The royal hunting forest of High Peak,
established by the early Norman kings, covered most of north western Derbyshire.
The administration of the forest was split into three areas; Hopedale, Longdendale
and the relatively open south-western part known as Campana. Each area had its
own forest officials, some holding their positions from the king by hereditary
right. Among the foresters of Campana were the family of Foljambe. There are
several pedigrees of the family in print, but most of them contain errors and a
few mythical and non-existent people.
I have attempted below to make this
brief pedigree showing the main lines of the Foljambe family of Wormhill and
Tideswell, Derbyshire from the end of the thirteenth to the end of the
fourteenth centuries, based almost entirely on contemporary, dated records.
1. Thomas Foljambe I, ca. 1235 - 16 Jan 1283.
As Nathaniel Johnston says “This
Thomas Foljambe, being the antientest person of the family, which manifestly
appears in the original deeds which hitherto I have found, I shall begin with
him.”[1]
He first appears in dated records in October 1265 when he was one of the
collectors of the seized goods of rebels in the wapentake of High Peak[2].
In October 1277 he was one of those who purchased timber from Thomas de
Normanville, the king’s steward[3].
He was on various commissions of enquiry in 1279 and 1280[4].
In June 1280, he had a grant for life from Ralph de Eccleshall of the manors of
Eccleshall and Aldwark in Yorkshire on the marriage of his daughter Cecily with
Robert son of Ralph de Eccleshall[5].
In November 1281 he is named in the Patent
Rolls as king’s bailiff of the Peak, Derbyshire; a post he had held for some
time before this date[6].
In January 1282, Robert Tybetot and Eve his wife granted the manor of Elton,
Derbyshire to Thomas and his heirs[7].
In 11 Edward I, 1282-1283, the Pipe Roll records that Thomas Foljambe gave the
king 400 marks for the farm of the Castle and the honour of the Peak, to hold for
9 years[8].
He died on 16 January 1283 and his inquisition post mortem shows that he
held land in Wormhill of the king by the serjeantry of keeping the forest of
Campana; a mill upon the river Wye; a messuage and sixty acres of land at
Tideswell, and the hamlet of Little Hocklow, of Sir John Daniel, by the service
of rendering annually six barbed arrows with fleches; the hamlet of Letton, of
Margery lady of Beeley; Little Longstone, of Richard Edensor; and Burton (near
Bakewell), held of William Gernon; twenty-eight shillings of rent in Middleton
of William de Yolgrave and the manor of Elton held of Sir Robert Tybetot doing
service at the court of Tutbury. His heir was Thomas his son, aged 17 (born on
24 June 1265). He was survived by his wife Cecily[9].
Cecily had assignment of dower on 23
February 1283[10].
1.1 Sir Thomas Foljambe II, 24 June 1265 – Jan 1322.
Thomas Foljambe, a minor at the
death of his father, was according to an enquiry into the rights of the
foresters of Peak in 1285, placed in the custody of Thomas de Gretton until he
came of age[11]. On
28 June 1286, the escheator beyond Trent was ordered to give him seisin of his
father’s lands as he had proved his age[12].
In June 1287 he was in prison at York for disseising Robert de Eccleshall (his
brother-in-law) of a tenement in Eccleshall[13].
He was knighted before February 1296 when he owed £17 to William de Hamelton[14].
He is named as bailiff of the Peak in
October 1296[15].
He was summoned to perform
military service against the Scots in July 1297 and June 1301, and returned as
one of the knights of the shire for Derbyshire at the Parliaments of 1302, 1305[16],
1309, and 1311 to 1314[17].
In June 1315 he granted his (younger) son Godfrey, the manor of Burton for life[18].
Thomas Foljambe married Alice
whose family name is unknown[19].
He died shortly before 16 January 1322, when the writ of diem clausit extremum
was issued to the escheator[20].
His inquisition post mortem found that his heir was Thomas his son, aged 24
years and more[21].
Dower was assigned to Alice on 20 May 1322[22].
She was still living in October 1332, when she was indicted for knowingly
receiving felons[23].
1.1.1 Sir Thomas Foljambe III,
ca. 1297 – before 18 Mar 1350.
