William Torbock

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Torbock-2

William Torbock, Esq., of Tarbock (in Huyton), Lancashire, born about 1526, (aged 28 in 1554). He married Katherine Gerard, daughter of Thomas Gerard, Knight, (descendant of King Edward I), by Jane, daughter of Peter Legh, (descendant of King Edward I).

They had two daughters,

1. Frances and
2. Margaret.

William Torbock, Esq., died in 1558, leaving a Will dated May 14, 1558.

Source: Plantagenet Ancestry, By Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham, David Faris, page 491.

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Generations 5-8 of this lineage appear in Faris, Plantagenet Ancestry, 1st ed. (hereafter PA1).[1] There are is also a long and valuable editorial note on this family in William Langton’s edition of the 1533 Visitation (and some material therein has not yet been incorporated herein).[2] The nature of the connection between William Torbock (no. 7) and the Mainwarings was correctly deduced by Henry Foley in 1877, possibly on the basis of information furnished by the Rev. T.E. Gibson, whom he credits.[3] We are indebted to Graham Pratten for pointing out the relationship of Elizabeth Daniell, wife of Richard Torbock, to her brother Thomas.

1. Henry de Torbock, lord of the manor of Torbock, in the parish of Huyton, co. Lancaster, b. say 1333, d. about 1380, his heir being his eldest son, Richard. He m. (1) Joan ____, living in 1365. He m. (2) by 1375, Isabel de Capenhurst, widow of Robert atte Poole, and daughter and heir of Thomas de Capenhurst. It is unclear which of these was mother to his son Henry.[4]

2. Henry de Torbock, lord of the manor of Tarbock, in the parish of Huyton, co. Lancaster, brother and heir of Richard de Torbock (d.s.p. 1386-87), b. about 1372 (aged 17 years in 1389), knighted in 1399-1400, d. probably in 1418, after May, his heir being his eldest son John.[5] He m. (1) (annulled by 1397) Margery, daughter and coheir of John Dumvill, of Oxton and Brimstage in co. Chester, who m. secondly Sir Hugh de Holes, and had issue. He m. by about 1397,[6] Katherine Halsall, daughter of Sir Gilbert Halsall, by the latter’s wife Elizabeth ____.[7]

3. William de Torbock, lord of the manor of Torbock (succ. 1423-24), in the parish of Huyton, co. Lancaster, uncle and heir of Henry de Torbock (d.s.p. 1421), b. about 1399 (aged 22 years in 1421), d. between 1441 and 1447. In 1423 or 1424 he is recorded as being on military service in France in the retinue of Christopher Preston, and in 1430 in that of John, Duke of Norfolk.[8] He m. by June 1422,[9] Cecily [Norreys?], living 1478, “closely related to the Norrises of Speke, probably daughter of Sir Henry le Norreys, whose mother was a Cecily.”[10]

4. Richard Torbock, Knt., lord of the manor of Tarbock, in the parish of Huyton, co. Lancaster, living July 1472. He was initially succeeded by his eldest son, Henry, who d. in 1489 and was succeeded by the next son, William.[11] He m. by 1447, Elizabeth Daniell, alive in in 1459-60,[12] sister of Thomas Daniell, feudal baron of Rathwire.[13] Evidence for Elizabeth’s connections is adduced in an 1887 Wodehouse genealogy, from which it appears that she was an accomplice in a sordid fraud perpetrated by her brother:

