William Boleyn

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Sir

William Boleyn
Born1451
Blickling, Norfolk, England
Died10 October 1505 (aged 53–54)
Spouse(s)Lady Margaret Butler
ChildrenAnne, Lady Shelton
Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire
John Boleyn
Anthony Boleyn
Jane, Lady Calthorpe
Alice, Lady Clere
Margaret Sackville
William Boleyn
Sir James Boleyn
Sir Edward Boleyn
Parent(s)Sir Geoffrey Boleyn
Anne Hoo
RelativesAnne Boleyn (granddaughter)
Elizabeth I of England
(great-granddaughter)

Sir William Boleyn (1451 – 10 October 1505) was a wealthy and powerful landowner and High Sheriff in Kent and East Anglia in the late 15th century.[1] He was the father of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and the paternal grandfather of King Henry VIII's second Queen, Anne Boleyn.[2][3][4]

Life[]

William Boleyn was born at Blickling, Norfolk.[5] He was the younger of the two sons of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, a wealthy citizen Mercer and Lord Mayor of London in 1457-58,[6] and his wife, Anne Hoo (c. 1424-1484), only child of the first marriage of Thomas Hoo, Baron Hoo and Hastings to Elizabeth daughter of Sir Nicholas Wychingham of Norfolk.[7] Sir Geoffrey died testate in 1463.[8]

Before November 1469 William Boleyn married Margaret Ormond (otherwise Butler), second daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond (died 3 August 1515) by his first wife, Anne Hankford.[9] She carried the manor of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in marriage to her husband. [10] They had six sons and four daughters.[11]

As heir, William succeeded his elder brother, Thomas Boleyn Esquire of London, who died in 1471:[9][12] Thomas asked to be buried beside his father in St Lawrence's church in the Old Jewry, City of London,[13] and made his mother his executor, instructing her to sell his manor of Ingham, Norfolk.[14] William eventually succeeded to Blickling and other estates of his father's. He was admitted to the Mercers' Company in 1472, and (by special admission) to Lincoln's Inn in 1473.[15]

In the mid-1440s Sir Thomas Hoo received the lordship of Hastings, the Garter, and his baronial title, and made his second marriage. He then secured his various manors to his own heirs and those of his younger half-brother, Thomas Hoo Esquire.[16] Lord Hoo and Hastings died in 1455:[17] his brother settled the manor and advowson of Mulbarton, Norfolk on Geoffrey and Anne Boleyn, and when Anne died a widow in 1484 they descended to Sir William, who presented to the joint rectoriate of Mulbarton cum Keningham in 1494, 1497 and 1500.[18] In 1487, on the death of Thomas Hoo, Esq., without issue, then by a feoffment made in 1473 (and not as heir general) William Boleyn became seised of the manor of Offeley St Leger in Offeley and Cokernhoe, Hertfordshire, and others in Sussex.[19]

Boleyn was created a Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of Richard III in 1483.[14][20] In August of that year the Duke of Norfolk, Lord High Admiral, constituted Sir William his deputy for all the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, for life.[21] He was charged by Henry VII with responsibility for the beacons which were used to warn in the event of an attack on English shores.[22] He served (as of Hever Castle) as High Sheriff of Kent in 1489[23] and was High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1500.[24]

Death and burial[]

His will was proved in 1505,[25] in which he requested to be buried in Norwich Cathedral beside the grave of his mother Dame Anne Boleyn, and bestowed his various manors in Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Kent.[14] Sir William was a considerable benefactor to the fabric of Norwich Cathedral, to adorning the arches in the choir, where his arms were displayed in various places. His arms also appear in St Gregory's church, Norwich, and his house was adjacent to that of Sir Miles Stapleton's. His tomb slab in the Cathedral as seen by Blomefield in 1743 was on the south side on the presbytery steps, and had been despoiled of its brasses, but formerly bore the inscription "Hic jacet Corpus Willelmi Boleyn Militis, qui obijt X Octobris Anno Dni: MoCCCCCovo, Cuius anime propicietur Deus Amen." The heraldry displayed on this stone was as follows:[21]

  • 1) (Boleyn single): argent a chevron gules between 3 bulls' heads sable armed or.
  • 2) (Boleyn quartering): (a) (Bracton) three mullets 2 and 1, a chief indented ermine; (b) (Butler earl of Ormond) or a chief indented azure, impaling (Hoo) quarterly argent and sable, quartering (St Omer) azure a fess between 6 croslets or, and a shield of pretence, in fess of (Wichingham) ermine on a chief sable 3 croslets paté or.
  • 3) (Bracton single) three mullets 2 and 1, a chief indented ermine.

