Sir Robert Whitney, Jr., Knight Marshal to Henry IV

• Robert Whitney1
• M, #30449, b. circa 1361, d. 1401
• Father Sir Eustace Whitney b. c 1335
• Mother (Miss) FitzGlamvow b. c 1339
• Robert Whitney was born circa 1361. He married Janet Trussell, daughter of Sir William Trussell, Sheriff of Staffordshire and Margery Ludlow, circa 1386.2 Robert Whitney died in 1401 at Battle of Pilleth.
• Family Janet Trussell
• Children
  • Jane Whitney b. c 1387
  • Thomas Whitney b. c 1389
  • Eustace Whitney b. c 1391
  • Sir Robert Whitney+ b. c 1393
  • (Mr.) Whitney b. c 1395, d. a 1415
• Citations
• [S9412] Unknown author, Some Early English Pedigrees, by Vernon M. Norr, p. 145.
• [S11588] Some Early English Pedigrees, by Vernon M. Norr, p. 145.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p1014.htm#... __________________
• Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of ..., Volume 3 edited by William Richard Cutter
• http://books.google.com/books?id=qaK9Vz1UdDcC&pg=PA1398&lpg=PA1398&...
• Pg.1398
• (V) Sir Eustace de Whitney, son of Sir Eustace (4), was knighted by Edward I in 1306, and was a member of parliament for Herefordshire in 1313 and 1352.
• (VI) Sir Robert de Whitney, son of Sir Eustace (5), was one of two hundred gentlemen who went to Milan in the retinue of the Duke of Clarence on the occasion of the latter's marriage in 1368. He was member of parliament for Herfordshire in 1377, 1379 and 1380 and sheriff in 1377.
• (VII) Sir Robert Whitney, son of Sir Robert (6), was sent abroad to negotiate treaty with the Count of Flanders in 1388; member of parliament for Herefordshire in 1391. He was sent to France to deliver the castle and town of Cherbourg to the King of Navarre in 1393 was knight marshal in the court of Richard II; sent on King's business to Ireland in 1394. He was killed, together with his brother and most of his relatives, at the battle of Pilleth, 1402.
• (VIII) Sir Robert Whitney, son of Sir Robert (7), was granted the castle of Clifford and lordships of Clifford and Glasbury by Henry IV in 1404, on account of the services of his father. He was sheriff of Herefordshire in 1413-28-33-37; member of parliament, 1416-22. He fought in the French war under Henry V, and was captain of the castle and town of Vire in 1420. He was named as one of the five knights in Herefordshire in 1433, and died March 12, 1441. _______________________
• WHITNEY, Sir Robert I (d.1402), of Whitney-on-Wye and Pencombe, Herefs.
• s. and h. of Sir Eustace Whitney† of Whitney-on-Wye. m. 1s. Sir Robert II*, 1da. Kntd. by 1373.
• Offices Held
  • Sheriff, Herefs. 25 Nov. 1377-8.
  • Commr. to assess a tax, Herefs. Aug. 1379; put down rebellion Dec. 1381, Mar., Dec. 1382; of inquiry, Ireland July 1394 (concealments); array, Herefs. Dec. 1399.
  • J.p. Herefs. 26 May 1380-c.1383, 27 July 1397-Nov. 1399.
  • Harbinger of the Household by Oct. 1393-aft. Mar. 1399.2
  • Ambassador to Aragon and Foix 21 Aug. 1397-3 Mar. 1398.
