Thomas Toke

Image: from Godinton House and Gardens, Ashford, Kent

"The heraldic stone over the arch to the courtyard has now been repainted in the correct colours. The coat of arms represents the two marriages of Thomas Toke, those to Joan Goldwell and Cicely Chichele. The left half of the main shield is for Toke (ancient arms); the right half is for Chichele; and the small shield (the escutcheon of pretence) is for Goldwell."

Further details can be found in the current volume of the Kent Archaeological Society journal Archaeologia Cantiana (Arch. Cant. 137 (2016), pp. 185-208.).

http://godintonhouse.co.uk/house/heraldic-stone/

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Thomas Toke married Joan Goldwell (daughter of William, of Godington).

He was the eldest son of John Toke of Bere:

The family of Toke, Tooke, or Tucke, as they have at different times been variously spelt, are supposed to be descended from Le Sire de Touque, called in some copies Toc, and in others Touke, mentioned in the Battel abbey roll, having among others, attended William the Conqueror in his expedition hither, and being present on his behalf in the memorable battle of Hastings. His descendant Robert de Toke, who is the first mentioned in the pedigrees of this family, bore for his arms, Parted per chevron, sable, and argent, three griffins heads, erased and counter changed. He was present with king Henry III. in 1264, at the battle of Northampton. His great-grandson is called Toke, de Toke & Westcliffe, from whom descended in the fifth generation John Toke, of Bere, who lived in the reigns of Henry V. and VI. and had three sons; of whom Thomas, the eldest, was of Bere; Ralph, the second, was ancestor of those of Cambridgeshire, Dorsetshire, and Hertfordshire; and John, the third, died without male issue. Thomas Toke, of Bere, the eldest son, is mentioned before, as having married Joane, daughter of William Goldwell, esq. of Godinton, whose heir general she at length was; he married secondly Cecilia, daughter of Sir Robert Chicheley, niece to the archbishop, by whom he had no issue. By his first wife he had three sons, Ralph, who succeeded to the family estate at Bere, where his posterity remained till the latter end of the last century, as will be mentioned under the description of that place; Richard, who died s. p. and John, the youngest, who had Godinton by his father's will, where he afterwards resided, and had an augmentation of honor granted to his arms by king Henry VII. as a reward for his expedition in a message on which he was employed to the French king, being an additional coat of arms, viz. Argent, on a chevron, between three greybounds heads erased sable, collored, or, three plates; which coat the Tokes of Godinton have ever since borne, in the first quarter of their arms, placing the original arms of Toke in the second place; in whose descendants, resident here, most of whom lie buried in this church, this seat continued down to Nicholas Toke, esq. of Godington, usually called Captain Toke, sheriff in 1663, who dying in 1680, was buried in the chancel of this church, with his five wives.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol7/pp497-514

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Thomas Toke made his will October 16, 1472, and his testament December 3, 1473, and they were proved April 1 , 1474. To his wife Joan, for her life, he left his lands and houses in Byer, South Bier and Lyndon, and his land and house at St. Margarets. To his son Raffe Toke, his lands at Napherst, and, after the death of his wife, his feoffees shall enfeoff Ralph with the lands in Byerr, South Byr and Lynden, to him and his heirs, with remainders, in case of default, to his [the testator's] sons Richard and John in succession. In like manner the feoffees shall enfeoff John with the lands at St. Margaret, with remainders to Richard and Raffe. He directed that he be buried in the chancel of the Blessed Mary in the church of St. Peter's, Dover. To the high altar and the fabric of St. Peter's. To the Prior and convent of the Monastery of St. Martin. To the Master and Brethren of the House of God, Dover. To daughter Elizabeth and "my other daughters" [Jane, Anne, Margaret and Alice, according to the visitation of Kent in 1619]. To Joan, his wife, all his stock, alive as well as dead, belonging to his manors of Byer and St. Margaret de Clyff upon condition that she will care for and guide his daughters and John, his son, until they are married. Residue, for the benefit of his soul, to his executors, his wife Joan, Richard Chelworth, and his son Ralph. [Consistory Court of Canterbury, C. Vol. 2, 279] Of the three sons, Richard died s.p., but Ralph and John founded families.

The Ancestry of Mary Isaac, C. 1549-1613: Wife of Thomas Appleton of Little Waldingfield, Co. Suffolk and Mother of Samuel Appleton of Ipswich, Massachusetts. by Walter Goodwin Davis of Portland, Maine, 1955

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Various items from his will:

Chapel of Our Lady. Buried in the Chancel of Blessed Mary within the Church of St. Peter in Dover: Thos. Toke, 1474 (Con. 2, fol. 279).

DOVER, DOMUS DEI. To the Master and Brothers of the Domus Dei, Dover, 20s.: Thos. Toke of St. Peter's parish, Dover, 1474 (Con. 2, fol. 279).

DOVER PRIORY, ST. MARTIN. To the prior and convent of the Monastery of St. Martin of the New Work in Dover, 3 pounds, to be paid in three years by 20s. a year, to pray for my soul : Thos. Toke, 1474 (Con. 2, fol. 279).

Testamenta Cantiana: A Series of Extracts from Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Wills, Relating to Church Buildings and Topography, Volumes 1-2, West Kent--Leland L. Duncan, 1906

http://scans.library.utoronto.ca/pdf/3/23/testamentacantia00duncuof...

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St Mary’s Church organ...was completely rebuilt and modernised in 1969-1970 using the Toke bequest. In 1484, Thomas Toke, Mayor of Dover in 1472, bequeathed land at Dugate, at the foot of Whinless Downs, towards the repairs of the Church.

from The Dover Historian: A collection of historical articles from the town of Dover, England, by Lorraine Sencicle

https://doverhistorian.com/2013/12/07/a-walk-around-the-historic-st...

From page 1516 of A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of ..., Volume 2 By Sir Bernard Burke

The family of Toke, the name of whose patriarch appears on the roll of Battle Abbey, is stated in Thokoton's Notts, to have been settled in that co. as early as the reign of William Rufus, and to have possessed large estates there at Kelham, Walkeringham, &c. The pedigree given by that historian has the name spelled in seventeen different ways. Of this family was Sir Bryan Tuke, who was first secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, afterwards foreign secretary to HENRY VIII, then treasurer of the king's chamber and clerk of the signet, and sometime ambassador to France with Bishop Tunstall.

JOHN TOKE, of Beere, in the parish of Westcliff, near Dover (eighth in lineal descent from ROBERT DE TOKE, who was at the battle of Northampton with HENRY III, in 1264), m., 2 EDWARD III, Elizabeth Malmains, and was father of JOHN TOKE, of Beere, M.P. for Dover, temp. HENRY V, who m. Joyce, dau. of Sir Thomas Hoo, 2nd brother of the Lord Hoo and Hastings, and had three sons

• 1. THOMAS, his heir.
• II. Ralph, ancestor of the Tookes, of Herts, Dorsetshire, and London.
• III. John, who m. Alice, dau, and heiress of Thomas Crouch, of Dover, and had an only child, Alice, wife of Sir John Eyre, of Derbyshire.