Henry [Wodehouse] … in 1447 … addressed a petition to Parliament, which is printed in Rolls of Parliament, vol. V, p. 340. This petition, from “your pover and contynuel Oratour Henry Wodhous,” sets forth that certain feoffees of “John Wodehous, fader to your said Bisecher whose heir he is, of the manoirs of Grymston, Rydon, Congham, and Rysing with the appurtenaunces in the Countie of Norff’, by the praier and desire of your said Besecher enfeoffed Thomas Daniell and John Dowwebiggyng” in trust “to the use of oon Alice late the Wif to John Wodhous Squier, and Moder unto your said Bisecher” for her life and afterwards “to the use of your said Bisecher after the deceise of the seid Alice, and also to that affiaunce and ende that your said Bisecher should have had Elizabeth suster of the said Thomas Daniell to his Wif, the whiche Elizabeth was married to another man after the seid Feoffement so made, that is to sey, to oon Richard Torbok, unknowying to your said Bisecher: and so by the mean of the said Thomas Danyell, your said Bisecher wowed the said Elizabeth, she beying at that time another mannes wif, at oon John of Kent’s hous; which John delivered there to your said Bisecher xx d. by comaundement of the said Thomas Danyell at that same tyme to make the said Elizabeth good chere withalle:” and further that his “Manoir of Welles, otherwise called the Priory Alien or the Hous of Welles, and otherwise called Welhalle” in Norfolk was feoffed to Thomas Daryell and others for the same purpose; and the petitioner prays that all these feoffments, &c., may be annulled, and that he may enter on the enjoyment of the manors and lands in question. His prayer was granted, except as to profits received whilst he was not in possession.

He appears never to have ventured on any further matrimonial engagement after his misadventure with Elizabeth Danyell. The manors of Grimston, Rydon, Congham, and Rysing came to his nephew, Edward Wodehouse, as appears from a deed, dated 1460….[14]

Another document relating to this incident, less clear as to Elizabeth’s marital status and the extent of involvement in the deception, is found among the Close Rolls:

May 25. Westminster. Declaration of John archbishop of Caunterbury, that when he was chancellor, Thomas Danyell esquire being in his presence, Henry Wodehous esquire, son and heir of John Wodehous esquire, confessed before him in his chancery at Lambhethe that he should have Elizabeth sister of Thomas Danyell to wife, and Thomas “saide not nay,” that the confession was made long before the archbishop made or sealed any deeds at the prayer of Henry of any lands that Thomas had or claims of trust, in so much that the archbishop at the prayer of Henry gave him licence that he and Elizabeth should be married secretly, since Henry “though[t] it necessarie to eschue outerageous” expenses if he and Elizabeth should be married openly; and that he has reported all the premises said and done as before rehearsed to and before the lords spiritual and temporal and the speaker and commons in the Parliament at Westminster 29 Henry VI, John cardinal and archbishop of Yorke then being chancellor when the lords and commons attended upon the king’s coming to the Parliament chamber at Westminster at the dissolution of the Parliament. Given at his manor of Lamhithe, 17 February 1451, 30 Henry VI and 9 of the archbishop’s translation.[15]

P.R.O. Ancient Petitions has a version of Wodehouse’s complaint which paraphrases the resolution more fully than does the Wodehouse genealogy:

The king [Henry VI], considering that Wodhous was blinded with the promise of marriage when he made the alienations, recognizances and other sureties, and would not have made them otherwise, wills that the petition is agreed, provided that neither Danyell or Dowevebiggyng nor any others of the cofeoffees be bound by this act to Wodhous for any issues or profits received from the property before the first day of parliament.[16]

5. William Torbock, lord of the manor of Tarbock, in the parish of Huyton, co. Lancaster, knighted by George, Lord Strange, in Scotland, during the expedition of 1497, b. about 1464 (aged “about 25 years” at the death of his elder brother, Henry, in 1489), d. 5 May 1505.[17] According to Faris [____], he had three sons and one daughter. He m. (arranged Jan. 1490),[18] Margery Stanley, niece of Thomas, 1st Earl of Derby, and daughter of John Stanley, of Wever and Alderley[19] by Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Thomas de Weever, of Weever and Over Alderley, co. Chester.