• Sir Robert came of an old-established Herefordshire family, whose chief manor (held of the de Bohuns) was Whitney-on-Wye near the county boundary with Breconshire. He had presumably inherited the family estates by February 1361 (the date of his first mention) when he presented to the living at Pencombe near Bromyard.3 Seven years later Whitney obtained royal letters of protection as going abroad in the large retinue of Lionel, duke of Clarence, who was then ready to travel to Italy for his marriage to Violanta, niece of the duke of Milan, but whether he was a permanent member of Clarence’s household at this time is not revealed. Subsequently, he served in the company of Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford (d.1373), his feudal lord. After Richard II’s accession, he was appointed sheriff of Herefordshire, and it was in this capacity that (along with Sir Walter Devereux* and Sir John Eynesford, the then shire knights) he petitioned the Parliament at Gloucester in 1378, asking for government action against the companies of Welsh raiders which were plundering and terrorizing the shire. In 1385 he accompanied Richard II’s expedition to Scotland.4
• Some five years later Sir Robert apparently became involved in the activities of William Swynderby, the lollard who was then preaching in Herefordshire in defiance of the diocesan, Bishop Trefnant. Swynderby was brought to trial before the bishop in June 1391, when (among other things) he was accused of delivering an heretical sermon at Whitney-on-Wye two years previously. The lollard admitted preaching the sermon, but denied that it contained heresy, ‘and that wil witnesse the lord of the toun that has the same sermon writen, and mony gentiles and other that herden me that day’. The ‘lord of the toun’ was certainly Sir Robert, and the fact that he possessed a written copy of the suspect tract suggests that, apart from allowing Swynderby to preach in the church of his manor, he was interested in his teachings. He may, indeed, have been among those ‘certain nobles’ who procured the safe conduct which enabled the lollard to withdraw from the bishop’s court after presenting his defence. It is additionally significant that Whitney-on-Wye was one of the places to which (in July and September following) the bishop sent citations ordering Swynderby to re-appear before him. In October Swynderby was finally convicted of heresy, but he refused to accept the verdict of the bishop’s tribunal, publishing instead two written defences in English, one of which ends by appealing to the anonymous addressee, ‘that ye woln vouchesauf this thinges that I sende yow writen ... to late them be schewet in the parlement as your wyttes can best conceyve’. It is at least possible, therefore, that the appeal was addressed to Sir Robert, who was then about to attend the Parliament of November 1391 but there is no evidence that the lollard’s views were ever laid before the Commons. All things considered, it appears likely that Whitney (like several others of the Herefordshire gentry) had heretical sympathies, if only for a limited period; and this impression is borne out by the lollard connexions of his son, Sir Robert the younger, his daughter, Perryne, and his son-in-law, Thomas Clanvowe*.5
• Any such sympathies did not, however, affect Sir Robert’s public career adversely, and during the latter part of his life he was closely connected with the household of Richard II. When this association began is not known, but by 1390 his daughter had been retained as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne, and on 14 Oct. 1393, when he was granted a life annuity of 40 marks, he himself was referred to as a ‘King’s knight’. Indeed, he was already holding office as harbinger of the Household. It was then that he was authorized to restore the town and castle of Cherbourg to Charles III of Navarre, following the death of the latter’s father, who in 1378 had relinquished the place to the English for the duration of his own lifetime. So, on 29 Oct. Whitney sailed for the Côtentin with nine ships, and during the following two months was engaged in transferring part of the castle’s stores to Calais or London and in selling the rest to the Navarrese.6 In July 1394, this time in his official capacity, Sir Robert was preparing to go to Ireland in advance of Richard II’s expedition. On the 8th he appointed his neighbour, Thomas Oldcastle*, as one of his attorneys to look after his affairs at home; two days later he received a royal writ of aid ordering him to purchase provisions against the arrival of the royal army; and at the end of the month, by which time he had presumably made the crossing, he was appointed to investigate, in Irish ports, arrears of customs and alleged frauds by the collectors. He evidently performed his duties satisfactorily, for two years later, in May 1396, he received a royal reward of two tuns of wine a year for life.7
