Thomas Raleigh

He married twice. He did NOT provably marry Agnes Frye .

Journal Article

• Craig, F. N. 1991. “Raleigh of Farnborough.” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 145. AmericanAncestors.org:—
• NOTE: This article differs as to whom was the mother of Thomas.

6. THOMAS RALEGH, son of John Ralegh and his wife Rose Helion, was born probably about 1330 and died 6 November 1342 (CIPM, 17:393-6, nos. 1082-91), He married, first, between 10 December 1342 and 27 April 1343 as discussed below, ELIZABETH EVESHAM, who died before 1380, when he had a second wife, AGNES SWINFORD. After Thomas’s death, Agnes married Thomas Wakelyn and on 1 May 1399 they were fined 50 marks for marrying without licence (CPR, Richard II, 6:542)

On 10 December 1342, a deed was enrolled testifying that Sir John de Ralegh of Charles, knight, with the assent of John de Ralegh his son, had granted to Sir Thomas de Evesham, clerk, and to Sir Simon de Evesham his brother, clerk, the marriage of Thomas eldest son of John the younger, to Elizabeth daughter of Robert de Evesham, niece of the said Thomas and Simon, and also the manor of Farnebergh which Sir John held in co. Warwick (except a messuage, a toft, and two carucates of land in that manor, which John held for life of the release of his father); Sir John granted also the reversion of the manors of Bokelond and Waleston to Thomas and Simon, Thomas son of John, and Elizabeth, with the other lands which were not in tail (CCR, Edward III, 6:683). The marriage took place before 27 April 1343, when a related record refers to Thomas son of John de Ralegh junior and Elizabeth his wife (Devon Fines, no. 1339, 1340; see also Warwick Fines, no. 1931).

In 1352, William fitz Aer released to Thomas de Ralegh of Charles all his rights in the manor of Farnborough (CCR, Edward III, 9:495). In 1353, Sir Thomas de Ralegh was to have the farm of Lyn in the manor of Bradenessh (Reg. of the Black Prince, 2:54-55).

In 1364, Thomas Ralegh of Charles, as the cousin and heir of John Cofe, was to be given a third part of the manors of Lasyndcn, Leye, Westbury, and Eggesworth, co. Gloucester, and a third part of the fourth part of the manor of Westhide, co. Hereford (CCR, Edward III, 12:18; CIPM 11:239-40, no. 302). In 1379, Christina Stevenes, niece of Stephen de Edgeworth, quitclaimed lands in Edgeworth to Thomas Ralegh of Charles (CCR, Richard II, 1:330). On 9 February 1379/80, Thomas, his eldest son and heir, was born at Farnborough (CIPM, 18[1987]: 222, no, 667; this ref. kindly furnished by Col. Hansen), in 1387 John Eockwyk and Alice his wife conveyed to Thomas Ralegh of Farneburgh a messuage, a toft, 44 acres, one virgate of land, three acres of meadow, a moiety of 30 messuages, 12 tofts, a mill, two carucates, 30 virgates of land, 60 acres of meadow, at a rent of 40s, one pound of cummin, and a pair of gloves, in Farneburgh, Wormleygton, Avenderset, Kytherdewyk, Buryton, Chepynderset, Northende, Knytcote, Little Kynglon, and Nethershukkeburgh (Warwick Fines, no. 2302).

In 1388, there was a complaint by John, prior of Clattercote, that Thomas Ralegh, John Farnburgh, William Hoges, and Thomas Hoges, with others, broke into his close at Copredy, Oxfordshire, assaulted him, felled his trees and took the common seal of the priory, valued at 100s, as well as the said trees, and impounded one bull, six cows, 13 bullocks, 40 pigs, and 300 sheep found in his pasture at Cleydon and kept them without food so that one cow, valued at 13s 4d, died of hunger and the rest were much injured, and further took one bull, four cows, 10 bullocks, and 300 sheep found at Copredy and drove them to Cleydon where they impounded and kept them (CPR, Richard II, 3 473). Note that Clattercote is not two miles from Farnborough.

In 1389, Thomas Ralegh obtained a messuage, two carucates of land, and six acres of meadow in Farneburgh from Thomas Wylcokes of Doddeford and Alice his wife for 20 marks of silver (Warwick Fines, no. 2311).

Thomas’s public career began 6 December 1373 when he was among those named to levy an aid (CFR, 8:228). However, on 23 January 1374 he was relieved of this duty and charged to abide continually in the Isle of Wight upon his lands there (Walpen) for the safeguard and defense of the island (ibid., 231). This restriction was evidently lifted, for he was escheator in the counties of Warwick and Leicester in 1378, 1388, and 1391 (CFR, 9:119; 10:274; 11:8) and again in 1392 (CPR, Richard II, 5:183). He was sheriff of Warwick and Leicester from 18 October 1380 to 1 November 1381, when he was replaced by Thomas Bermyngham (CFR, 9:221, 270).

