Sir Lawrence Berkeley, of Wymondham

• Lawrence Berkeley, Sheriff of Leicestershire1
• M, #34664, b. circa 1387, d. 1458
• Father Sir John Berkeley, Sheriff of Leicestershire b. c 1361, d. b 20 Mar 1413
• Mother Isabel d. c 1437
• Lawrence Berkeley, Sheriff of Leicestershire married Joan Woodford, daughter of Sir John de Woodford and Mabell Folvile. Lawrence Berkeley, Sheriff of Leicestershire was born circa 1387 at Wymondham, Leicestershire, England. He died in 1458 at France.
• Family Joan Woodford b. c 1389
• Children
  • Elizabeth Berkeley d. 4 Aug 1494
  • Thomas Berkeley, Sheriff of Leicestershire+ b. c 1413, d. May 1488
• Citations
• 1.[S10730] Unknown author, The Hussey Connection to the Plantagenet Lineage, by Roy Leggitt; Wallop Family, p. 90.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p1154.htm#... ________________
• (ROBERT IS NOT THE CORRECT FATHER FOR JOAN WOODFORD, HE IS LISTED AS JOHN WOODFORD IN OTHER REFERENCES)
• Lawrence BERKELEY
• Born: ABT 1387, Wymondham, Leicestershire, EnglandDied: 1458, France
• Father: John BERKELEY
• Mother: Isabel ?
• Married: Joan WOODFORD (dau. of Robert Woodford) BEF 1413
• Children:
  • 1. Thomas BERKELEY of Wymondham
• From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/BERKELEY1.htm#Lawrence BERKELEY1 _________________
• BERKELEY, Sir Laurence (d.1458), of Coston and Wymondham, Leics.
• s. and h. of Sir John Berkeley II*. m. bef. Feb. 1404, Joan, sis. of Sir Robert Woodford of Sproxton, Leics., 1s. Sir Thomas†. Kntd. bef. July 1417.
• Offices Held
• Commr. of arrest, Leics. May 1422; array Jan. 1436; to assess a tax Jan. 1436; raise royal loans Feb. 1436.
• Sheriff, Warws. and Leics. 5 Nov. 1439-4 Nov. 1440.
• Biography
• In 1404 Berkeley’s father settled on him and his wife certain of the family lands at Barrow-upon-Soar, Quorndon and Burton Lazars. He was to inherit the principal Berkeley manors elsewhere in Leicestershire and in Huntingdonshire on Sir John’s death about 11 years later. To these holdings he added in the 1430s other property at Melton Mowbray, Welby and Scalford. Although his annual income may not now be estimated accurately, in 1445 the rent-roll of his Leicestershire lands alone apparently gave him £30 a year clear after all charges had been met.1
• Berkeley was present at Leicester for the shire elections of April 1414. No evidence has been found to show that he joined Henry V’s first expedition to France in the following year, but he may well have done so, for before he was mustered in the retinue of Edmund, earl of March, as part of the second invasion force of July 1417, he had attained knighthood. It was not until after his return to Parliament in 1421 that he was appointed to royal commissions at home in Leicestershire, and then only in 1422 and 1436; he may have travelled overseas again in the meantime. Berkeley did not lack for influential connexions. In 1424 he stood surety under pain of 300 marks that Sir John Graa† would keep the peace towards his wife, the wealthy heiress Margaret Swillington, and four years later he was among those who witnessed a deed relating to the manor of Ashby de la Zouche on behalf of Joan, Lady Beauchamp of Abergavenny. He again attended the Leicestershire elections in 1429 and 1432, on the latter occasion heading the list of those who put their seals to the parliamentary indenture. It would seem that he owed his appointment as sheriff in 1439 to local standing as an affluent member of the gentry rather than to any personal achievements of note.2
• Like his father had done before him, Sir Laurence acted as a trustee of the Seyton estates in Northamptonshire and Rutland. In 1443 Elizabeth, widow of Richard, Lord Grey of Codnor, asked him to witness settlements made for the performance of her will, and four years later he was present when certain transactions were completed at Ashby de la Zouche by Sir James Ormond (afterwards earl of Wiltshire), grandson and heir of Lady Abergavenny. He appears to have been on good terms with Bartholomew Brokesby*, that lady’s executor, for he attested other conveyances on Brokesby’s behalf and, furthermore, agreed to the marriage of his son Sir Thomas Berkeley to Brokesby’s niece. Nothing has emerged to Sir Laurence’s detriment, save an allegation of maintenance made in Chancery by a Lincolnshire man, and the assertion of Thomas Erdington* in 1433 that he had deliberately withheld rents.3
• Berkeley died on 20 May 1458, according to the family biographer John Smyth ‘in the wars in France’, although this seems unlikely in view of the late date.4 His son and heir, Sir Thomas, who had already held office as sheriff of Rutland (1443-4) and of Warwickshire and Leicestershire (1454-5) was to be elected knight of the shire for the last-named county in 1472.