• Sir Robert was apparently something of a diplomat, for he was engaged for six months from August 1397, along with Master Henry Bowet (later archbishop of York), in an embassy to Aragon, Foix and Aquitaine. The party carried letters of credence addressed to King Martin of Aragon, its task being to mediate (on behalf of Richard II) in the dispute between him and the count of Foix. He was still a harbinger of the Household, and a year after his return from Spain he once again made preparations to go to Ireland in advance of the King’s second expedition. On 4 Mar. 1399 he was granted royal letters of protection and authorized to appoint his son-in-law, Thomas Clanvowe, as his attorney. Then, during the same week, he was ordered not only to store food and fuel in readiness for the King’s arrival, but also to requisition enough fishing boats to supply the Household with fish during its stay in Ireland.8
• Despite his close associations with the court of Richard II, Sir Robert apparently had no great difficulty in adapting to the changes consequent upon the accession of Henry IV, within a month of which his royal annuity and other grants were confirmed to him. He was not, however, re-appointed to his office of harbinger and he was also dropped from the county commission of the peace. In any case, he must now have been well on in years. All the same, he turned. out to fight against Owen Glendower at the battle of Pilleth on 22 June 1402, there (together with his brother and other kinsmen) being slain.9
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/wh... ______________
• Mary CROMWELL
• Born: ABT 1352, probably Whitney, Herefordshire, England
• Died: AFT 1395, Whitney, Herefordshire, England
• Father: Ralph CROMWELL (Sir)
• Mother: Maud BERNAKE
• Married: Eustace (Robert) WHITNEY (Sir) (b. ABT 1348 - d. 12 Jun 1402) ABT 1378
• Children:
  • 1. Robert WHITNEY (Sir) (b. ABT 1379 - d. 12 Mar 1440/41)
• From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/CROMWELL.htm#Mary CROMWELL1 ____________
• WHITNEY, Sir Robert II (d.1443), of Whitney-on-Wye and Pencombe, Herefs.
• s. and h. of Sir Robert Whitney I*. m. aft. 1404, Wintelan (b.1392), da. of Thomas Oldcastle* of Eyton, Herefs. and sis. and coh. of Richard Oldcastle (d.1421), 1s. Eustace†.1 Kntd. bef. 1413.
• Offices Held
  • Commr. to assess taxes, Herefs. Jan. 1412, Apr. 1431; raise the siege of Coity castle Sept. 1412; of array, Herefs. May 1418; inquiry July 1419 (rights of Henry Oldcastle†).
  • Sheriff, Herefs. 6 Nov. 1413-10 Nov. 1414, 7 Nov. 1427-4 Nov. 1428, 5 Nov. 1432-3, 8 Nov. 1436-7 Nov. 1437.
  • Captain of Vire 6 Dec. 1420-Feb. 1421.2
  • J.p. Herefs. 7 July 1423-Oct. 1432.
  • Escheator, Herefs. and adjacent March 5 Nov. 1430-26 Nov 1431.
• Following the death of his father at the battle of Pilleth in 1402, Robert inherited the manors of Pencombe (near Bromyard) and Whitney-on-Wye, but his holdings (probably at the last named place, which lay on the border) were said to be so wasted by the Welsh that he had no fortress to hold against them. In February 1404, therefore, he received in compensation a royal grant of the custody, during the minority of Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, of the latter’s castle and lordship of Clifford and the lordship of Glasbury, as from the previous October. In the autumn of 1405 Robert was himself in action against the rebels, serving with Sir Richard Arundel’s force in South Wales; and he also saw service under the prince of Wales, who before Michaelmas 1407 granted him an annuity of 20 marks.3
