Robert Cumberworth, of Somberby & Stain, MP

CUMBERWORTH, Robert (d.1404/5), of Somerby and Stain, Lincs.

Family and Education

s. and h. of Thomas Cumberworth (d. by 1374) of Somerby by his w. Katherine (fl. 1386). m. Sibyl (d.c.1408), da. and coh. of Sir William Ergum (d.c.1403) of Argam, Yorks., 1s. Thomas*, 1da.1

biographical notes

He was the elder son of a fairly prosperous Lincolnshire landowner who served on a few royal commissions during the early 1360s, but otherwise lived quietly at his home in Somerby. Robert is first mentioned in 1371, when he witnessed a local deed. Three years later he and his mother, Katherine, presented jointly to the chapel of Stain so we may assume that he had by then inherited the family estates which included the two manors of Stain and Theddlethorpe.

Robert Cumberworth drew up his will on 15 July 1404, and died within the following year. He wished to be buried at either Stain or Somerby, both benefices having long been in his gift. As well as making bequests worth over £34 in cash, he left a goblet ‘vocatum Westmeles’ to John Huntman, the chancellor of Lincoln cathedral, and a silver cup which had been given to him by his father-in-law, Sir William Ergum, to his daughter, Katherine. She had by then married Sir Robert Constable’s* son and heir, Sir Marmaduke, and was the mother of four young sons. The task of executing the will fell, inter alios, to Cumberworth’s widow, Sibyl, his younger brother, John, and his only son, Thomas, who promptly took possession of his inheritance.

Sibyl survived her husband for at least three more years, and made her will in the autumn of 1408.9

Links

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