Thomas Wentworth

Sir William Wentworth, 1st Baronet

Sir William Wentworth (1562-1614) was an English landowner.

He was born in 1562, the son of Thomas Wentworth and Margaret Gascoigne or Gascoyne, heiress of Gawthorpe. A story was told of Wentworth's visit to Bolling Hall and a vision concerning St Ann's well at Buxton.[1]

• 'Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of ..., Volume 1 By William Richard Cutter
• http://books.google.com/books?id=OU0k2d8nl3IC&pg=PA493&lpg=PA493&dq...
• Pg. 493
• (XVII) Oliver Wentworth, son of Thomas Wentworth (16), resided at Goxhill, Lincolnshire, a parish which extends to the Humber, nearly opposite Hull. His will, dated there December 7, 1568, proved January 28 following, bequeathed to sons William and Francis, and Oliver, son of William. Francis his son, lived at Waltham, Lincolnshire, and died 1612.
  • (XVIII) William Wentworth, son of Oliver Wentowrth (17), also settled finally in Waltham, Lincolnshire, His will was dated May 16, 1574, and proved May 24. He was probably buried at North Elmsall. He died, according to an inquisition post mortem, May 22, 1574. He left only two sons, both in their minority, the son Oliver mentioned in the grandfather's will, dying before his father. The son 'Thomas was born in 1554'. He married first, Ellen Gilby Ferrars, daughter of John Gilby of Ravendale and widow of John Ferrars. He married second, Anne ___ .
    • (XIX) Christopher Wentworth, son of William Wentworth (18), was born probably in 1556; married, August 19, 1583, at the church of St. Peter, at Gowts, in the city of Lincoln, Catherine, youngest daughter of William Marbury Esq., of Girsby, in the parish of Burgh-upon-Main, Lincolnshire, by his wife Agnes, daughter of John Lenton. One of her younger brothers was Rev. Francis Marbury, whose daughter Anne married William Hutchinson and became afterwards the famous religious leader in New England. Christopher seems to have been constantly changing his residence, the baptisms of his eight children have taken place in five different places. His will was dated December 8, 1628, at Barrow, a village near Goxhill, the seat of his ancestor, but it was not proved until May 15, 1633, and then at Alford, forty miles distant. Children: 1. William; mentioned below. 2. Anne, baptized at Ireby, Lincolnshire, October 28, 1585; married Rev. John Lawson. 3. Faith, baptized at Great Grimsby, May 14, 1587. 4. Elizabeth, baptized at Ireby, Augugst 15, 1589; married John Winne. 5. Frances, baptized at Ireby, November 8, 1590. 6. Francis, baptized at Conisholm, May 24, 1593, died young. 7. Priscilla, baptized june 14, 1594; married September 1, 1619, William Holmes. 8. Christopher, baptized at Waltham, February 27, 1596-97, died young.
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• 'The Wentworth genealogy, comprising the origin of the name, the family in England, and a particular account of Elder William Wentworth, the emigrant, and of his descendants (1870)
• http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n95/mod...
• http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n192/mo...
• XVII. Oliver Wentworth.
• It is from this point that all the results are due solely to the researches of Joseph Lemuel Chester, of London, England, whose services were secured by the author of this work as a last resort, after years of fruitless efforts, to discover the origin of his ancestor.
• In all the pedigrees, this Oliver and his two brothers, William and Thomas, are merely mentioned as younger sons. Their brother, Sir John, was certainly the eldest, as he succeeded to the estate, and Roger is always named as the second son. Oliver, therefore, may have been either the third, fourth, or fifth. At all events, he was a younger son, which accounts for his being thenceforth omitted in the pedigrees.
• His residence was at Goxhill, in the County of Lincoln, a parish which extends to the Humber, nearly opposite Hull. The distance from North Elmsall is some forty or fifty miles, and it seemed at first strange that he should have strayed to a place so apparently unimportant, and one with which the Wentworths had hitherto had no connection. On investigation, however, it is found that Lady de Roos, wife of Roger Wentworth, the great-grand uncle of this Oliver, brought into the family the manor of Goxhill, and it is quite probable that he took up his residence there as the agent for the estate. At all events he lived there at the time of his death; for his will dated there on the 7th of December, 1558, and he died shortly after, and it was proved in the Archdeaconry of Lincoln on the following 28th of January.
• http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n194/mo...