Thomas son of Sir Thomas Foljambe
was said to be aged 24 years and more at his father’s inquisition post mortem
in 1322. He does not appear very often in the public records. For whatever
reason, he gave up his hereditary right to be the king’s forester and thus there
are no more inquisitions for this branch of the family. In October 1336, he had
licence from the king to grant in fee to John del Hall of Castleton, a messuage
and 15 acres in Wormhill, which he held in chief by the service of being
forester in the king’s forest of Campana[24].
In October 1349 he acknowledged in chancery that he owed £200 to his brother Godfrey[25].
He presented a priest to the rectory of Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire on 4
March 1350[26]. He was dead before 18 March 1350, when his
executors; Roger de Paddeley, Hugh his son, and John Foljambe (probably his
younger brother) were dealing with a debt owed by Thomas Foljambe, knight, to John
de Ashton-under-Lyne[27].
He married firstly the eldest of
the five daughters and co-heirs of Sir John de Weston of Weston-under-Lizard
and Newton, Staffordshire (died ca. 1349) by his first wife Isabel de Bromley
(died 1317)[28]. He
married, secondly Ellen who survived him. She is said to have married secondly,
Robert de Staveley. She was living in January 1371[29].
1.1.2 Godfrey Foljambe I, ca.
1300 – 29 May 1376.
See Part 2.
1.1.3 John Foljambe, ca. 1300 – before Jun 1365.
John third son of Sir Thomas
Foljambe II, lived in Tideswell and is confused in records with his nephew of
the same name. In June 1365, he and three others had licence for alienation in
mortmain of lands in Tideswell, Litton and Wormhill, to found a chantry with
two chaplains to celebrate divine service at the altar of St. Mary in the
church of St. John the Baptist, Tideswell. The licence was vacated because John
and two of the others had died before the royal licence was granted[30].
1.1.1.1 John Foljambe ca. 1320 – 2 Aug 1383.
John son of Sir Thomas Foljambe III,
by his first wife, was of Tideswell. According to the inscription on his tomb
he was responsible for re-building the church of Tideswell. On 3 January 1371,
John Foljambe of Tideswell granted lands to Thomas de Castleton vicar of
Wirksworth and two chaplains, with the reversion of lands held for life by
Ellen widow of Thomas Foljambe and the reversion of lands held by Sir Godfrey Foljambe
by the grant of his father Sir Thomas Foljambe.[31]
In 1371 he was holding one fifth of the manor of Newton (near Blithfield),
Staffordshire[32]. On
3 September 1374, John of Gaunt ordered his chief forester of the High Peak to
deliver to John Foljambe, three suitable oak trees for the repair of the church
of St. John in Tideswell[33].
There is confusion concerning the
date of his death, which is shown as 4 August 1358 on his tomb in Tideswell
church. This date is most probably incorrect because Cecil Foljambe, Lord
Liverpool, had the tomb restored in the 1870’s and replaced the then missing
brass inscription with a new one, but apparently got the text wrong. A note
published in 1881[34]
gives the original text of the brass, probably taken from the 1593 church notes
of William Wyrley (d. 1618) showing the date of John’s death as 2 August 1383.
The name of his wife is unknown. He was succeeded by his son Roger.
1.1.1.1.1 Sir Roger Foljambe ca. 1340 – ca. 1395.
Roger son of John Foljambe of
Tideswell. In October 1383, (Michaelmas 7 Richard II) Roger Foljambe, the
administrator of the goods and chattels of John Foljambe of Tideswell, who had
died intestate, sued William Page of Lee, and John de Goldeburne the elder, of
Bromshill, for a debt of £8[35].
He was living on 29 September
1392, when he is mentioned as Roger Foljambe, knight in the foundation charter
of a chantry in Tideswell church[36].
He died some time before 1399, when he was succeeded, it is said, by his
grandson Edward, son of his son James.
[1] Nathaniel Johnston, “Notices of
the Family of Foljambe during the Reigns of King Henry III and Edward I,
Chiefly from the Private Charters of the Family, by Nathaniel Johnston, M.D.
1701,” Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica 1 (1834): 91–111, 333–61.
