The Neville family of Thornton
Bridge in Yorkshire descended from Ralph de Neville, a younger son of Sir Ralph
de Neville of Raby, county Durham and his wife Alice de Audley. The Nevilles of
Thornton Bridge died out in the male line with the death of Ralph Neville on 24
July 1522.
The arms of Neville
of Thornton Bridge
“Gules a saltire argent with a pierced molet sable thereon”
“Gules a saltire argent with a pierced molet sable thereon”
Ralph de Neville
Ralph de Neville the third son of
Sir Ralph de Neville (died 5 August 1367) and his wife Alice, was born about 1330.
He married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Alexander de Leeds (Ledes) and his wife Margaret Darell. He
died about 1368, leaving a son and heir Alexander.
Ralph had five brothers; John,
who succeeded his father and died on 17 October 1388; [1]
Robert, who married Margaret de Presfen, widow of Thomas Gray of Heton,
Northumberland and died s.p. shortly before 1 October 1374; [2]
William, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen le Waleys [3],
appointed Admiral of the Fleet, who died in 1392; Master Thomas, a clergyman
who was elected bishop of Ely shortly before his early death on a visit to
Avignon in 1361; and Alexander another clergyman, who was elected archbishop of
York in November 1373, although removed from office in 1388 and who died a
parish priest in Brabant in May 1392. [4]
Ralph also had an older
half-brother, William de Greystoke, son of his mother’s first marriage, who in 1343-44
settled land in successive tail on Robert de Neville and his brothers Ralph and
William, provided they adopted the name and arms of Greystoke. [5]
Ralph de Neville, the younger,
was granted land in Carlbury and Ulnaby in the parish of High Coniscliffe, co.
Durham and the manor of Ingleton, co. Durham by his father. However, he was to come into possession of
more land in Yorkshire as a result of his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter and
heiress of Alexander de Leeds (Ledes)
and his wife Margaret Darell. [6]
Alexander’s father, another Alexander, who died about 1330, had married
Elizabeth, one of the daughters of John Deiville of Egmanton, Nottinghamshire.
Elizabeth Deiville and her husband Alexander de Ledes were granted the manor of
Thornton on Swale (Thornton Bridge) by her father in February 1321. [7]
John Deivill also granted them land in Leckby. Alexander de Leeds also held
the manors of Cundall, Kirkby Hill (Kirkby on the Moor), Leeds and Gipton in
Yorkshire which came to Ralph de Neville and Elizabeth after the death of
Alexander de Leeds, father of his wife in about 1349.
Ralph de Neville died about 1368.
His widow Elizabeth married secondly Sir Henry Grammary. [8]
Alexander his heir was underage at his death. Between May 1368 and May 1369 (23
Hatfield) Roger de Fulthorpe had a grant from the bishop of Durham of the
custody of the lands in Carlbury, Ulnaby and Ingleton, in the Bishop’s hands by
reason of the minority of Alexander, son and heir of Ralph son of Ralph de Neville.
[9]
In Easter Term 1370, the prior of Newburgh
sued Henry Grammary, chivaler, for ejecting him from the custody of the manor
of Kirkby on the Moor, which belongs to the prior until the lawful age of Ralph
[recte Alexander], son and heir of
Ralph son of Ralph de Neville. [10]
In Michaelmas Term 1371, Elizabeth Deiville was dead and Henry Grammary claimed
to hold the manor of Kirkby on the Moor by the courtesy of England. [11]
The Durham inquisition post
mortem of Ralph son of Ralph de Neville, taken at Durham on 30 March 1380 when
his son was of full age, found that Alexander, aged 21 is his son and next
heir. He held the manors of Carlbury and Ulnaby of the bishop of Durham and the
manor of Ingleton of John de Neville lord of Raby (his brother). [12]
Sir Alexander de Neville
Alexander de Neville, son of
Ralph de Neville and Elizabeth de Leeds was a minor in 1368 and was probably
born about 1355-9. He married Margery and died about 1410, leaving a son and
heir Alexander.
