Sir William Danvers, Kt.

Books

• Burke, John, and John Bernard Burke. 1844. A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland. Available at: Google Books, p. 150:—
  • JOHN D'ANVERS, of Cothorp, who wedded, first Alice, daughter and heir of William Verney, of Byfield, and had issue,
    • I. Robert (Sir), ....m.Agnes, daughter of Richard Quatremains...dying in 1407, left three daughters...
    • II. John, LL.D. in holy orders.
    • III. Richard, of whom presently.
    • I. Agnes, m. Thomas Boldington.
    • II. Alicia, m. to Henry Tracey.
  • He m. secondly, Joan, daughter of William Bruly, esq. of Waterstoke, in Oxfordshire, and had by her, who wedded, secondly, sir Walter Mauntell, of Heyford, five sons and four daughters, viz.
    • I. Thomas (Sir), of Banbury, in Oxfordshire, d.s.p.
    • II. William (Sir),...m.Anne, daughter and heir of John Pury, esq.....
    • III. Simon, d.s.p.
    • IV. Edward, d.s.p.
    • V. Henry,....m. Beatrice, daughter of Sir Ralph Verney, and had issue.
    • I. Agnes, m. first, to Sir John Fray, lord chief baron; secondly, to John, Lord Wenlock; and thirdly, to Sir John Say, knt.
    • II. Amicia or Margaret, m. to John Langston, esq. of Caversfield, in Oxfordshire.
    • III. Elizabeth, m. to Thomas Poure, esq. of Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire.
    • IV. Jane, m. to Richard Fowler, esq. of Buckingham,
• MacNamara, Francis Nottidge. 1895. Memorials of the Danvers Family (of Dauntsey and Culworth): Their Ancestors and Descendants from the Conquest till the Termination of the Eighteenth Century; with Some Account of the Alliances of the Family, and of the Places Where They Were Seated. Available at: Archive.org, pp. 174-79:—
  • We now come to William Danvers, the second son of John Danvers and Joan Bruley. His great-granddaughter, Dorothy Raynsford, married John, great-grandson of his half-brother Richard, thus linking the descendants of the two wives of John of Colthorpe, and William Danvers is therefore in the direct line of descent of the present family of Danvers.
  • William was born about the year 1430. In the year 1487 (December 17), he was made one of the King’s Justices ‘de banco,’ and in the following year (February 5, 1488-89) one of the Justices of the Common Pleas. He married Anne, daughter and heiress of John Pury, of Chamberhouse, Thatcham, Berks, by whom he had several children, of whom six—John, Thomas, William, Anne, Alice, and Isabel—survived him.
  • William appears, with his brothers Thomas and Richard, and with their kinsmen Langstons and Fowlers, in many deeds recorded in the Close Rolls and Fines, and amongst the muniments of Magdalen College. The earliest mention of his name which we have been able to find is in the year 1464. In the year 1467 he sat as member for Taunton, and again for the same borough in the Parliament of 1472.
  • The Parliament of the year 1467 was opened by William, Bishop of Lincoln, in the absence of George, Archbishop of York, who was Chancellor. This was the George Neville, brother to the Earl of Warwick, whose arms, though he was Chancellor to Edward of York, appeared in the windows of Waterstock House along with those of Waynflete, the Lancastrian Bishop of Winchester. But, two or three years before the period in question, a quarrel had arisen between the Nevilles and the King, because of the latter’s marriage with Elizabeth Grey (Woodville) at a time when Warwick was negotiating for him an alliance with Bona of Savoy. The quarrel became an open rupture, and, as a consequence. Lord Chancellor Neville, when dismissed from office, joined his brother in a secret league with Queen Margaret and the Lancastrians. Thus, it came about that George, Archbishop of York, was absent at the opening of this Parliament, and that Thomas Danvers placed his arms, with those of William Waynflete, in a window of Waterstock Church.
  • Of this Parliament Sir John Say, who was not, however, as yet brother-in-law to William Danvers, was Speaker, and to him, and to William and his fellow-members, the King made a speech as follows:
  • ‘John Say, and ye sirs, come to this my court of Parliament for the Commons of this my realm. The cause why I have called and summoned this my present Parliament is that I purpose to live upon mine own, and not to charge my subjects but in great and urgent causes, concerning more the weale of themselves, and also the defence of them and of this my realm, rather than mine own pleasure, as heretofore by Commons of this lande hath beene done and borne unto my progenitors in time of need. Wherein I trust that yee sirs and all the Commons of this my land will be as tender and kinds unto me in such cases as heretofore any Commons have been to any of my progenitors. And for the good-will, kindness, and true hearts that yee have borne, continued, and shewed to me at all times heretofore I thanke you as heartily as I can. Also, I trust you will continue in time coming; for which, by the grace of God, I shall be to you as good and gracious a King, and reigne as righteously upon you as ever did any of my progenitors upon Commons of this my realme in days past, and shall also in time of need apply my person for the weale and defence of you and of this my realme, not sparing my body nor life for any jeopardy that might happen to the same.’
  • The Parliament was frequently prorogued because of the unquietness of the times, but met for serious business in May 1468, when the Chancellor showed how much the King had done at home and abroad to restore the poor estate to which the crown had fallen, and especially that he had allied himself with the Dukes of Burgundy and Brittany for the recovery of France and the King’s patrimonies. Subsidy was granted, bills of attainder were dealt with, the Queen’s dower was confirmed, many good laws were made for the encouragement of the woollen manufactures of the country; and a Bill was brought in, aimed probably at the Lollards, against such as should rob churches of pax, cope, Mass-books, etc. ; such were to be deemed traitors, and to be burnt without benefit of clergy. This Parliament appears to have been terminated by the rebellion which Warwick instigated, and which for a time made the King his prisoner.
