died 6 February 1430, with administration of his goods granted to his
mother (Maud Montgomery, Dame Clarell) on 15 July 1430.

Elizabeth Clarell, Dame Fitzwilliam died on 12 May 1503, making her age
87/88 at death, if Foster's age for her is correct. It turns out that
Foster was not correct, and that the answers to most of the chronology
difficulties lie in Dame Elizabeth's own missal, which eventually found
it's way to the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University. The
relevant entries from the calendar of Elizabeth's missal were printed
by Joseph Hunter in his 'South Yorkshire', Volume 2 (1831), p. 54.

The birthdate of Dame Elizabeth was entered in the calendar as 2
February 1422, making her age 81 at her death - still quite an old
woman.

We know her father Thomas Clarell cannot have died in 1430, as he was
the beneficiary of the remainder of a grant concerning the manor of
Ulceby made by his parents on 10 June 1441, and he was found heir to
his father in the latter's IPM, taken on 10 November 21 Henry VI
[1442]. His age was given as 40 years and upwards in the IPM. He was
born in 1394, so actually he was age 48. The day and month of his
death is given in the missal calendar as 8 February, but the year is
not entered. However, a petition submitted to the House of Commons by
the Prioress of Hampole (where his daughter Agnes Clarell was a nun) in
1450, refers to Thomas Clarell's wife Elizabeth Scrope as widow of
Thomas. If this petition was made on the heels of Thomas's death,
perhaps regarding a bequest he made to the Abbey, and if Foster simply
misread/misprinted the date of the administration of Thomas's goods to
his mother as 15 July 1430, when it should read 15 July 1450, then it
seems very likely the exact date of death for Thomas Clarell of Aldwark
was 8 February 1450, and he was age 55/56.

We know Elizabeth Scrope, widow of Thomas Clarell took a second
husband, John Pilkington, of Pilkington, Lancashire, and was dead by
1455, when her daughter and heiress Elizabeth, Dame Fitzwilliam,
entered a Fine regarding the manor of Haldenby, now in her possession,
which had been part of the inheritance that came to Elizabeth Scrope
thru her father Sir John Scrope (d. 1405). We also know from a
defeasance dated 18 July 1455 regarding the Fitzwilliam manors of
Wadworth and Bilham that the defeasance would be voided if instead the
manor of Haldenby was substituted 6 months after the death of
Elizabeth. The day and month of death for Elizabeth Scrope, Dame
Clarell, is given in the calendar of the missal as 8 March, with no
year entered. From the above it seems likely that her exact date of
death was 8 March 1455. We don't have a date of birth for her, but she
was likely in her 50s at her death.

The missal calendar also provides the day and month of death (but no
year) of Dame Elizabeth Fitzwilliam's paternal grandfather, Thomas
Clarell of Aldwark, senior - 1st of May. This matches to the date of
death - 1 May 1442 - returned for him in his IPM on 10 Nov. 1442. He
drowned in the river Don. There are also exact dates of death in the
missal calendar for Dame Elizabeth's husband Sir Richard Fitzwilliam
(22 September 1479), his parents Sir Edmund Fitzwilliam (24 December
1465) and his wife Katherine Clifton (14 March 1434), and his paternal
grandparents, Edmund Fitzwilliam (5 February 1430) and his wife Matilda
Hotham (18 May 1433), but those have been in print for a long time.
Still, it's nice to know their source.

Cheers, -------------Brad

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