Sir William Cavendish, (died 1557)

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jonathan kirton

Sir William Cavendish, (died 1557)

Legg inn av jonathan kirton » 14 jun 2007 22:42:52

Dear Group,

A further thank you to Michael Andrews-Reading and to Matthew Connolly.

Yes, I have a full transcription of Sir James Kirton's will, and I
also have copies of all the Seymour Papers at Longleat, including the
Earl of Hertford's Lieutenancy Paper.

It is important to realize that there were two James Kirtons, first
cousins, both lawyers, and both
MPs.

From the Visitation of London, 1568, p.87, Edward Kirton, the
armiger, of London and Almesford, Somerset, is identified as the
fifth son (hence the identification on his arms of the "annulet
or", being the difference of a fifth son) of his parents John Kirton
of Burbiche (sic. Burbage), Wilts., & his wife Elizabeth Andros, who
had four elder sons: Richard, born c.1525; George, born c. 1527;
William, born c. 1528; and Robert, born c. 1529. I have found no name
for any wife of any of this group, but I have the will of a William
Kirton, a lawyer in London who died in 1598, and was still a bachelor
when he died. The only one of the four who I know for certain was
married was the youngest, Robert. He lived at Wells, Somerset; B.C.L.
Oxon 5 Mar.,1561-2. His will dated 1565 can be found in
Somersetshire Wills. (He would seem to have been the most likely
Kirton to be a possible candidate as the husband of Mary Cavendish,
who was born c. 1539.)
Robert had one son, James Kirton (the elder), born c.1560, gent.; of
New Inn, Middle Temple,
1585; called 1586; attorney; Recorder of Wells & MP of Wells,
1601,1604. Died 1611. This
James (the elder) had as his first wife Ann Bodenham, dau. of Henry
(Musgrave's obit), who
died in London, and was interred at Westminster Abbey on 7 Sept.,
1603. James remarried on
12 Feb., 1606 to Elizabeth Morley at St. Giles Cripplegate, London.
Together they had an eldest
son: Seymour, b.1607, who became a rector in Devon, and possibly two
others, who may have
been Theodore, born c. 1609, and Posthumous, born c. 1611, very
shortly after James' death.

The fifth son, Edward, mentioned above, gent., and armiger, of
Almesford Park, Somerset, was
married to Letyce or Lettice Gilbank of London; he headed the
Somerset Certificate of Musters
in 1569, being provided with a "corslet" of armour, and was buried at
Almesford in June, 1601.
Their eldest son was Danyell (Daniel) Kirton, as shown in the
Visitation, born c. 1555, probably
in London since his baptism is not recorded at Almesford.
His wife's christian name was Frances, but I have never discovered
her maiden name. Daniel
and Frances had two children, Edward, bapt. at Almesford / Ansford 15
May., 1583, and a dau.
also Frances, born 1589, who at the age of 17, with her mother's
permission, became the wife
of Sir Anthony Bugge of Harlow, Essex (Marr. Lic.Lon.p.300; Boyd's p.
323). Daniel, the father,
had predeceased his father, dying in 1594, after which Frances
remarried to Sir Robert Vernon,
so that she became Lady Vernon. She was buried at Mitcham 20 Sept.,
1617, and her will can
be found in Somersetshire Wills. She mentions her son Edward Kirton,
and also left a bequest
of 5 pounds to an Arabella (sic. Arbella ?) Kirton, who has mystified
me for a long time.

This Edward Kirton, Esq., son of Daniel, was the major inheritor of
the estate of his uncle, Sir
James Kirton (the younger), after Sir James' death in 1620. As a
young man he became a
gentleman attendant or servant in the household of Lady Arbella
Stuart, the daughter of Charles
Stuart, 6th Earl of Lennox, and his wife Elizabeth Cavendish, and
thus a niece of Mary, Queen of
Scots, and a grandaughter of Bess of Hardwick, the Countess of
Shrewsbury. (I have long had
a suspicion that he obtained this post because he had a connection to
the Cavendish family.)
He was much involved in the marriage of William Seymour to Lady
Arbella, and, as a result was
even arrested and imprisoned in the Gatehouse at Westminster for
a time. After the return of

William Seymour from the Continent, Edward Kirton became his
steward, taking up a position
in the footsteps of his uncle Sir James, who had been steward to
William Seymour's grand-
father. He is the same Edward mentioned in the Court of Chivalry
case of an earlier thread.
From his uncle he had inherited land in Castle Carye, Almesford and
South Carye, Somerset.
He soon after became an MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme,1621-2;
Ludgershall, 1624-5;
Marlborough 1625-6; Great Bedwyn, Wilts. 1628-9; and Melbourne Port
1640. He was disabled
in 1642 and retired to Oxford & sat in the Parliament there; M.A.
Oxon 1643. Castle Carye Tax
Rolls, paid in London, 1641-2. He was back in Castle Carye in
Sept., 1651, and discovering
that King Charles and his party were approaching on his escape after
the Battle of Worcester,
rode out from Castle Carye and found the King and brought him to
hiding in his own house on
the night of 16-17th. Sept.. He was then about 68 years of age. He
died before the Restoration,
and was buried on 30 Jan., 1653 at Easton, Wilts.. He and his wife
Margaret had one daughter,
also named Frances, but apart from her baptism at Castle Carye, I
have found no other proof of
her existence or subsequent activities.

Edward and Lettice Kirton had a total of eleven (11) sons, and two
daughters. Sir James Kirton
(the younger) was their fourth son. He was baptized at Almesford on
21 Dec., 1559, & is also
mentioned in the 1568 Visitation of London, aged 7. He became a
solicitor of the Temple in
1592, and, as I previously described, soon became the lawyer to
Lord Edward Seymour, 2nd.
Earl of Hertford. His wife, Elizabeth, who he married at Pilton,
Somerset on 17 Sept., 1599,
was the daughter of Sir John Morley of Halfnaked, Sussex, and was the
widow of one of the
Rodneys of Somerset. Dame Elizabeth died in London soon after her
husband was knighted,
and was buried at St. Batholomew the Less, St. Bottolph's,
Aldersgate. Their only child seems
to have been Maurice, baptized at Pilton on 11 Sept., 1608, but Sir
James mentioned no living
children in his will.

About the Frances Kirtons, and we have at least five different ones,
in 1603, one of them was
noted as ".....that Frances Kirton(noted by Nicholls as being
Cobham's kinswoman, in service
with Arbella) told him that Arbella was desirous to know why his
lordship's brother......" etc..
(Ref.: "Arbella, England's Lost Queen" by Sarah Gristwood. Bantam
Books, 2004, page 277)
My guess is that this refers to Mrs. Francis Kirton, Edward's mother,
after she became a widow,
but before she married Sir Robert Vernon, which may well have also
resulted from a Cavendish
family connection ?

If anybody can find that Cavendish connection, it will solve a real
puzzle.

My sincere thanks for any further help.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kirton

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