• In June 1410 Whitney acted as an executor of his brother-in-law, (Sir) Thomas Clanvowe*. The testator left him his favourite white horse, a gilt sword ‘ye callyd Warwik’ and a dagger. After the death of Clanvowe’s widow (Whitney’s sister, Perryne) in 1422, Sir Robert also appears to have come into possession of the Clanvowe manor of Ocle Pychard, near Hereford. Several years before this later date he had married Wintelan, one of the daughters of Thomas Oldcastle and ultimately a coheir of her brother, Richard.4 Meanwhile, by 1413, Robert had been knighted, and it was in November of that year that he was first appointed sheriff of Herefordshire. Only ten days after that appointment, he was one of those who found surety in the large sum of £4,000 that John Talbot, Lord Furnival, would keep the peace towards Thomas, earl of Arundel (then treasurer), a serious dispute having arisen between them over grazing rights in Shropshire. During Henry V’s first expedition to France, Whitney remained at home, being occupied between August 1415 and January 1416 as joint commander of a force safeguarding South Wales, his fellows being Richard Oldcastle (his wife’s brother) and John Merbury* (her stepfather). Save that he attended the Parliament of March 1416, nothing more is known about him until July 1417, when he stood surety for John ap Harry*, undertaking that the latter would not aid the lollard fugitive, Sir John Oldcastle*, or join him in rebellion.5 That Whitney himself had leanings towards lollardy is at least possible. His father had once protected the heretical evangelist William Swynderby, both his sister, Perryne, and her husband (Sir) Thomas Clanvowe were open to similar suspicions and, moreover, Sir John Oldcastle was his wife’s cousin. Admittedly, Sir Robert was in no way implicated in Oldcastle’s rising, but he did stand surety for ap Harry and in December 1419 he used his right of advowson to the church of Pencombe to present Robert Herlaston, the former vicar of Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire, who two years earlier had been indicted for having preached lollard doctrines in that county. (Whether Herlaston continued to spread heresy from Pencombe is not known, but he held the living until his death in about 1428.)6
• Whatever Whitney’s religious sympathies, they seemingly in no wise affected his career. Having witnessed the county elections to Parliament in 1419, he joined Henry V in France in 1420, probably for the first time, and in December that year he was appointed captain of Vire in the Côtentin. However, his foreign service was brief, for he returned to England with the King in February 1421, then receiving robes of the royal livery for the coronation of Queen Katherine. He witnessed the indenture which recorded the result of the Herefordshire elections to the Parliament of the following May. Thereafter, he apparently stayed at home, representing his county for the second and last time in the Commons of 1422. He continued to be influential there during the reign of Henry VI, being the first to seal the county indenture of return to the Parliaments of 1425, 1426, 1427 and 1431, and acting as sheriff (three more times), escheator, and j.p. In July 1429 he served on a commission of inquiry concerning the right of Henry Oldcastle, son of Sir John, to his father’s forfeited manor of Almeley. In May 1434 he was required to take the oath devised by Parliament to combat maintenance of those who broke the peace.7
• Little is known of Sir Robert’s later years. He may, however, safely be identified with the ‘Lord Whittney’ who, at the head of a royal commission, was sent to Carmarthen to arrest the powerful and unruly Gruffydd ap Nicholas. The latter, having first overawed him by the strength of his following, then stole his commission, it is said, threatened to hang him as an imposter, and sent him to Westminster humiliated and wearing Gruffydd’s own livery. The story is attributed to 1441, when Sir Robert must already have been well advanced in years. He died on 12 Mar. 1443, leaving as his heir his son, Eustace, who had been born in 1413.8
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/wh... __________
• CLANVOWE, Thomas (d.1410), of Hergest and Yazor, Herefs.
• prob. s. of Sir John Clanvowe (d.1391) of Hergest.1 m. 1392, Perryne (d.1422), da. of Sir Robert Whitney I* of Whitney-on-Wye, Herefs., s.p. Kntd. 1394/5.
• Offices Held
  • J.p. Herefs. 27 July 1397-Nov. 1399.
  • Sheriff, Herefs. 3 Nov. 1397-9.
  • Commr. of arrest, Herefs. Apr. 1401; inquiry May 1401 (lands of Sir Simon Burley); to make proclamation of Henry IV’s intention to govern well May 1402.
• Clanvowe’s family were of Welsh origin, being descended from Hywel ap Meric of Radnorshire. The first to use the English form of the name was Philip Clanvowe, MP for Herefordshire in 1340, who was probably Thomas’s great-grandfather. The family estates included the manors of Michaelchurch-on-Arrow, and Gladestry, Radnorshire, and Hergest, Ocle Pychard, Lyde Bevis and Yazor, Herefordshire. Which of these descended to Thomas himself is uncertain, but he owned Yazor at least, and his influence in Herefordshire suggests that he held others.