Alexander was already knighted
before January 1379 when he set aside a grant of a yearly rent of 100s. out of
land, etc., in Gipton and in the parish of Leeds, made to Sir Robert de Neville
of Hornby. [13]
In December 1389 Alexander de Neville of Cundall, knight, granted to feoffees,
all his lands, etc., in Cundall, Thornton, Thornton upon Swale, Kirkby Hill, Leckby,
Milby, Gipton, Leeds, and the parish of Leeds. [14] In May 1391, Alexander de Neville, knight, granted
to Ralph de Neville, lord of Raby, a yearly rent of £20 issuing from his lands
in Carlbury and Ulnaby in the bishopric of Durham. [15]
Alexander married Margery before October 1392 when the king ordered them to
restore land and property in Leckby to the heirs of Margaret Deiville, sister
of Elizabeth Deiville. [16]
On 9 January 1401, Alexander de
Neville, knight, made an agreement with Sir Ralph de Eure, knight that
Alexander, son and heir of Alexander, should marry Katherine, Ralph’s daughter,
on April 18 next, at Witton in Weardale; for which marriage Ralph was to pay to
Alexander £200, and Alexander was to enfeoff his son and Katherine in the
manors of Thornton upon Swale and Milby near Boroughbridge. [17]
Sir Alexander de Neville probably died about 1410, leaving a son and heir
Alexander, and a daughter Sibyl, wife of William Malbis. [18]
Sir Alexander Neville
Sir Alexander Neville of Thornton
Bridge, son of Sir Alexander Neville and Margery his wife, was probably born
about 1390. He was married to Katherine, daughter of Sir Ralph de Eure of Witton,
Durham and Katherine de Aton his wife on 18 April 1401, when he and Katherine
were both infants. He died on 15 June 1457, leaving a son and heir, William. He
and Katherine had two other sons, Robert (died in 1447) and Alexander and a
daughter Katherine who married firstly William Fairfax, esquire, of Walton
(died 1453), and secondly Sir Richard Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland,
who died at Towton. Katherine survived him, [19]
she is said to have married thirdly, Richard Manchester.
Alexander’s father was probably
dead before 11 May 1412, when Alexander Neville the younger, alias Alexander
Neville, son of Alexander Neville of Cundall, knight, received a general
pardon. [20] In 1426, Alexander
Neville, esquire was a co-defendant with his sister Sibyl in an assize which
came to recognise if they had disseised Richard Fairfax, esquire of the manors
of Acaster Malbis and Coupmanthorpe. [21]
On 1 March 1430, Henry earl of
Northumberland, William Darell, esquire, and Alexander Neville, were granted
the keeping of all the lands late of Thomas Duffield until the full age of
Margaret and Elizabeth the daughters and heirs of the said Thomas and Elizabeth
his wife, together with the marriage of the said heirs. Thomas Duffield of York
died on 10 March 1429, his wife Elizabeth Howme on 23 May 1429 and their
daughter Elizabeth on 21 March 1429. [22]
It appears that Alexander Neville married Margaret Duffield, the heiress of
properties in York and the manor of Skelton near York, to his son Robert
Neville.
In December 1431, his feoffees
granted Alexander Neville possession of all his lands in Cundall, Thornton, Kirkby
on the Moor, Gipton, and Leckby, property in the towns and territories of Leeds
and Knoxthorpe and in the parishes of Leeds and Milby, and the manors of
Ingleton, Ulnaby and Carlbury. [23]
Alexander Neville was knighted
between 10 March 1435, when he was on a commission in Yorkshire, [24]
and 23 May 1438, when Alexander Neville, knight was on a commission of oyer and terminer. [25]
He was one of the knights of the shire
for Yorkshire in the Parliament of 1439-40. [26]
On 11 May 1443, Sir William Normanville, Sir John Salvayn, Sir Alexander and
William Neville, and three other Yorkshire squires were summoned to appear
before the Privy Council concerning riots which had broken out in the north of
England. [27]
In April 1445, Alexander Neville,
esquire who must have been his son, received a grant of property in York and
land in Skelton from [his brother] Robert son of Alexander Neville, knight, and
Margaret [Duffield] his wife. [28]
On 8 September 1447, Alexander Neville of Thornton on Swale, knight,
quitclaimed to Richard Bedford and Margaret [Duffield] his wife lands and
tenements in the city and suburbs of York. Margaret, widow of Robert Neville had
remarried Richard Bedford, son of John Bedford of Kingston upon Hull, merchant.
