Isabel Tilliol and John Colville

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.

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[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.