• The Clanvowe family boasted a tradition of service in the royal household. John Clanvowe (probably Thomas’s grandfather) was a household esquire in 1349, and Sir John Clanvowe (either his father or an uncle) was one of Richard II’s knights of the chamber, a councillor and an intimate member of the court circle. Thomas himself had entered Richard II’s household by October 1391 when, as one of the King’s esquires, he was given a life annuity of 40 marks drawn on the Exchequer. A year later he married Perryne Whitney, one of Queen Anne’s ladies-in-waiting and a daughter of his Herefordshire neighbour, Sir Robert Whitney. Then, on 2 Oct. 1392, the King granted the couple an additional joint annuity of £20. Both royal grants were confirmed in 1394, the lordship of Builth being then made liable. In September 1394 Thomas had royal letters of protection issued to him in anticipation of his joining the royal expedition to Ireland, his neighbour, Thomas Oldcastle*, undertaking to act as one of his attorneys. It was probably during this campaign that he was knighted, for on 14 June 1395, shortly after Richard II’s return home, he was described as ‘King’s knight’. Two years later, in March 1397, he was granted, for life, an annual gift of two tuns of wine.2
• During the last few years of Richard II’s reign, Clanvowe was also busy in his native Herefordshire, perhaps in accordance with the King’s policy at this time of introducing his supporters into important local government posts. He represented the county in both the Parliaments of 1397 (sitting in September with his presumed nephew, John Skydemore), and in the same year was appointed j.p. and sheriff, holding the latter office for two consecutive years, almost certainly as a royal placeman, and contrary to the letter of the law. He was still attached to the Court, and specifically to the household of the young Queen Isabella, to whose parents and relations in France he carried New Year’s gifts in January 1399. Two months later he acted as an attorney for his father-in-law Sir Robert Whitney, who (as herberger of the royal household) was preparing to go to Ireland in advance of the King’s second expedition there. As a serving sheriff, however, Clanvowe did not himself accompany the royal army.3
• Despite his close association with the court of Richard II, Sir Thomas was able to adapt, apparently without difficulty, to the government of Henry IV. Certainly his grants and annuities were confirmed as early as 31 Oct. 1399. In the following year, moreover, he took part in Henry’s invasion of Scotland, serving from September to December 1400 in the retinue of Richard, Lord Grey of Codnor, who was charged with the custody of Roxburgh castle and the east march. He had apparently remained a member of the household of the now dispossessed Queen Isabella, and in June 1401 he was among those charged with escorting her home to France, being granted £20 expenses for the return journey. After serving on several commissions in Herefordshire, in 1402 he accompanied Sir Edmund Mortimer’s forces against the rebel Welsh leader, Owen Glendower. However, the English were disastrously defeated at Pilleth, near Knighton, Radnorshire, on 22 June, when Clanvowe’s father-in-law was killed and he himself captured. Released by the following November, presumably after paying a ransom, he was granted an exemplification of his royal grants, the original letters patent having been lost when the Welsh ravaged his property after their victory at Pilleth. His estates in the march had apparently not recovered by May 1404, when he was granted exemption from having any royal troops quartered on them or anything taken for the King’s use. By this time he was again being called a ‘King’s knight’, and in the following October he shared a royal grant of the reversion of the castle and manor of Moresend, Northamptonshire, with Thomas Langley, then keeper of the privy seal, and two of Henry IV’s councillors, Sir Thomas Erpingham and John Norbury*. In the same week he acted as a surety when his friend, (Sir) Leonard Hakluyt*, took out a royal lease on lands in Herefordshire.4