[29]
The will of Alexander Neville of
Thornton Bridge, knight is dated Michaelmas day, 32 Henry VI [1453] and was
proved on 25 June 1457. He desired to be buried in the church of St. Mary the
Elder, in York. He made numerous bequests to religious houses and churches. Due
to the complicated nature of his affairs, his executors declined and administration
of his effects was instead granted to William Neville, esquire his son and
heir, William Eure, clerk and Henry Eure, esquire. [30]
The writ of diem clausit extremum for
Alexander Neville, knight was issued to the escheators in the county of York
and the City of York on 3 July 1457. [31]
The Durham inquisition post
mortem of Sir Alexander Nevill, knight, taken at Durham on 23 March 1458 found that
the said Alexander, on the day he died, held no lands or tenements in demesne
service or in reversion of the Bishop, nor of any other in Durham and that he
died on the eve of Corpus Christi last past [15 June 1457], and that William
Neville the elder, esquire, is his son and next heir and is aged 32 years and
more. [32]
On 31 August 1459, Richard Percy,
son of the Earl of Northumberland, her son-in-law, administered the effects of Dame
Katherine, relict of Sir Alexander Neville, knight. [33]
William Neville
William son of Sir Alexander
Neville of Thornton Bridge was born before 1426, as he was found to be aged 32
years or more at the Durham inquisition post mortem of his father on 23 March
1458. He married Joan by whom he had three sons, William his son and heir;
Ralph and Geoffrey and two daughters who were unmarried at the time of his
death in before 17 March 1469. Joan his daughter married John Glasyn, mercer
and alderman of York, M.P. for York in 1470-1, as his second wife. [34]
On 8 September 1447, William
Neville, esquire, son and heir of Alexander Neville of Thornton on Swale,
knight, enfeoffed Richard Bedford, son of John Bedford of Kingston on Hull, merchant
and Margaret his wife, and her heirs, of lands and tenements in the city and
suburbs of York which lately belonged to the said Margaret. [35] Margaret was the widow of his brother Robert.
In 1465-7, William Neville,
esquire and Joan his wife were members of the Guild of Corpus Christi in York. [36]
On 10 July 1468, William Neville, esquire, granted property in Cundall to William
Snawsell of York, goldsmith. [37]
William Neville, esquire, made
his will on 2 January 1469, which was proved on 17 March 1469. He desired to be
buried in the choir of the church of St. Mary the Elder, York, (where his
father was interred). He directs his moveable goods and debts to be divided
into three parts. Of these, one is to be spent in pious uses, a portion being
the outlay of £13 6s. 5d. on the day of his interment. The second is to go to
Joan his wife. The third to his two sons and two daughters, of whom Geoffrey,
the younger, is to have an annual rent-charge for life of ten marks on the
testator's lands, etc., at Kirkby-super-Moram; and Ralph, the elder of the two,
to have a similar rent-charge on the same place. Either daughter is to have £40
towards her marriage. Joan his wife, William Neville his son and heir, Thomas
Conyers, and John Gisburgh, clerk, are made executors. [38]
His widow Joan died in 1479.
Administration of the effects of Joan Nevill of York was granted to John Glasyn
alderman of York and Joan his wife on 20 July 1479. [39]
Sir William Neville
William son of William Neville
and Joan his wife was probably born about 1440. He married firstly, by an agreement dated October 1457, Joan, daughter of Christopher Boynton of Sedbury. [40]
William Neville married secondly, Alice, who was probably the widow of Thomas
Beverley, the younger, merchant of York, who died shortly before 23 February
1472. [41]
He died shortly before 28 February 1484,
leaving a son and heir Ralph, a son Thomas and two daughters, one of whom was
called Joan. Alice survived him. An entry in the register of Archbishop Thomas
Rotherham on 13 January 1485, gives a licence to Brian Stapleton of Carlton and
Alice, widow of William Neville of Cothorp, knight, to be married in the
manorial chapel at Carlton. [42]
Whilst this is almost certainly Alice, the widow of Sir William Neville of
Thornton Bridge, there does not appear to be any place called Cothorp among the
family’s land holdings, so that is a bit of a mystery.
