John Hopwood

Contemporary of Henry VII and Henry VIII

Bosworth Field 1485

The Hopwoods were subject to Sir Ralph Assheton, Vice constable of England the new Lord of Middleton at this time. Sir Ralph executed Richard Crookback's enemies with great severity. He had a reputation for cruelty and was known as the 'Black Knight'. Thomas Hopwood and his three young sons John, Robert and Ralph fought under the Black Knight's banner at Bosworth though the battle was lost owing to treachery. After the death of their royal master Richard, they fled the field, but the forces of Henry Tudor captured them and Sir Ralph was later beheaded. However, Henry Tudor wanted to make peace with the Yorkists, and marry Elizabeth of York, so the Hopwoods and many others were spared. A pardon written in Latin with the seal of Lancaster was given to the Hopwoods, and bore their names.

Flodden field 1513

Middleton, Hopwood and Langley were famous for their archers. Richard Assheton, Lord of Middleton won glory against the Scots at Flodden in 1513, when he with his company of bowmen captured the High Sheriff of Aberdeen and the Sergeant Porter to King James. The latter captive identified the Scottish king's corpse after the battle. John Hopwood of Hopwood, who had married Assheton's sister, probably led many Hopwood men at Flodden Field. Nine years later, in thanksgiving for the victory, Sir Richard enlarged Cardinal Langley's church, and had a stained glass window commemorating Flodden inserted in the church.

http://www3.telus.net/public/a3a87173/hopwoods_of_hopwood.htm

1st wife Margaret Assheton

2nd wife Isabella Towneley Talbot (widow of John Talbot of Salbury)

Hopwood Chapel

The Hopwoods heard Mass in their own chapel at Hopwood Hall. The chaplain at the Hall in 1439 was Robert de Musbere, or in modern idiom, Father Robert of Musbury. Other chaplains probably included one Richard Bexwycke who was buried at Middleton in 1534 and who left curate and singers, James Hopwood and Robert Coke sixteen pence to say a dirge, and a Mass. He asked Edmund Hopwood to stand as surety.

In 1522 John Hopwood had part of the exterior wall built to enclose the Hopwood Lady Chapel. A statue of the Blessed Virgin stood on the stone bracket that is on the east wall. The Reformers probably destroyed this statue at the same time as the altar-stone was cast out of the church.