Robert Foster of Birch in Essex, Esq.

Biography

http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Probate/PROB_11-39_ff_74-5.pdf

(Is this right?)

Robert Forster (d 1545) was the only son of Thomas Forster (born 1452 in Etherstone, Durham, died c.1526 in Adderstone, Northumberland) and Jane Hilton (born c.1453 in Hilton Castle, Durham, d.1510). See ‘A Genealogy Report for William Forster’, (5 February 2011), p. 21, available as a pdf file online at: shiresgenealogy.co.uk/doc/William_Forster.pdf (dead link)

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The testator married Margaret Tendring, the daughter of William Tendring (d.1500) of Stoke by Nayland, Suffolk, and Thomasine Sidney (d. 4 October 1485). See ‘Genealogy Report’, supra, p. 21. Margaret Tendring was the sister of Dorothy Tendring.

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Family

The pedigree of Forster of Sylham taken in 1561 in Metcalfe, Walter, ed., The Visitations of Suffolk, (Exeter: William Pollard, 1882), pp. 29-30 at: Archive.Org

(No parents noted)

By Margaret Tendring, the testator had five sons and five daughters:

1. George, son and heir;
2. Thomas, second son :
3. Robert, third son ;
4. MICHAEL, fourth son ;
5. William, fifth son;
6. Margaret, first mar. to Gregory Bassett, after, to Eustace Salyard of Runwell, Esq.;
7. Bridget, mar. to George Christmas of Colchester, Esq.;
8. Elizabeth, mar. to John Southwell of Barham, Esq.;
9. Jane, mar. to Thomas Tyrrell of Rettendon, gent.;
10. Katherine, mar. to. … Phyloll (Filioll).

Will - notes

http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Probate/PROB_11-39_ff_74-5.pdf

SUMMARY: The document below is the Prerogative Court of Canterbury copy of the will, dated 25 November 1555 [sic] and proved 10 April 1557, of Robert Forster (c.1482- 1545), esquire, of Little Birch, Essex, whose grandson, William Forster, was related by marriage to the family which owned the Blackfriars gatehouse purchased in 1613 by William Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon.

The testator’s great-granddaughter, Frances Forster, married William Strachey, author of an account widely believed to be a principal source of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

The testator’s daughter-in-law, Alice Cloville, married, as her third husband, Oxford’s uncle, Henry Golding

DATE OF THE TESTATOR’S WILL

The PCC copy states that the testator made his will ‘the xxvto day of November in the yere of our lord god a Thousaunde five hunderth lv’, i.e. 1555. However it appears the testator died a decade earlier in 1545 (see Easthorpe, infra and ‘Genealogy Report’ infra), a date supported by the fact that the testator’s son-in-law, Eustace Sulyard, who died 26 February 1547, was living when the testator made his will.

The likeliest explanation for the discrepancy is that the Roman numeral in the original will was ‘xlv’, and the scribe inadvertently omitted the ‘x’, thus turning ‘45’ into ‘55’.

The testator’s eldest son and heir, George Forster, was appointed sole executor. Although he survived the testator, he did not prove the will, and died in 1556. After his death, the will was proved by Robert Forster, one of the testator’s younger sons, who was granted administration on 10 April 1557 as though the testator had died intestate.

The misdating of the will appears to have led the authors of the account of the manor of Easthorpe to conclude that there were two Robert Forsters, one of whom died in 1545, the other in 1557, both of whom had sons named George: 9. Cal. Pat. 1557-8, 67; E.R.O., T/P 195/11, no. 30, Little Birch, p. 4. Another Robert Forster (d. 1557), also had a son called George: P.R.O., PROB 11/39.

For the testator’s manor of Little Birch, see:

'Birch: Manors', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 44-46. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15146:

The manor of Little Birch was held in 1066 by Ulwin, and in 1086 of Robert Gernon by Robert de Verley. Robert Gernon's fief escheated to the Crown, and Henry I granted it to William de Munfitchet. On Richard Munfitchet's death without issue in 1267, the overlordship passed to Evelyn (d. 1274), daughter of William de Forz count of Aumale, and wife of Edmund earl of Lancaster, who also died without issue, and from whom, presumably, the overlordship came to the de Vere family, earls of Oxford, as part of the honor of Castle Hedingham. The overlordship continued in the de Vere family and was last recorded in the 18th century.
The undertenancy was held in 1276 by Robert Verley, and from 1325 or earlier by the Tendring family. William Tendring (1435-90) was M.P. for Maldon in 1478. William Tendring (d. c. 1500) had two daughters, Margaret and Dorothy: Margaret's husband Robert Forster (d. 1545) acquired three quarters of the manor and in 1514 bought the remaining quarter from Dorothy, then Dorothy Southwell. Robert's heir was his son George Forster (d. 1556). Little Birch descended with Great Birch and Easthorpe manors until 1598 when Arthur Golding sold it to John Petre, Lord Petre

References

• http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Probate/PROB_11-39_ff_74-5.pdf cites
  • See also TNA E 326/6394, a Chancery suit from 1516/17 involving ‘John Peryent and Robert Foster, gents, who married the daughters and heirs of William Tenderyng’.
  • See also Nichols, John Gough, ed., The Topographer and Genealogist, Vol. II, (London: John Bowyer Nichols and Sons, 1853), p. 561 at: https://books.google.ca/books?id=EKhWAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA561
  • See also Lodge, John, The Peerage of Ireland, rev. ed., Vol. VI, (Dublin: James Moore, 1789), pp. 6-14 at GoogleBooks John Southwell of Barham, Esq., married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Foster of Birch in Essex, Esq., by whom he had three sons and six daughters: John; Thomas; William; Elizabeth, married to John Wentworth, Esq.; Cicely, to John Cheke of Debenham in Essex, Esq.; Frances, to Thomas Kent; Margaret, (said, in Lord Southwell’s Pedigree, to be the wife of Nicholas Caston; but if so, she was also married to Sir William Methwold, Serjeant at Law, appointed 28 April 1612 Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland, and after Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, who died 7 March …
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/14248734873/ 2. Margaret m Robert Forster / Foster (their son William m Ann Gainesford http://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/T6tqFM). She was buried within the communion rails.
• 'Birch: Manors', in A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (Part) Including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe, ed. Janet Cooper (London, 2001), pp. 44-46. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol10/pp44-46 [accessed 18 August 2021]. The manor of LITTLE BIRCH was held in 1066 by Ulwin, and in 1086 of Robert Gernon by Robert de Verley. (fn. 14) … The undertenancy was held in 1276 by Robert Verley, (fn. 17) and from 1325 or earlier by the Tendring family. (fn. 18) William Tendring (1435-90) was M.P. for Maldon in 1478. (fn. 19) William Tend- ring (d. c. 1500) had two daughters, Margaret and Dorothy: Margaret's husband Robert Forster (d. 1545) acquired three quarters of the manor and in 1514 bought the remaining quarter from Dorothy, then Dorothy Southwell. …