On 9 June 1469, William Neville,
esquire, son and heir of William Neville, late of Thornton-on-Swale, esquire, confirmed
property in Leeds and Cundall to Joan his mother for life. [43] On 3 February 1481, William Neville of
Thornton Bridge, esquire, and John Laney and Eleanor, his wife granted lands in
Leeds and Milby to William Snawsell and John Glasyn and Joan, his wife. [44]
On 3 February 1481, William Snawsell and Joan his wife granted land and
property in Thornton Bridge to William Neville of Thornton Bridge. [45]
William Neville of Thornton
Bridge was knighted in Scotland by the Duke of Gloucester on 24 July 1482. [46]
On 10 October 1482, Robert Howden of Barton on Humber, co. Lincoln, merchant
was pardoned for not appearing to answer a plea that he render £4 15s. 3d. to
Thomas Beverley, the elder, executor of the will of Thomas Beverley, the
younger, and William Neville and Alice his wife, co-executrix of the said will.
[47]
The writ of diem clausit extremum, for William Neville, knight, was issued to the
escheator in Yorkshire on 28 February 1484. The will of William Neville of Thornton
Bridge, esquire, is dated 6 June 1481 and was proved on 24 May 1484. He desired
to be buried in his parish church of Brafferton. He mentions his wife Alice,
his son and heir Ralph, his son Thomas, and two daughters (unnamed). [48]
Ralph Neville
Ralph son and heir of Sir William
Neville was probably born about 1460. He married Anne, daughter and heiress of
Sir Christopher Warde of Givendale, by his wife Margaret Gascoigne. He died on
24 July 1522, leaving three daughters and co-heirs. Anne died before December
1521. [49]
Ralph Neville died on 24 July 1522.
In 1488, Ralph Neville and Joan
his sister were members of the guild of Corpus Christi in York. [50]
On 1 February 1492, Anne Warde of the
parish of Ripon had licence to marry John Wandesford, esquire of Kirklington. [51]
Evidently this marriage did not proceed or was annulled, because Anne later
married Ralph Neville.
His inquisition post mortem found
that Ralph Neville, esquire died on 24 July 1522, seized of the manors of
Thornton Brigg, Leckby, Cundall, Kirkby on the Moor, Gipton and Leeds. [52]
His three daughters were found to be his heirs:
- Katherine,
then aged 22 (born about 1500) wife of Sir Walter Strickland of Sizergh,
Westmorland. After his death on 9 January 1528, she married secondly Henry
Borough, esquire, and thirdly William Knyvet, esquire;
- Joan,
then aged 21 (born about 1501) wife of John Constable of Burton Constable and
Halsham who died on 4 May 1542. She died after 1550; [53]
- Clara,
then aged 14 (born about 1508) wife of Sir Thomas Neville of Holt,
Leicestershire (born about 1500) who died in London on 5 March 1571. She probably
died about 1532. [54]
[1] H.
A. Doubleday & Howard de Walden, eds., The
Complete Peerage, vol. 9 (1936), 499-503.
[2] Forty-Fifth Annual Report of the Deputy
Keeper of the Public Records (1885), Appendix 1, 242.
[3] Feet of Fines: CP 25/1/276/128, number
33.
[4] R.
B. Dobson, ‘Neville, Alexander (c.1332–1392)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press,
2004.
[5] Thomas
Duffus Hardy, ed., Registrum Palatinum
Dunelmense, vol. 4, Rolls Series (1878), 340-44, Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III, vol. 6: 1343-1345 (1902),
367, Feet of Fines: CP 25/1/287/41,
number 344, CP 25/1/287/41, number 346.
[6] G. Wrottesley, Pedigrees
from the Plea Rolls (London, 1905), 104.
[7] William
Brown, ed., Yorkshire Deeds, vol. 1,
Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series, 39 (1909), 213.
[8] Feet of Fines: CP 25/1/276/127, number
26.
[9] Thirty-Second Annual Report of the Deputy
Keeper of the Public Records (1871), Appendix 1, 278.
[10] William
Paley Baildon, Notes on the Religious and
Secular Houses of Yorkshire, vol. 1, Yorkshire Archaeological Society,
Record Series 17 (1895), 148.
[11] Wrottesley, Pedigrees from
the Plea Rolls, 104.
