Sir William Cordell, Knight, of Melford Hall

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_William_Cordell

Sir William Cordell (1522–1581) was Solicitor General and Master of the Rolls during the reign of Queen Mary I and Speaker of the House of Commons during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Following the dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII granted the manor of Long Melford to Cordell. Knighted in 1558, a member of Lincoln's Inn 1538, called to the Bar 1544, bencher 1553, reader 1554, a founding member of the Russia Company, received a grant of arms for his father in 1548 and one for himself (quartering Webb) in 1549, Solicitor General to Mary I 1553, Master of the Rolls and a member of the privy council 1557, sat in five parliaments between 1545 and 1571, Speaker of the House of Commons 1558, executor to Queen Mary I, Cardinal Pole, and Archbishop Parker, founded a hospital; the Holy Trinity at Long Melford, first visitor and supporter of the foundation of St John's College, Oxford,

By his will it is found that he left charitable bequests to Cambridge and Oxford including £20 to be distributed among the poor scholars of the universities ‘unto suche as be moste towardes in vertewe and learninge’.

Cordell married Mary Clopton (d. 1584), the daughter of Richard Clopton of Ford Hall in Long Melford, Suffolk, by his first wife, Margaret Bozun, daughter of Sir Richard Bozun of Barrowby, Lincolnshire, and Thomasine Dene, the daughter and heiress of James Dene. There were no issue of the marriage.

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~clopton/200men.htm

Mary13 Clopton, of Fore Hall26, born in Long Melford, County Suffolk, England; died Bet. February 2 and March 18, 1583/84 in Long Melford, County Suffolk, England and buried Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford, March 18, 158427. She married William Cordell, Knt, of Melford Hall28; died Bet. January 1, 1579/80 and June 19, 1581 in England and buried June 19, 1581, Holy Trinity Church in a tomb within the altar rails29.

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• 'Magna Carta ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families By Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham
• http://books.google.com/books?id=wHZcIRMhSEMC&pg=PA224&lpg=PA224&dq...
• Pg.224
• 13. RICHARD CLOPTON, of Ford Hall (in Long Melford), Sussex, 2nd son of his father's 3rd marriage. He married (1st MARGARET BOZUN, daughter of Richard Bozun, Knt. by THomasine, daughter and heiress of James Dene. They had one daughter, Mary, wife of William Cordall, Knt., Master of the Rolls. He married (2nd) MARGERY PLAYTERS, daughter of William Playters, Esq., of Sotterley, Suffolk. They had three sons, William, Richard, Edward, and six daughters, Thomasine, Frances, Elizabeth, Emme, Julian, and Mary.
• Harvey Vis. of Suffolk 1561 1 (1866): 20-136.
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