New Hall[]

In 1491 the Earl of Ormond had licence to empark, to crenellate and machicolate, and to build walls and towers of brick at his manor of Newehall at Boreham and Little Waltham in Essex,[26] which had been granted to him by Henry VII. Through Dame Margaret this came to the Boleyn family. New Hall was sold in 1516 by Sir Thomas (Sir William's son) to King Henry VIII, who rebuilt the mansion in brick as the Palace of Beaulieu.[5] Dame Margaret died around March 1539/40:[9] from 1519 onwards she was declared by inquisition to have suffered periods of insanity making her incapable of managing her own estates.[27]

Issue[]

References[]

  1. ^ E. Griffiths, 'The Boleyns at Blickling, 1450-1560', Norfolk Archaeology, XLV Part IV (2009), pp. 453-68.
  2. ^ J. Hughes, 'Boleyn, Thomas, earl of Wiltshire and earl of Ormond (1476/7–1539), courtier and nobleman', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2007).
  3. ^ E.W. Ives, 'Anne (Anne Boleyn) (c.1500–1536), queen of England, second consort of Henry VIII', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography' (2004).
  4. ^ Richardson IV 2011, pp. 305–11.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b M. Phillip, 'An Old English Mansion: New Hall, Chelmsford' The Antiquary, 10 (1914), pp. 217-223 (Proquest).
  6. ^ A.B. Beavan, The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III to 1912 (Corporation of the City of London, 1913), II, p. 10.
  7. ^ Weir, p. 145.
  8. ^ Will of Geffray Boleyn, Mercer and Alderman of Saint Lawrence Jewry, City of London (P.C.C. 1463, Godyn quire).
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g D. Richardson, ed. K.G. Everingham, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families (Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004), p. 179; see also 2nd Edition (2011), '14. Margaret Butler' pp. 457, 458 (Google).
  10. ^ J. Parker, 'The manor of Aylesbury', Archaeologia L (London 1887), pp. 81-103, at p. 87 and p. 92 (Google).
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b c d D. Richardson, ed. K.G. Everingham, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families (Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004), pp. 35-36, 178-79.
  12. ^ Will of Thomas Boleyn, 1471-72, in N.H. Nicolas (ed.), Testamenta Vetusta, 2 vols (Nichols and Son, London 1826), I, p. 322 (Google). The Register copy of the will (P.C.C., Wattys quire) shows will date 28 April, probate granted on 26 June (not January), 1471.
  13. ^ Their monumental inscriptions are recorded there under 'St Lawrence in the Iewrie' by John Weever, Ancient Fvnerall Monvments Within The Vnited Monarchie Of Great Britain (Thomas Harper for Laurence Sadler, London 1631), p. 398 (Google).
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g 'Blickling', in F. Blomefield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Volume III (W. Whittingham, Lynn/R. Baldwin, London 1769), pp. 627-28 (Google).
  15. ^ The Records of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, I: Admissions from A.D. 1420 to A.D. 1799 (Lincoln's Inn 1896), p. 18 (Internet Archive).
  16. ^ Feet of Fines, CP 25/1/293/71, no. 308. View original at AALT.
  17. ^ W.D. Cooper, 'The families of Braose of Chesworth, and Hoo', Sussex Archaeological Collections VIII (London 1856), pp. 97-131, at pp. 118-21 (Internet Archive).
  18. ^ F. Blomefield, 'Mulbarton', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Vol. 5: Hundred of Humble-Yard (W. Miller, London 1806), pp. 75-83, at notes 11-16 and 25 (British History Online). Blomefield has some errors in this account.
  19. ^ '160. Thomas Hoo, Esq., 2 Henry VII', in Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem for Henry VII, 3 vols (HMSO 1898), I, p. 74 (Google); see also '322. Thomas Hoo, Esq, 3 Henry VII (Sussex)', p. 138 (Google).
  20. ^ W.A. Shaw, The Knights of England 2 vols (Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906), I, p. 139 (Internet Archive) has this recipient as "William Bolney".