[12] Forty-Fifth Annual Report of the Deputy
Keeper of the Public Records (1885), Appendix 1, 243.
[13] Brown,
Yorkshire Deeds, 1, 198.
[14] Brown,
Yorkshire Deeds, 1, 196.
[15] Exchequer:
Augmentation Office: Ancient Deeds,
Series B, E 326/3606.
[16] Brown,
Yorkshire Deeds, 1, 202.
[17] Brown,
Yorkshire Deeds, 1, 213.
[18] W.
Paley Baildon, "Acaster Malbis and the Fairfax Family," Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, vol.
19 (1907), 29.
[19] J. Raine, ed., Testamenta
Eboracensia: A Selection of Wills from the Registry at York, Vol. III,
Surtees Society 45, 1864, 211n.
[20] Brown,
Yorkshire Deeds, 1, 213n.
[21]
Baildon, Y.A.J., 19, 27.
[22] Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem,
vol. 25, Nos. 48, 49, 178.
[23] Lancashire
Archives, Hornby Catholic Mission Papers
(St Mary's Church), RCHY 3/6/12.
[24] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, vol.
2: 1429-1436 (1907), 607.
[25] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, vol.
3: 1436-1441 (1907), 201.
[26] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 17, Henry
VI: 1437-1445 (1937), 141, 149.
[27] James
H. Ramsay, Lancaster and York; a century
of English history (A. D. 1399-1485), vol. 2 (Oxford, 1892), 53n,
[28] Feet of Fines: CP 25/1/293/71, number
301.
[29] Joyce
W. Percy, ed., York Memorandum Book,
Surtees Society, 186 (1973), 135
[30] J. Raine, ed., Testamenta
Eboracensia: A Selection of Wills from the Registry at York, Part II,
Surtees Society 30, 1855, 207.
[31] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 19, Henry
VI: 1452-1461 (1939), 168.
[32] Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Record
Office: Peake MSS, DE220/89.
[33] Raine, Test. Ebor. III,
207n.
[34] R. H. Skaife, ed., Register
of the Guild of Corpus Christi in the City of York (1408-16th Century), with an
Appendix of Illustrative Documents, Surtees Society 57, 1871, 49n.
[35] Percy,
York Memorandum Book, 135.
[36] Skaife, Register of the
Guild of Corpus Christi York, 66–67.
[37] Records of the Chichester-Constable family,
DDCC/130/17.
[38] Raine, Test. Ebor. III,
263n.
[39] Ibid.,
264n.
[40] W. Hylton Dyer Longstaffe, ed.,
Heraldic Visitation of the Northern Counties in 1530, by Thomas Tonge,
Norroy King of Arms, Surtees Society 41, 1863, 42.
[41] Raine, Test. Ebor. III,
196.
[42] Eric E. Barker, ed., The
Register of Thomas Rotherham Archbishop of York 1480-1500, vol. 1,
Canterbury and York Society, 69 (1976), 206.
[43] Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Record
Office: Peake MSS, DE220/61.
[44] Feet of Fines: CP 25/1/281/165, number
17.
[45] Feet of Fines: CP 25/1/281/165, number 18.
[46] William
A. Shaw, The Knights of England, vol.
2 (1906), 18.
[47] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward IV,
Edward V, Richard III: 1476-1485 (1901), 293.
[48] Raine, Test. Ebor. III,
263.
[49] William Paley Baildon, Baildon
and the Baildons a History of a Yorkshire Manor and Family, vol. 1
(Bradford, 1912), 265.
[50] Skaife, Register of the
Guild of Corpus Christi York, 123.
[51] Raine, Test. Ebor. III,
357.
[52] Inq.
p.m. Exchequer, Series II, File 225, cited by: George F. Farnham & A.
Hamilton Thompson, eds., "The Manor House and Chapel of Holt," Transactions of the Leicestershire
Archaeological Society, vol. 13 (1924), 243.
[53] James
Balfour Paul, ed., The Scots Peerage,
vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1906), 293.
[54] Bernard
Elliot, "Thomas Nevill of Nevill Holt (1510-1571)," Transactions of the Leicestershire
Archaeological and Historical Society, vol. 58 (1983), 20-24.