[2] Calendar
of Inquisitions Miscellaneous (Chancery), vol. 1 (1916), 197.
[3] Calendar
of Patent Rolls, Edward I, vol. 1: 1272-1281 (1901), 235.
[4] Calendar
of Patent Rolls, Edward I, vol. 1: 1272-1281 (1901), 342, 346, 349, 406, 409.
[5] CP
25/1/266/58, number 8.
[6] Calendar
of Patent Rolls, Edward I, vol. 2: 1281-1292 (1893), 43.
[7] Journal
of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 13 (1891),
10.
[8] John
Pym Yeatman, Feudal History of the County of Derby, vol. 1 (1876), 244.
[9] Calendar
of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 2, Edward I (1906), 285, No. 475.
[10] Calendar
of Close Rolls, Edward I: vol. 2, 1279-1288 (1902), 202.
[11] Charles
Kerry, "A History of Peak Forest," Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological
and Natural History Society, vol. 15 (1893), 82.
[12] Calendar
of Close Rolls, Edward I: vol. 2: 1279-1288 (1902), 398.
[13] Calendar
of Close Rolls, Edward I: vol. 2: 1279-1288 (1902), 458.
[14] Calendar
of Close Rolls, Edward I: vol. 3: 1288-1296 (1904), 507.
[15] Calendar
of Close Rolls, Edward I: vol. 3: 1288-1296 (1904), 496.
[16] Francis Palgrave, ed., The
Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Military Summons, vol. 1 (London: Record
Commission, 1827), 619.
[17] Francis Palgrave, ed., The
Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Military Summons, vol. 2 (London: Record
Commission, 1830), Calendar, xxv.
[18] Manuscripts
of His Grace the Duke of Rutland, K.G. Preserved at Belvoir Castle, vol. 4,
Historical Manuscripts Commission (1905), 50.
[19]
She definitely was not the daughter of Gerard de Furnivall, who died s.p. in
1260 and whose heir was his brother Thomas. Neither was she the heiress of
Darley, because Godfrey Foljambe purchased the manor of (Old Hall) Darley, he
did not hold it by inheritance.
[20] Calendar
of Fine Rolls, vol. 3, Edward II: 1319-1327 (1912), 89.
[21] Calendar
of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 6, Edward II (1910), 183, No. 317.
[22] Calendar
of Close Rolls, Edward II: vol. 3, 1318-1323 (1895), 448.
[23] Calendar
of Close Rolls, Edward III: vol. 2, 1330-1333 (1898), 601.
[24] Calendar
of Patent Rolls, Edward III, vol. 3: 1334-1338 (1895), 333.
[25] Calendar
of Close Rolls, Edward III: vol. 9, 1349-1354 (1906), 144.
[26] George
Bridgeman, "History of the Manor and Parish of Weston under Lizard in the
County of Stafford," Collections for a History of Staffordshire, New
Series, vol. II (1899), 44.
[27] Chancery:
Certificates of Statute Merchant and Statute Staple, C 241/128/195.
[28] George
Bridgeman, "History of the Manor and Parish of Weston under Lizard in the
County of Stafford," Collections for a History of Staffordshire, New
Series, vol. II (1899), 44, 52.
[29] Nottinghamshire
Archives, Foljambe of Osberton: Deeds and Estate Papers, DD/FJ/4/3/1.
[30] Calendar
of Patent Rolls, Edward III, vol. 13: 1364-1367 (1912), 126.
[31] Nottinghamshire
Archives, Foljambe of Osberton: Deeds and Estate Papers, DD/FJ/4/3/1.
[32] George
Bridgeman, "History of the Manor and Parish of Weston under Lizard in the
County of Stafford," Collections for a History of Staffordshire, New
Series, vol. II (1899), 52.
[33] Sydney
Armitage-Smith, ed., John of Gaunt's Register, vol. 2, Camden Third Series, 21
(1911), 251.
[34] W.
G. Dimock Fletcher, "The Tomb of John Foljambe, 1358, in Tideswell
Church," The Reliquary, vol. 21 (1881), 192.
[35] Collections
for a History of Staffordshire, vol. 13 (1892), 185.
[36] J.
Charles Cox, Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire, vol. 2 (1877), 288.
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