  21. ^ Jump up to: a b F. Blomefield, 'City of Norwich, Chapter 41: Of the Cathedral Church and its Precinct', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Vol. 4: The History of the City and County of Norwich, Part II (W. Miller, London 1806), pp. 1-46 (British History Online), at pp. 33-35 (Google), No. 10 in Cathedral plan (Internet Archive), and see p. 84 (no. 28) and p. 283.
  22. ^ Wilkinson, Josephine (2009). Mary Boleyn, The True Story of Henry VIII's favourite mistress. Amberley Publishing. p. 15.
  23. ^ 'The names of the Sheriffs of the county of Kent', in R. Kilburne, A Topographie or Survey of the County of Kent (Thomas Mabb for Henry Atkinson, London 1659), pp. 388-98, at p. 396: 4 Henry VII (Umich/eebo).
  24. ^ 'Norfolk Worthies: Sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk', in T. Fuller, ed. P.A. Nuttall, The History of the Worthies of England, New Edition, 3 vols (Thomas Tegg, London 1840), II, pp. 473-83, at p. 480, 15 Henry VII (Internet Archive).
  25. ^ Will of William Boleyn of Blikling, Norfolk (P.C.C. 1505, Holgrave quire).
  26. ^ Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Henry VII, Vol. I: 1485-1494 (HMSO 1914), p. 367 (Hathi Trust).
  27. ^ "Appendix VI: The Insanity of Margaret Boleyn (Escheator's Inquisitions, Cambs and Hunts, 30 and 31 Henry VIII)", in W. Rye, 'The Murder of Amy Robsart: a Brief for the Prosecution', The Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany, III Part I (A.H. Goose and Co., Norwich 1885), pp. 251-339, at pp. 319-20 (Google).
  28. ^ J.S. Cotman, D. Turner, S.R. Meyrick, A. Way and N.H. Nicolas, Engravings of Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk, 2nd Edition (Henry G. Bohn, London 1838), I, p. 23 (Google) and Plate XXXIII (2 pages back).
  29. ^ Jump up to: a b Nina Green, Commentary, 'The National Archive PROB 11/75/31' (Will of Sir Philip Calthorpe) (2018), p. 2 (oxford-shakespeare.com pdf
  30. ^ Her daughter Elizabeth, by Sir Philip Calthorpe, was not born until 1521.
  31. ^ Will of Sir Philip Calthorpe of Erwarton, Suffolk (P.C.C. 1552, Powell quire)
  32. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g 'Brampton' in W. Rye, The Visitations of Norfolk, 1563, 1589 and 1613, Harleian Society XXXII (1891), pp. 51-53 (Internet Archive).
  33. ^ Nina Green, Commentary, 'The National Archive PROB 11/27/398' (Will of Dame Alice Clere) (2011), (oxford-shakespeare.com pdf
  34. ^ J.S. Cotman, D. Turner, S.R. Meyrick, A. Way and N.H. Nicolas, Engravings of Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk, 2nd Edition (Henry G. Bohn, London 1838), I, p. 34 and Plate LXII.
  35. ^ R.J.W. Swales,'Sackville, John I (by 1484-1557), of Mount Bures, Essex, Withyham and Chiddingly, Suss.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1982), The History of Parliament Online.
  36. ^ "William Boleyn (BLN503W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge., reciting J. Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses Part I Vol. 1 (Cambridge University Press, 1922), p. 124 (Internet Archive). 'Uncle of the queen' must refer to the subject of this alumni entry, not to his father Sir William (as the wording suggests).
  37. ^ St Peter's Churchwardens' Account Books. London Metropolitan Archives ref. GB 0074 P69/PET4.
  38. ^ J.S. Block, 'Shelton family (per. 1504–1558)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP 2004).
  39. ^ 'Hundred of Depwade: Shelton', in F. Blomefield, An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Vol. 5 (W. Miller, London 1806), pp. 263-74 (British History Online). See at norfolk stained glass: the restored glass shows some rearrangement since Blomefield's time.

Family Tree[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Elizabeth Norton, 2013. The Boleyn Women, Amberley Publishing
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