Sir John Colville of Dale, Ingleby
Arncliffe, East Harlsey, etc., Yorkshire was involved in one of the
insurrections against Henry IV in 1405. He was executed as a traitor at Durham
on 20 August 1405, leaving by his wife Alice, daughter of Sir John Lord Darcy,
a son Sir Robert who seems to have died shortly after his father, and two
daughters, Joan who married William Mauleverer, and Isabel who married John
Wandesford [1].
Sir Robert, son of John Colville
married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Fulthorpe, and left a son John, born
on 29 December 1393, who in 1415, was found to be the heir of his grandfather,
the attainted Sir John Colville [2].
The younger Sir John Colville died about October 1418 at the siege of Harfleur
in Normandy, aged 24 without heirs of his body. The Colville lands were later divided
between his two aunts and their husbands. Although John Colville died in 1418,
the Colville lands in Arncliffe and Heslerton were not divided between his aunts
until 1440 – something that does not seem to have been commented upon by any writers.
The possible reasons for this are given below.
All of the above is well known,
but now we come to a little puzzle. Who did the younger Sir John Colville
marry? Brown says that he married Isabel daughter of Sir Peter Tilliol of
Scalby, Cumberland [3].
The author of the HOP biography of Sir Peter Tilliol states that “The belief
that Isabel Tilliol married the John Colville who fell at Harfleur in 1418 is
demonstrably untrue. She was certainly married to a John Colville by 1416, when
the latter made Sir Peter Tilliol his trustee, but her husband lived on to
enjoy her share of the Tilliol estates” [4].
The answer to this puzzle is that
they are both correct. Isabel Tilliol married twice, both times to a John
Colville. Isabel Tilliol was born about 1406 (said to be aged 30 in March 1436 [5])
so was only aged about 12 at the death of her first husband. She was one of the
executors of her husband’s will together with his servant Thomas Robeas.
Whether Thomas Robeas was incompetent or simply lined his own pocket we cannot
know, but one of the things he should have done as executor was to pay off Sir
John Colville’s debts. Before his departure for Normandy in April 1418, John
Colville had given bonds for loans to several London merchants. After his
death, these bonds had not been repaid in full and Isabel was sued in the
London courts for repayment. In Trinity term 1423, she was sued for £24 10s by Ralph
Holand, citizen and mercer of London [6].
Isabel managed to get the case postponed, but did not appear in court and was
outlawed. She received a royal pardon for not appearing before the justices in
May 1423 [7].
In Trinity term 1429, she was sued
by William Maltby, citizen and mercer of London for her husband’s debts, but by
this time she had re-married to another John Colville. Maltby sued “John
Colvyle lately of Normanby, Yorkshire and his wife Isabel Colvyle, herself
executor and lately wife of John Colvyle of Dale Town, Yorkshire, who owe him
£13 18s” [8].
In June 1429, John Colvyll or Colvyle, of the county of York, esquire, or late
of Normanby, co. York, 'gentilman,' and Isabel, his wife, executrix and late
the wife of John Colvyle, late of Dale, co. York, knight, received a royal
pardon for non-appearance before the king's justices of the Bench [9].
So who was this John Colville of
Normanby, the second husband of Isabel Tilliol? There are several places in
Yorkshire called Normanby but I cannot find a connection between the Colvilles
and any of them. It is interesting though, that Normanby in the parish of
Ormesby, Yorkshire was among the lands held by Sir John Darcy at his death in
December 1411 [10].
In his will dated 27 April 1418,
Sir John Colville of Dale, left a contingent remainder of his manors of
Arncliffe and Heslerton to John Colville, son of William Colville, son of Sir Philip
Colville, knight [11].
Sir Philip Colville, who was alive in 1351 [12],
was most probably the younger brother of William Colville, the
great-grandfather of this Sir John Colville. So the two Johns would be second
cousins once removed. I believe that it was this John Colville who was the
second husband of Isabel Tilliol. The contingent remainder in Sir John Colville’s
will probably muddied the waters when it came to the division of his estates
between the Wandesfords and the Mauleverers and they did not push their claim to
Arncliffe and Heslerton until after the second John Colville died.
Sir Peter Tilliol, Isabel’s
father died on 2 January 1435 when he was succeeded by his son Robert ‘an idiot’.
Robert did not long survive his father and died before 26 March 1436 when his
Durham inquisition post mortem found that Isabella, aged 30 wife of John
Colvyle, and Margaret, aged 26, wife of Christopher Moresby are his sisters and
next heirs [13]. On
2 May 1436, the escheator in Cumberland was ordered to divide the Tilliol
estates between John Colville and Isabel his wife and Christopher Moresby and Margaret
his wife, sisters and heirs of Robert Tilliol [14].
John Colville appears to have
died in late 1436 or early 1437. In 1437 Isabel widow of John Colville released
all claim to dower in Dale, Arncliffe and Ingleby to Sir William Mauleverer and
Joan his wife [15]. Isabel
died shortly before 19 October 1438 aged about 32 [16].
Her Durham inquisition was taken at Bishop Auckland on 30 April 1439, when her
heir was found to be her son William, aged 18 [17].
William Colville adopted his mother’s name of Tilliol and died in 1479, leaving
two daughters who carried his half of the Tilliol estates to the family of
Musgrave.
[1] William Brown, “Ingleby
Arncliffe,” Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 16 (1902): 121–227.
[2]
Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 20: Henry V: 1413-1418, No. 370. http://www.history.ac.uk/cipm-20-part-iv.
[3] Brown, “Ingleby Arncliffe,”
167.
[4] http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/tilliol-sir-peter-1356-1435.
[5] Forty-Fifth
Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (London, 1885), 271.
[6] Court
of Common Pleas, CP 40/650, rot. 076.
[7] Calendar
of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, vol. 1, 30.
[8] Court of Common Pleas, CP 40/674, rot. 464d.
[9] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, vol. 1,
516.
[10]
Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 19, 7-14 Henry IV: 1405-1413, No. 978.
http://www.history.ac.uk/cipm-19-part-ix
[11] Brown, “Ingleby Arncliffe,”
212.
[12] Calendar
of Patent Rolls, Edward III, vol. 9, 154.
[13] Forty-Fifth
Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (London, 1885), 271.
[14] Calendar
of Fine Rolls, vol. 16, Henry VI: 1430-1437 (London, 1936), 278
[15] Brown, “Ingleby Arncliffe,”
167.
[16] Calendar
of Fine Rolls, vol. 17, Henry VI: 1437-1445 (London, 1937), 51.
[17] Forty-Fourth
Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (London, 1884), 348.
