Thomas Mallory (1566-1644) Doctor of Divinity, Dean of Chester Cathedral

Thomas Mallory, the youngest son of Sir William Mallory of Yorkshire, became Dean of Chester Cathedral, rector of Davenham and Mobberley. He died in Chester on 3 April 1644.

• married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Vaughn, Bishop of Chester.
• The couple had seven sons and four daughters.

THE MALLORY FAMILY (from http://www.thornber.net/cheshire/htmlfiles/mobberley.html; see site for photos of Mobberley Church)

The Mallory family has a long connection with Mobberley. Many were university graduates and Anglican clergy. Thomas Mallory, Dean of Chester was a younger son of Sir William Mallory of Studley in Yorkshire. He purchased the advowson of Mobberley in 1619 from Andrew Carrington of Mobberley. His purchase also included the manor house on the site of the old priory. From the 13th century, the manor had been divided into two halves or moieties. In 1631 Thomas Mallory purchased rights to the other moiety that were in the hands of Sir John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury.

The family ran out of male heirs in 1664. One of the daughters married a kinsman, possibly her second cousin, also named Mallory. In the early 19th century the family ran out of male heirs again. The heiress, Julia, married George Leigh in 1832 and he took the name Mallory. This couple had two children, George, who died unmarried and Harriet. However, Julia died young and George married a second time producing a further seven sons and five daughters. These children were unrelated to the original Mallory family but the eldest son, Edward Leigh Mallory, born in 1837, then succeeded. His younger brothers are shown in Ormerod with the surname Leigh. There is an article The Mallory Family of Mobberley in Cheshire Notes and Queries, N.S., 8, 1908-11, 129-139 covering the 16th and 17th centuries.

John Bennett Boddie lists the descendancy of the Mallory family from its Magna Charta progenitors in Virginia Genealogies. According to Boddie, Thomas Mallory, Dean of Chester, was so well loved and respected by his congregation that he was buried in the quire at Chester Cathedral. We questioned Canon Martin at Chester Cathedral about the location of the grave of this brave ancestor who remained true to his Royalist loyalties despite having to go into hiding to preserve his life. The Canon acknowledged that excavations throughout the cathedral uncovered prominent individuals lost to history. Monuments on walls had been recently recorded as a project by a youth group, but our ancestor Thomas Mallory, was unknown to him. He searched the Diocesan Handbook and discovered that Mallory had served as Dean from 1608 to 1644...quite a long time. (http://www.southern-style.com/Mallory.htm)

Bill Hardman of the Cathedral sent us this information on our ancestor Thomas Mallory: We have tried to find out any information the cathedral may have about him, apart from his name listed as dean. With thanks to Canon Roy Barker, who looked this up in the cathedral library, we can pass on the following information, realising that you may already know all this, but hoping some of it may be new:

START OF INFORMATION - DEAN THOMAS MALLORY 1607 -1644

Thomas Mallory, D.D., was installed Dean of Chester Cathedral on 25 July 1607, and so began his long reign of thirty-seven years, for he did not die until 1644 at the age of seventy-eight. He was the sixth son of Sir William Mallory of Stewdley in Yorkshire and married Elizabeth, daughter of Bishop Vaughan, by whom he had eight (or ten) sons and four daughters. With a bishop for a father-in-law preferment in those days came easily. In 1601 he was given the living of Davenham, two years later he was made Archdeacon of Richmond, a sinecure worth £50, and in 1621 he left Davenham for Mobberly, having purchased the advowson himself in 1619. Thus began the connection of the Mallorys with Mobberly which still continues. Thenceforward he lived at Mobberly until he was turned out by Parliament in 1642 and forced to take refuge in his Deanery inside the walls of Chester. In spite of his preferments he appears to have been in debt, for which perhaps his large family will account. For in 1624 the York Convocation on his behalf recited the Act of 8 Henry VI which gave proctors freedom from arrest on their way to and from Convocation and stated that "Mr Thomas Mallorie Dean of Chester is at this instant much molested with divers persons, or some one at the least, with troublesome suits of lawe so that he is thereby hindered for [sic] attending his Majesties service at Convocation now at York dependinge." (http://www.southern-style.com/Mallory.htm)

The Mallory genealogy in Virginia Historical Genealogies, p. 103, "Palmer and Allen of Virginia and Georgia" and "Chilian Palmer of Virginia and some of His Descendants" Historical Southern Families, Vol. X by John Bennett Boddie are well worth reading. And you can trace this family to Charlemagne in Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants by J. Orton Buck, Jr.

Rev. Thomas Mallory, D.D., b. ca. 1566, d. at the Deanery House, Chester 3 Apr. 1644, and is buried in the Quire of the Cathedral there; m. Elizabeth Vaughan, living 23 July 1661 (the date of the Will of her son Philip), possibly the "Mrs. Elizabeth Mallory" who was buried in the Chancel of Northenden Church, Northenden, Cheshire, 12 June 1665; a daughter of Right Rev. Richard Vaughan, Bishop of London, by his wife Jane Bower. For Bishop Vaughan's ancestry, see here. Rev. Mallory was ordained deacon and priest (Peterb.) 1 May 1595; instituted to the living of Ronaldskirk, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, 27 June 1599 (resigned 1621); to the rectory of Davenham, Cheshire, 1600; collated to the Archdeaconry of Richmond, 1603 (resigned 1607); presented to the Deanery of Chester 25 July 1607; purchased the avowdson of Mobberly 11 Oct. 1619, became its parson, 1621, and took up residence there. As a Royalist, Rev. Mallory had to flee Mobberly in 1642 and took refuge in Chester, where he died. John Edwards Griffith, Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families [Horncastle: for the Author, 1914], 243; George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Second edition (revised by Thomas Helsby) [London: Routledge, 1882], I: 412 and 426; Virginia Magazine of History and Biography XIV:101-102; Alumni Cantabrigienses, compiled by John Venn and John Archibald Venn, Part I (to 1751) [Cambridge: University Press, 1922-1927], III: 130; John A. Brayton, "Thomas Mallory (1566-1644), Rector of Davenham and Dean of Chester", The Virginia Genealogist, vol. 46, no. 2 (April-June 2002), pp. 83-90. Of their twelve children, four are shown here:

http://www.wargs.com/family/mallory.html

GEDCOM Note

Thomas was Dean of Chester in England and a Doctor of Divinity.