On 1 May 1381, Thomas de Raylegh, sheriff of Warwick, received pardon for the escape of John le Ropere of Warewyk, who had been lately sentenced to death for killing William de Ropere of Caughton the condemned, alter hanging for a longer time than another felon under the same judgement, revived when he was about to be buried and still lived (CPR, Richard II, 1:623).

Thomas de Raylegh was in the commission of peace in Warwickshire in 1389 and 1390 (ibid., 4:136,139, 343). He was still escheator in Warwick and Leicester on 9 October 1392, and possibly the same Thomas Ralegh who was named sheriff of Devon 18 October 1392 (ibid., 5:183; CFR, 11:56). In 1397 the obligation to Thomas Ralegh of Farneburgh for 401. lent to the king, was noted (CPR, Richard II, 6:179).

In 1382, Dugdale (p. 412) finds Thomas joined in commission with Thomas earl of Warwick and other persons of quality for ‘conservation of the Peace and resistance of the Rebells in this Shire’ (Jack Straw and his fellows being then up in arms). The Peasants’ Revolt of June 1381 took place while Thomas was sheriff. It has been said that the insurgents in Kent acted by commission of Jack Rakestraw and Watte Tegheler of Essex (Archaeologia Cantiana, 3[1860]:67). Jack Straw is thought to be this John Rakestraw (Charles Oman, The Great Rewit of 1381 (Oxford, 1906], 43). The insurrection must not have extended to Warwickshire, which was not included in the 20 counties whose justices were ordered 5 September 1381 to arrest the rebels (CCR, Richard II, 2:7, 8).

About 8 December 1381, John Porter of Aston le Walls and Peter Smyth of Chipping Warden, Northamptonshire, broke into the close of Thomas de Ralegh at Farneburgh and killed and carried away a buck and a doe (Assize Roll 973, Rolls of the Warwickshire and Coventry Sessions of the Peace 1377-1397, Elisabeth Guernsey Kimball, ed., Dugdale Society, 16[1939]:111-2) – poaching was a normal feature of English country life. On 21 December 1382 commissions of peace had extra powers to deal with rebels in 20 counties including Warwick, where Thomas was in a list headed by the duke of Lancaster and the earl of Warwick (CPR, Richard II, 2:244-8).

Thomas Ralegh died 6 November 1396 leaving Thomas his son and heir and a widow Agnes, whose dower was assigned in 1399 in Cledon, Molynton, Bourton, Wardynton, and Bannebury, co. Oxford; Lassyngdon, Turkdean, Leye, and Northcote, co. Gloucester; and Famborough (CIPM, 17:393-6, nos. 1082-91; copy kindly furnished by Col. Hansen).

Of the lands listed in his inquisitions, those in Oxford and Warwick were bought by Thomas or his grandfather, those in Hereford and Gloucester came from the Helions, and those in Devon and Hampshire from the Punchardons. A few minor tenements not seen before included a messuage and two carucates at Turkdean in Gloucestershire held of the honor of Wallingford and the parcel of dry meadow and hill containing 20 acres in Sharnecote in Wiltshire, held of the earl of Gloucester.

Chronology suggests that Agnes was the mother of the heir born in 1380 and his younger brother John. Thomas's first wife, Elizabeth Evesham, may have been as old as 12 years when she married in 1342, and would thus have been 50 in 1380. In the Visitation, the mother shown was Agnes the daughter of Sir William Swinford, knight. In 1369-70, William de Swynford had been the Proctor of Agnes who was then the wife of William Barbour; she had a quitclaim of a messuage and 30 acres of land in Wylughby (Warwick Fines, no. 2164). In 1316 William de Swyneford was a tenant in Clipston and Neubold (Feudal Aids, 4:24). In 1346, another William Swyneford accounted for one- eighth fee in Clipston “or rather we suppose Newbold by Clipston” (John Bridges, History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire (Oxford, 1791], 2:24). In 1461, William Ralegh the grandson of Agnes had held two messuages and 15 virgates in Neubolt and Clipston (Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem Sive Escaetarum, J. Caley and J. Baley, eds. [4 vols., folio 1806-28] [hereinafter Calendarium IPM], 4:308, no. 5).

Children of Thomas and Agnes (Swinford) Ralegh; surname Ralegh:
7. i. THOMAS, eldest, b. at Farnborough 9 February 1379/80; m. JOAN ASTELEY.
8. ii. JOHN; m IDONY COTESFORD.