  • In the year 1472, William Danvers again sat in Parliament for Taunton, and with him in that Parliament was his brother Thomas, who sat for Downton. In the year 1487, William Danvers was raised to the Bench.
  • On the death of his brother Thomas, William Danvers inherited the manors of Adderbury, Colthorpe, and the family property in Banbury, Bourton, Cropredy, Milton, and elsewhere. Neither he nor his eldest son and heir, John, lived at Waterstock, for the manor house was to remain for life in the possession of Dame Sybil, who outlived them both. Indeed, Sir Thomas and his father were the only male members of the Danvers family who lived at Waterstock as lords of the manor, for when Dame Sybil died, John's son was a child of three or four years old, on whose death, not long after, the Waterstock property went to Thomas Cave, in right of his wife Elizabeth, one of the daughters of John Danvers.
  • As we learn from his will, William Danvers bought property at Upton and Eatley, in Warwick ; and Dugdale tells us that 'William Davers, afterwards knight, bought the manor of Upton from Morgan Kydwelly, and depopulated one messuage, and enclosed twenty-eight acres of land and two hundred acres of pasture, from whom it lineally descended to John Danvers, lord thereof in 1640, from which family it came to the Archers of Tysoe. William also bought property at Iver and Langley, in Buckinghamshire, and the manor of Chiselhampton and Grove, as well as lands there, and in Henley-on-Thames, and in Rotherfield-Grey.
  • With his wife, Anne Pury, he obtained as dowry the manor of Chamberhouse, and to this he added land which he bought in Thatcham, the parish of which the manor formed a part. The manor house has disappeared, nor could we with certainty learn its site, but it probably stood near to where is now Chamberhouse manor farm, on the banks of the Kennet, a little south of Thatcham. In its time the house must have been one of some importance, for in the year 1447 John Pury, lord of Chamberhouse, had the lung's license to embattle his manor-house and to impark three hundred and forty-four acres of land.
  • William Danvers was buried in the church at Thatcham, where his tomb remains. Amidst all the tumult of the time his was a quiet life, for while the barons were slaying their fellows in battle or by the sword of the executioner. Sir William, at Westminster or on circuit, was dispensing justice, and upholding amongst the commons of England the majesty of the law. While amongst the nobles the slaughter was so great that of the baronage of the Conqueror scarce a single male representative remained, the Danvers family were adding manor after manor to their inheritance, and left many sons to carry on the line of their descent. They were, indeed, a typical family of the middle class of England — a class already strong in the land, and destined to become for a season its greatest power—the class from which the makers of the present England were to spring.
  • William Danvers' Will has been preserved, and a full abstract of it follows :
    • Will of William Danvers. (5 Holgrave.)
    • In the name of God Amen. The 18th day of April 1504 (19 Hen. VII.), I William Danvers Knt. one of the Justices of the Common Bench of the said Lord the King, do make my will in manner following.
    • I give my body to be buried in the parish church of Thacham if I happen to die in that parish.
    • I bequeath to my daughter Isabel towards her marriage £100 upon condition that she only marry by the advice of my heir apparent, and to Thomas Danvers my son, whom I ordain my executors.
    • Witnesses: Master Philip Whitt M.A., Curate of the Church of Buckelbury, John Fowler, public notary. Curate of the Church of Thacham, and Sir Edward Barker, Eector of the Church of Hickeford. Given at Chamberhouse in the parish of Thacham in Co. Berks.
    • This a true copy of the last will of Sir William Danvers Knt., written by John Fowler, public notary.
• Foss, Edward. 1870; Biographia juridica. A Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England from the Conquest to the Present Time; 1066–1870. Available at: Google Books:—
  • DANVEBS, WILLIAM, was half-brother to the above Robert, being one of the sons of John Danvers, of Cothorp in Oxfordshire, by his second wife, Joan, daughter of William Bruly, of Waterstock in the same county. There must have been a considerable difference between the ages of the two, because William’s career as an advocate, in the Year Books, does not commence till 1475, seven or eight years after his brother's death. He attained the degree of serjeant-at-law soon after the accession of Henry VII., and on February 5, 1488, he was raised to the bench of the Common Pleas. Fines appear to have been acknowledged before him as late as February 1504. (Dugdale's Ortg. 47.) He married Anne, daughter and heir of John Perry, Esq., of Chamberhouse in Berkshire and his descendants were settled at Upton in Warwickshire.
• Harvey, William, Augustine Vincent, and Walter C. Metcalfe. 1887. The Visitations of Northamptonshire Made in 1564 and 1618-19: with Northamptonshire Pedigrees from Various Harleian mss. London: Mitchell and Hughes. Available at: Archive.org, p. 84.

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LINKS

• .The History of Parliament (Online) "DANVERS, John (d.1449), of Calthorpe in Banbury and Prescote in Cropredy, Oxon", J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, and C. Rawcliffe, eds. 1993.
• Wikitree: William Danvers Knt. (1432 - 1504).
• en.Wikipedia: William Danvers
• Ford, David Nash. Royal Berkshire History: Sir William Danvers (1428-1504); (Partly edited from Edward Foss' The Judges of England, Vol. 5 1857.)
• Find a Grave®: Sir William Danvers.
• Ford, David Nash. [https://berkshirehistory.com/castles/chamberhouse_cast.html Chamberhouse Castle:

Little-Known Fortified Manor].