John Spencer, of Hodnell

John Spencer

• Born about 1440 in Hodnell, Warwickshire, England
• Died 4 Jan 1497 in Hodnell, Warwickshire, England
• Son of Henry Spencer and Isabelle Lincoln
• Husband of Ann Empson — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
• Husband of Joan Gaunt — married 1443 in Hodnell, Warwickshire, England
• Father of Thomas Spencer, Jane Spencer, Elizabeth Spencer

  ---

http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Probate/PROB_11-11-147.pdf

SUMMARY: The document below is the Prerogative Court of Canterbury copy of the will, dated 15 September 1496 and proved 25 January 1497, of John Spencer (d. 4 January 1497) of Hodnell, Warwickshire, the ancestor of Sir Edward Greville (1564- 1621), lord of the manor of Stratford, mentioned in Richard Quiney’s letter dated 25 October 1598 to William Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon (see SBTRO ER 27/4).

The testator’s daughter, Jane Spencer, was the great-grandmother of Oxford’s mother-in- law, Mildred (nee Cooke) Cecil, Lady Burghley, and the great-grandmother of Lord Burghley’s long-time servant, Sir Walter Cope (1553?-1614), who employed Shakespeare’s fellow Globe Theatre shareholder, Cuthbert Burbage (1564/5-1636).

MARRIAGES AND ISSUE

Testator’s first marriage

The testator is said to have married firstly Anne Empson, the sister of Sir Richard Empson (c.1450–1510). See Betham, William, The Baronetage of England, (Ipswich: Russell and Bransby, 1801), Vol. I, p. 87: GoogleBooks

Testator’s second marriage

The testator married secondly Jane Graunt, the daughter of Walter Graunt of Snitterfield, Warwickshire, and Elizabeth Ruding. In the will below, she is referred to as both Jane and Joan. For Walter Graunt and Elizabeth Rudinge, see Burke, Bernard, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, 5th ed., (London: Harrison, 1871), Vol. II, p. 896 at: GoogleBooks. For the Ruding pedigree, see Urban, Sylvanus, The Gentleman’s Magazine, (London: John Nichols, 1796), Vol. LXVI, Part I, pp. 217-19: GoogleBooks After the testator’s death, Jane Graunt married secondly Henry Smyth (d. 25 February 1513), esquire, for whose will see TNA PROB 11/18/7, and thirdly a husband surnamed Stafford. See the inquisition post mortem taken in August 1515 after the death of ‘Joan Stafford, late the wife of Henry Smith, esquire’, TNA C 142/30/123, and the copy at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, DR 10/1887, at: miscellaneous-inquisitions-post-mortem/search/everywhere:joan- stafford/page/1/view_as/grid Link

Testator’s issue

In the will below the testator mentions a son and two daughters:

1. Thomas Spencer (d.1532), who was about six years of age in 1499, the date of th inquisition post mortem taken after the testator’s death. See Calendar, supra, p. 160 at: Archive.Org. The testator’s son, Thomas Spencer, can be identified as Thomas Spencer (d.1532) of Hodnell, who married a wife named Margaret, but died without issue, an identification established by the instructions for burial given in their respective wills. In the will below the testator gives these directions for his burial: My body to be buried in the chancel of the parish church of Saint Helen of Hodnell by the image of Our Lady there set. Similarly, Thomas Spencer of Hodnell directs that he be buried in the same church, near his father: “My body to be buried within the chancel of the parish church of Saint Helen of Hodnell before the image of Our Blessed Lady there set, and next in enjoining(?) to my father.“ See the will of Thomas Spencer (d.1532) of Hodnell, TNA PROB 11/24/51.

2. Jane Spencer (d.1526). According to some sources she was the daughter of the testator by his first wife, Anne Empson. See Betham, supra, and Round, J. Horace, ‘The Rise of the Spencers’, Studies in Peerage and Family History, (New York: Longmans Green, 1901), pp. 279-329 at p. 325 Archive.org. Jane Spencer married firstly William Saunders (d.1493?) of Banbury, Oxfordshire, for whose will see TNA PROB 11/10/83, and secondly William Cope (d.1513), for whose will see TNA PROB 11/17/2. The testator’s nephew, Sir John Spencer (d. 14 April 1522), purchased the lordship of Wormleighton from his cousin Jane’s second husband, William Cope (d.1513). See Round, supra, p. 288: Archive.Org. The testator’s son, Thomas Spencer (d.1532), and his wife are mentioned in the will, TNA PROB 11/22/125, of the testator’s daughter, Jane (nee Spencer) Saunders Cope: Item, I give to my brother, Thomas Spencer, for a remembrance a ring of gold with an image of Our Lady graven thereupon with a double wreath and graven with letters and branches round about. Item, I give to my sister [=sister-in-law], his wife, for a remembrance a ring of gold with a turquoise set therein. As noted above, the testator’s daughter, Jane Spencer, was the great-grandmother of Oxford’s mother-in-law, Mildred (nee Cooke) Cecil, Lady Burghley, and the great- grandmother of Lord Burghley’s long-time servant, Sir Walter Cope (1553?-1614), who employed Shakespeare’s fellow Globe Theatre shareholder, Cuthbert Burbage (1564/5- 1636). See her will, TNA PROB 11/22/125; the ODNB articles on Sir Walter Cope and Cuthbert Burbage; and Barnett, Richard C., Place, Profit, and Power; A Study of the Servants of William Cecil, Elizabethan Statesman, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969), pp. 50-1.

3. Elizabeth Spencer, who was less than 14 years of age when the testator made his will. She married Sir John Greville (d. 25 November 1547), the eldest son and heir of Sir Edward Greville (d. 22 June 1528) of Milcote in Weston on Avon, Warwickshire, by whom she had a son, Edward Greville, and a daughter, Isabel Greville. Elizabeth Spencer had died by 1 September 1527, the date of a settlement concerning the marriage of Sir John Greville to his second wife, Eleanor Verney, the daughter of Sir Ralph Verney of Pendley in Tring, Hertfordshire. See the will of Sir John Greville, TNA PROB 11/32/252; Richardson, Douglas, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd ed., 2011, Vol. II, p. 268; and the History of Parliament entry for Sir John Greville at:1492-1547 Link. Although the Spencer pedigree in Fetherston names Elizabeth Spencer and Thomas Spencer as the son and daughter of the testator’s nephew, Sir John Spencer (d. 14 April 1522) and his wife, Isabel Graunt, it seems these were actually the testator’s children, i.e. his son, Thomas Spencer, who died in 1532 without issue, and his daughter, Elizabeth Spencer (d. before 1 September 1527), who married Sir John Greville (d. 25 November 1547). See Fetherston, supra, pp. 284-5 at: Archive.Org

Notes

The parents of Robert Spencer is not known. Different sources say Ann Empson, Isabel Lincoln, Margaret Smyth, and Joan Warstead are the mother of Robert Spencer married to Ann Peake.