• He described himself as a "Gentleman"; and, after the usual religious bequests of the period, left small legacies to his sons William and Francis, and to Oliver the son of the former, and the residue of his estate to his wife Jane, who proved the will as executrix.
  • http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n198/mo...
  • XVIII. William Wentworth, who also settle finally at Waltham, though his children were not baptized, nor was he himself buried there. His will was dated on the 16 May, 1574, and was proved at Lincoln, on the 24th of the same month.
  • He described himself as of Walham, and a "Gentleman"; but, as the Register of that parish, which is perfect, contains no record of his burial, it is to be presumed that he also was carried to North Elmsall, and laid with his ancestors. As there are no early Registers of that parish, and the transcripts in the Bishop's Registry at York do not begin till about 1600, it will probably be impossible ever to determine this and similar points with certainty.
  • According to an inquisition post mortem at the Public Record Office in London, he died on the 22d of May, 1574, and evidently in early like, as his brother Francis survived him some thirty-seven years. He left only two sons, both in their minority, the son Oliver, mentioned in his grandfather's will, having died between 1558 and 1574. According to the inquisition referred to, the eldest son 'Thomas was then aged upwards of twenty years, and was therefore born in 1554. He is never again heard of, nor mentioned in the wills of any of his relatives; and as his younger brother evidently succeeded to his property, it may be safely assumed that he died before 1610, and without leaving issue.'
  • As the inquisition post mortem mentioned is a fair illustration of an ancient legal proceeding, abolished more than two hundred years ago, and as it moreover contains a rare example of the customs of "gavelkind" and "borough-English," a free translation from the original Latin may prove interesting. The inquisition was taken at Horncastle, in Lincolnshire (where the official Escheator chanced to live), on the 16 August, 1574, and was of William Wentworth, late of Waltham, Gentleman, who was found to be in his lifetime seized in demesne as of fee of two messuages, 100 acres of land, 20 of meadow, and 30 of pasture, etc., in Waltham, purchased of George Gilby; one messuage being in the tenure of Thomas Gilby and Andrew Wilson, and the other in the tenure of John Paynter, late the possession of John Hyde and another by the gift of King Henry VIII. [evidently some portion of the possessions wrenched by that monarch from some abbey or monastery]: the first mentioned messuage and the land in Waltham are held in socage of Edmund Skerne, Esq., as of his manor of Waltham, and by the custom of the said manor descend to the younger son, and are worth L10 per annum; and the last mentioned messuage is held of the Queen by fealty only, and is worth ten shillings and four pence per annum; also of one messuage and certain land in Winterton, held of the Queen as of her manor of Kirton, in gavelkind, which descend to Thomas Wentworth and Christopher Wentworth as two sons and one heir ["ut duobus filiis et uni heredi"], and are worth l5 per annum. The Escheator also found that the said William Wentworth died on the preceding 22 d day of May, and that Thomas Wentworth was his son and next heir, and was aged, at the date of the inquisition, twenty years, three months and upwards.
  • http://www.archive.org/stream/wentworthgenealo01inwent#page/n200/mo...
  • William Wentworth was twice married; first, to Ellen, daughter of John Gilby, of Ravendale, and widow of John Ferrars. The two of the name, mentioned in the inquisition post mortem, were her brothers. West Ravendale, or Ravendale, as it is usually called, is only three or four miles from Waltham. By her he had the three sons already named. The date of her death has not been ascertained; but he had, when he died, another wife, named Anne, with whom, from various evidences, he does not appear to have been on the best of terms. He was living at Waltham, and she at Kirton, in a distant part of Lincolnshire, and the only bequest he makes to her in his will is of "such goods and implements as she hath in my house at Kirton." He left a few trifling legacies to several servants, and to the poor; and his will concludes by placing his eldest son 'Thomas under the gaurdianship of Edmund Skerne, Esq. (who is mentioned in the inquisition, and who was the Lord of the manor of Waltham),' and his youngest son Christopher under that of Garrett Southill, Esq. (of whom nothing further is known.)
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