Ralph Toke

Ralph Toke, 2nd son of John Toke and Joyce Hoo, was born 1410 and died in 1451, when he wrote a will that has not survived. His widow was Elizabeth, who married Thomas Doyley next.

family

JOHN TOKE, of Beere, M.P. for Dover, temp. HENRY V, who m. Joyce, dau. of Sir Thomas Hoo, 2nd brother of the Lord Hoo and Hastings, and had three sons

II. Ralph, ancestor of the Tookes, of Herts, Dorsetshire, and London.

He married

1. unknown d bef 1451
2. Elizabeth d aft 1456

Children of Ralph Toke:

• i. Joan2 Toke; m. John Isaac of Patricksbourne. Her son James Isaac was "cousin," feoffee and overseer of her brother Walter Toke, and executor of the will of her brother William Toke.
• ii. John Toke; d. s.p. before 1466.
• iii. Walter Toke; m. (1) Jane ;m. (2) Ellis ;d. 1498/9.
• iv. William Toke, the plaintiff of 1459-1466, when he was aged 23; m. Alice; d. c. 1471.
• ? v. Thomas Toke; m. Joan , probably a second wife; d. 1484.

biography

From page 63 of The Ancestry of Mary Isaac, C. 1549-1613: Wife of Thomas Appleton of Little ... By Walter Goodwin Davis

Ralph Toke (the elder, his nephew, son of his brother Thomas, being the younger) was the most prominent of the three brothers. Born about 1410, the visitation pedigrees give him various wives but ignore Elizabeth, the wife who survived him. It is most improbable that he married "Jane Haut, daughter of Roger Haut," a close study of the Haute family making the existence of such persons very dubious. Nor can much satisfaction be drawn from the other alleged wife, "Maud, daughter of Henry Drmyn," a surname which challenges identification. The Haute attribution may arise from the fact that the mother of Joan Goldwell, wife of Thomas Toke, Ralph's brother, was a Haute.
Ralph was a jurat (judge) of Dover in 1441, mayor of the town 1444-1448, and seneschal and marshal to the deputy constable of Dover Castle. He was first elected to Parliament in 1442, representing Dover, and again served in 1449, when he was paid 2s. a day for eighty days' attendance, and in 1450, the session marked by the impeachment and assassination of the Duke of Suffolk. He was collector of customs and of a subsidy at Sandwich, 1444-1445. As a "baron" of the Cinque Ports he assisted at the coronation of Queen Margaret at Westminster in 1445 as one of the six gentlemen who bore the canopy over the royal head, for which he received 26s. 8d. expense money - all that and Heaven too! On February 13,1446, he was appointed "deputy of Ralph Boteler, kt., Lord of Seudeley, chief butler and treasurer of England, in the office of the buttery in the port of Sandwich. Less entertaining is the fact that he, Lord Say (the Warden of the Cinque Ports) and Sir Gervaise Clifton were accused of attempting to influence an election improperly at the port of Hythe in 1449.
Toke died in 1451. He left a will, which has not survived, naming his wife Elizabeth and Thomas Doyley, whom Elizabeth soon married, joint executors. Doyley was mayor of Dover 1453-1455, and the local historian has "knighted" both Toke and Doyley, seemingly without justification. In 1455 Sir Gervaise Clifton testified that Ralph Toke had owned the manor of St. Nicholas Court on the Isle of Thanet but had sold it to William Port.*

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From page 1516 of A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of ..., Volume 2 By Sir Bernard Burke

The family of Toke, the name of whose patriarch appears on the roll of Battle Abbey, is stated in Thokoton's Notts, to have been settled in that co. as early as the reign of William Rufus, and to have possessed large estates there at Kelham, Walkeringham, &c. The pedigree given by that historian has the name spelled in seventeen different ways. Of this family was Sir Bryan Tuke, who was first secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, afterwards foreign secretary to HENRY VIII, then treasurer of the king's chamber and clerk of the signet, and sometime ambassador to France with Bishop Tunstall.

JOHN TOKE, of Beere, in the parish of Westcliff, near Dover (eighth in lineal descent from ROBERT DE TOKE, who was at the battle of Northampton with HENRY III, in 1264), m., 2 EDWARD III, Elizabeth Malmains, and was father of JOHN TOKE, of Beere, M.P. for Dover, temp. HENRY V, who m. Joyce, dau. of Sir Thomas Hoo, 2nd brother of the Lord Hoo and Hastings, and had three sons

• 1. THOMAS, his heir.
• II. Ralph, ancestor of the Tookes, of Herts, Dorsetshire, and London.
• III. John, who m. Alice, dau, and heiress of Thomas Crouch, of Dover, and had an only child, Alice, wife of Sir John Eyre, of Derbyshire

notes

From the Writing of the Customal 1354 TO 1470 link

(39) Ralph Toke, alias Touke, described as a knight, was Seneschal and Marshal of the Castle. He was Mayor in five successive years. This Mayor made a valuable bequest of land in Hougham to St. Mary's Church

• 1445 Ralph Toke
• 1446 Ralph Toke
• 1447 Ralph Toke
• 1448 Ralph Toke

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From Annals of Dover by Jones, John Bavington Publication date 1916 link

Ralph Toke was Seneschal and Marshal of the Castle. He was elected for Parliament three times. He was in Parliament in the Autumn Session of 1449 and the Session of 1450, when the Duke of Suffolk was impeached, and who, while attempting to leave the realm, was assassinated on board a ship off Dover.

1447 Richard Nesham and John Toke.

Richard Nesham was a son of Walter Nesham, the Bailiff of Dover. John Toke was a brother of Ralph Toke, the Seneschal of the Castle.

1449 Stephen Grygge and John Toke.

• The Visitation of Kent: Taken in the Years 1619-1623 By John Philipot, William Camden page 153 names him Robertus corrected to Radolphus, 2nd son, no wife listed; children (left to right) Rodolphus s.p., Wiliamus no wife but issue; Walterus; Joanna married Johannis Isaake de Bridge
• The visitations of Hertfordshire, made by Robert Cooke, esq.,Clarencieux, in 1572, and Sir Richard St. George, kt., Clarencieux, in 1634 with Hertfordshire pedigrees from Harleian mss. 6147 and 1546. Ed. by Walter C. Metcalfe by Cooke, Robert, d. 1592; Philipot, John, 1589?-1645; Metcalfe, Walter C. (Walter Charles) ed; College of Arms (Great Britain) Publication date 1886 page 166 names him Rafe, wife Jane Hawte, children 1. William 2. Walter 3. Jane
• http://genealogy.heritage-files.com/getperson.php?personID=P-180886...
  • Garrett-Sharpe-Brown-Pointdexter and Allied Lines... A Genealogical Study With Biographical Notes, Anne Sharpe Garrett Holmann, (Privately Published by The American Historical Company, Inc., 1971).
• http://www.tookefamily.org/tooke072603fg/f249.htm#f62
• https://www.dover.uk.com/history/mayors-of-dover/ mayor or co mayor 1444, 1445, 1446, 1447, 1448