• Ref Volumes: 1386-1421
• Author: L. S. Woodger
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/be... _________________________
• Sir Thomas Berkeley (d.1488), of Wymondham, Leicestershire was an English lawyer and politician who represented Leicestershire in Parliament and served as Sheriff for Rutland, Warwickshire and Leicestershire.
• He was the eldest son of Sir Laurence Berkeley of Wymondham (died in France in 1458[3]%29 and Joan sister of the Agincourt veteran[4]:762 Sir Robert Woodford, Knight Banneret[4]:227 of Sproxton.[3]
• Sir Lawrence Berkeley was the 2*great grandson of Sir Thomas Berkeley, Lord of Coston, 2nd son of Thomas de Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley and Jane daughter of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby.[3]
• Sir Thomas Berkeley, Lord of Coston had moved to Wymondham upon his marriage to Isabel Hamelin.[3] She was the daughter of the crusader Sir John Hamelin[3] of Wymondham.
• .... etc.
• From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Berkeley_(Leics_MP_1472) _________________________
• Nichols' Lost Leicestershire By Stephen Butt
• https://books.google.com/books?id=k0d4BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT48&lpg=PT48&dq=...
• Pg.NO PAGE NUMBERS
• .... etc.
• The manorial history of Sproxton is bound up in the inter-marriages of significant medieval landowning families, particularly Brabazon, Trussell, Neville, Folville and Woodford. All accumulated considerable land and wealth in the Hundred of Framland over several centuries. Of these, the Woodford family was probably the last to establish itself in the area, but by the time of the death of Sir Robert Woodford, Lord of Sproxton in 1455, their amassed fortunes had been lost due to a rift between Robert and his grandson Ralph of Ashby Folville.
• The Woodford Cartulary devotes forty-eight pages to the family's
• Pg.NO PAGE NUMBERS
• land transactions and history relating to the manor of Sproxton. Nichols quotes extensively from it. He reproduces several pedigrees of the Woodford family, but they are all different.
• The family's first land purchase in Leicestershire was the manor of Brentingby, purchased by John Woodford in 1317. The Woodford family acquired the manor of Sproxton through the marriage of his only (surviving) son, William Woodford (who died in 1369), to Joan Brabazon. Their only son, John (1358-1401), was a minor when his father died, but gained the manor on his twenty-first birthday. John married Isobel Folville. Their only son, Robert (1383-1455), who was also a minor when his father died, married Isabel (Maud) Neville. These marriages brought very considerable land and wealth into the Woodford family, but very few heirs. Sir Robert Woodford and Isabel Neville had seven sons, but only one grandson - namely Sir Ralph Woodford. Sir Robert's eldest son was Thomas Woodford, who married his cousin Alice Berkeley, the daughter of Sir Lawrence Berkeley of Wymondham and Joan Woodford, sister to Sir Robert Woodford. Their son Ralph was born in 1430.
• Thomas died before his father, and Ralph would therefore have become heir to his grandfather's estates, except for Sir Robert's disapproval of his marriage to Elizabeth Villiers. The reason for Sir Robert's strong dislike of the Villiers family is not explained, but it resulted in Robert attempting to disinherit Ralph by sharing out the family's assets between his sons. As a result, as William Burton notes, the family lost the majority of their lands: 'By reason of which division so made, that ancient family (which had continued many years in great account and high dignity) was, in a short space, utterly decayed and gone."
• .... etc. __________
• Links
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicestershire_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Sheriff_of_Warwickshire

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