Stephen Roberts, II

Photo source: http://www.rookhurst.com/History_of_Rookhurst.htm

Stephen Roberts was the father of John Roberts of Cranbrook

Biography

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63396

Stephen Roberts, alias Rookehurst, marrying Joane, daughter and heir of William Tilley, esq. of Glassenbury, whose ancestors had resided here, as appeared by private evidences, from the time of king Edward I. removed to his manor, where he built a mansion, on the hill of Glassenbury, which came by lineal descent to Walter Roberts, esq. who possessed it in the reigns of king Edward IV. and Henry VII. and was the first who wrote himself by that name only. He, about the year 1473, pulled down this antient seat, and built another lower down the valley, being the present seat of Glassenbury, which he moated round, and inclosed a large park which lay at some distance from it; to enable him to do which, in the 4th year of king Henry VII. he had a grant to impark six hundred acres of land, and one thousand acres of wood, in Cranebrooke, Gowdehurst, and Ticehurst, in Kent and Suffex, and liberty of free warren in all his lands and woods, and of fishing in all waters in his lands in those parishes, with all liberties and franchises usually granted in such cases. The park of Glassenbury has been long since disparked. He was afterwards dispossessed of this seat, and forced to fly into sanctuary. for endeavouring to conceal his friend and neighbour Sir John Guildford from the resentment of king Richard III. for which he was attainted, and this manor and seat, together with all other his lands in Kent, Suffex, and Surry, were granted by the king, in his first year, to his trustly friend Robert Brackenbury, esq. constable of the tower; but on the accession of Henry VII. his attainder was taken off by parliament likewise, and all his estates restored to him. And in the 5th year of that reign, he was sheriff of this county, He died in the year 1522, aged more than eighty years, and was buried under the old tomb on the north side of the south chancel, being the first who appears by clear evidences to have been interred in this church, in which there are many gravestones and memorials of his posterity, who continued to reside here, several of whom were at times sheriffs of this county, until within memory.

https://www-personal.umich.edu/~bobwolfe/gen/mn/m23505x23514.htm

Notes for Stephen Roberts and Joane Tilthe

In a note about Stephen, "the third of that name in this family," the 1629 Roberts pedigree contends that "the proofe" of this marriage "is shewed in a deede dated the ffryday next before the ffeast of St. Hyerome in the third year of King Richard the Second," and relates the contents of the deed as, "that deed conteyning that John Nywmanne of Cranebrooke did grant to Joane wife of Stephen Roobertes of Gowdhurst some tyme the daughter of William Tillye of Cranebrooke and to the heirs begotten between the said Stephen and Joane all the lands in Cranebrooke which the said Nywmanne had of guift of the said William Tillye" [1] A nearly identical explanation appears in the 1592 pedigree. [2] The feast day of St. Jerome is 30 September, and the preceding Friday in 1379 was 23 September.

The Roberts pedigree in Hovenden, Visitation of Kent, includes, as the second of six quarters, arms attributed to "Tillye" in the 1592 and 1629 Roberts pedigrees, but does not show the Tillye marriage. [3]

References

• The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, Comprising a ...By Sir Bernard Burke C B LL D. < GoogleBooks >
• Benolte, Thomas; Philipot, John; & Owen, George. The Visitations of the County of Sussex: 1530 and 1633-4. London: The Harleian Society, 1905. Vol LIII, p 68, Roberts.
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Roberts-3520
• https://www-personal.umich.edu/~bobwolfe/gen/mn/m23505x23514.htm Cites

1. [1] Fane Lambarde, “Roberts of Kent,” Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Ser. 5, Vol. 6 (1926-1928), 168–187 at 183, [FHLCatalog].
2. [2] William Hayley, “Sussex: viz. Genealogica, Vol. II” (British Library Add. MS 6347), fol. 1–6, of which folios 2-5 and the front of fol. 6 are numbered in Hayley's hand as pages 1-9 and provide a transcription of a pedigree, dated 1592, of the Roberts family of Glassenbury), 2.
3. [3] Robert Hovenden, ed., The Visitation of Kent, taken in the Years 1619–1621, Publications of The Harleian Society, Visitation Series, Vol. 42 (London, 1898), 93-94, < GoogleBooks >