• Clanvowe’s closest private links, however, were with certain erstwhile colleagues in Richard II’s household, members of a group (with whom his relation, Sir John Clanvowe, had also been involved) known from their apparent heretical sympathies as ‘the lollard knights’. Of these, he was especially closely associated with Sir Lewis Clifford and his son-in-law, Sir Philip de la Vache*, who was another member of Queen Isabella’s entourage. In April 1399 Clanvowe had been made a trustee in the reversion of de la Vache’s manors of Bury in Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, and Hook Norton, Oxfordshire; and a year later he acted as a witness to the complicated series of transactions whereby de la Vache, Sir John Cheyne I* and Sir Thomas Latimer† transferred ownership of Clifford’s castle and lordship of Ewyas Harold to William Beauchamp, Lord Abergavenny. Cheyne and Latimer were also ‘lollard knights’ and the latter was an especially notorious supporter of heretics. In the late autumn of 1404 Clanvowe, together with de la Vache and Cheyne, was an overseer of Sir Lewis Clifford’s will, a document which (with its contempt for the testator’s ‘stinkyng careyne’, rejection of all funeral pomp and absence of legacies to the Church) is of all the ‘lollard wills’ most firmly indicative of heretical tendencies. After Clifford’s death, Clanvowe transferred the reversion of de la Vache’s estates to Edmund Hampden* and others, and in April 1407 he and Hampden also acted as overseers of Sir Philip’s will (which, incidentally, was quite free of ‘lollard elements’).5
• Quite apart from his links with ‘the lollard knights’, Clanvowe was also associated with other suspected lollard sympathizers. In December 1407, for instance, he was a fellow mainpernor with John Croft, a Herefordshire esquire who had been imprisoned for lollardy in 1394-5. More significantly still, both his father-in-law, Sir Robert Whitney I, and his brother-in-law, Sir Robert II*, showed an interest in the new doctrines. It is at least possible, therefore, that Sir Thomas himself approved (if only privately) of some aspects of lollard teaching, and this impression is borne out by his will, which was made at Hergest on 29 May 1410 and proved two weeks later. Written in English, its language closely resembles that employed by Sir Lewis Clifford and other ‘lollard’ testators. Sir Thomas requested burial at Yazor with ‘myn auncestres’, but forbade funeral pomp, and ordained that ‘my boodi be y putte and yledde in to erthe as sone as it may be doon after that y am deed, pouerlich wythoute ony grete cost or dispenses doyng ther upon’. His debts were to be paid, and 100 poor men were to be given doles of cloth, while £20 was to be devoted to ‘make weys longg ther as most commen puple in to chepyng townes’. Significantly, however, no legacies were left to parish churches or religious houses. Nor was any provision made for requiem masses, an unusual omission which accords well with lollard doctrines. Among the testator’s personal bequests were gifts of gilt cups to (Sir) Leonard Hakluyt and (Sir) John Skydemore with the request that they should help his widow ‘at here nede’. Other gifts were of a gilded sword, ‘y called Warwik’, to Sir Robert Whitney II, of several suits of armour, and of ‘my basnet that was my lord Umfree’ to Hugh Monnington. His executors included his wife Perryne, Whitney and Roger Partrich, a retainer of the Mortimer family. Clanvowe’s widow survived until 1422, and when she died her will not only resembled her husband’s, but also mentioned among the bequests certain suspect devotional treatises. Sir Thomas had no surviving issue, and his heir was apparently a member of the Poyntz family of Gloucestershire.6
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/cl... __________
• Thomas Clanvowe (died 1410) was a British landowner, Member of Parliament and Sheriff of Herefordshire.
• He was probably the son of Sir John Clanvowe (died 1391) of Hergest, Herefordshire. The surmame is an Anglicised Welsh name, presumably Llanfawr.
• In 1391 he entered the service of King Richard II as one of the Kings' esquires. In 1392 he married Perryne, the daughter of Sir Robert Whitney of Whitney-on-Wye, Herefordshire and one of Queen Anne’s ladies-in-waiting. They had no children. He was knighted in 1394/5 after taking part in a military expedition to Ireland and in 1400 took part in an invasion of Scotland under Richard, Lord Grey of Codnor.
• He was elected Knight of the Shire (MP) for Herefordshire in 1394 and January and September 1397. He was a Justice of the Peace (JP) for Herefordshire from 1397 to 1399 and appointed High Sheriff of Herefordshire for 1397–1399. In 1401 he accompanied Queen Isabella back to France after the overthrow of Richard II. In 1402 he accompanied Sir Edmund Mortimer on his campaign against the rebel Welsh leader, Owen Glendower, but the English were defeated at the Battle of Bryn Glas near Knighton, Radnorshire, and Clanvowe captured (but later released).
• He was a member of a group known as the Lollard knights after their heretical (Lollard) beliefs.
• From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Clanvowe _________________
• Links
• http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/ol...

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