6. Thomas Torbock, Esq., lord of the manor of Tarbock (succ. 1505), in the parish of Huyton, co. Lancaster, b. about 1497 (aged 8 years at his father’s death in 1505), d. 20 Sept. 1554.[20] He m. by 1526, Elizabeth Moore, daughter of William Moore, Esq., of “Bank House,” Kirkdale, in the parish of Walton, co. Lancaster,[21] by the latter’s wife Alice, daughter of William Ireland, of Hale and “The Hutt,” in the same county. According to Faris they had three daughters. “Thomas Tarbocke” is recorded in the 1533 Visitation as stating that he “knoweth not his armes for a certenty.”[22] The inquisition post mortem of “Thomas Torbocke, esq.” was taken at Wigan on 19 Jan. 1554/5 before Ralph Worseley, esq. escheator, on oaths of Thomas Gerrarde and others; the manor of Torbocke was “held of the Earl of Derby as of his manor of Knowseley,” and was worth 40 marks; it consisted of 700 acres of land, 140 acres of meadow, 800 acres of pasture, 30 acres of wood, and 40 acres of heath and moor, and contained 32 messuages, a windmill, 2 watermills, and a fulling mill. The deceased was also possessed of 8/7d. free rent yearly from the lands of George Irelande, esq., Richard Estehedde, and Thomas Knolle, in Torbocke; also a messuage and 6 acres of land in Rudgate-next-Prescot, and property in Rudgate held of Henry of Travis by a rent of 12d., worth 10/-. He d. 20 Sept. 1554, and his heir was his son William, aged 28 years.[23]

7. William Torbock, Esq., lord of the manor of Tarbock (succ. 1554), in the parish of Huyton, co. Lancaster, b. about 1526 (aged 28 on his father’s death in 1554), living 14 May 1557 (when he made his will), and d. s.p.m.s. soon after.[24] He m. before May 1557,[25] Katherine Gerard, d. s.p.m.s,[26] daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard, of Kingsley, in the parish of Frodsham, co. Chester, and of Byrn in Ashton-in-Makerfield, co. Lancaster, Sheriff of Lancashire,[27] by Jane, daughter of Peter Legh.[28] They had two sons who died during their parents’ lifetimes, and two daughters, their father’s heiresses except in the entailed manor of Tarbock, which passed to his younger brother, Edward. The daughter Margaret, evidently not yet born at the making of her father’s will, was aged only 2 months at his inquistion post mortem, the precise date of which is not given.[29]

8. Margaret Torbock, b. some time between May 1557 and Sept. 1559 (she is not named in her father’s will, and was aged only 2 months at his death); she was still alive in 1586.[30] She bequeathed 100 marks in the 1575 will of her maternal grandmother, Jane (Legh) Gerard.[31] She m. by 1587,[32] Oliver Mainwaring (I), Gent., of Exeter, Devon, and of Windleshaw, co. Lancaster, b. say 1545-50, d. 1587-1634, seventh son of George Mainwaring, of Exeter, by Juliana, daughter of Thomas Spurway, Mayor of Exeter, whom see for the continuation of the line.

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Notes 1. David Faris, Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth-Century Colonists, 1st ed. (Baltimore, 1996), 236. 2. The Visitation of Lancashire and a part of Cheshire, made … A.D. 1533, ed. William Langton, 2 vols. (Remains Historical and Literary connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester, published by the Chetham Society, vols. 98 [1876] and 110 [1882]), 2:166-170. 3. Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, ed. Henry Foley, series 1, vol. 1 (London, 1877), pp. 656, n. 42. 4. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:178-79. 5. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:179. 6. This is the date given for the remarriage of Henry’s first wife, and he cannot have remarried much later himself, for in a document of 1407 concerning the descent of the estate he and Katherine had seven children, who are listed by name (V.C.H. Lancashire 3:179). 7. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:194. Some general remarks on the Halsall family, but relating for the most part to a later period, will be found in the notes to Langton’s edition of the 1533 Visitation, 2:166-170. 8. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:180. 9. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:180 n. 3. 10. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:180 n. 4. 11. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:180. 12. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:180. 13. The evidence for this relationship follows below. Thomas Daniell has sometimes been credited with the barony of Rathwire as a peerage title, but this view is challenged in the Complete Peerage, 2nd ed., 1:458, n. (a), and 10:744 (s.v. Rathwire). Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, 2004 ed., p. 490, calls the wife of Richard Torbock “Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Daniell, of Wigan,” but there seems to be evidence that Elizabeth’s brother Thomas was a son of William Daniel, of Daresbury, Cheshire. 14. John [Wodehouse], Earl of Kimberley, The Wodehouses of Kimberly (privately printed, 1887), pp. 21-22. 15. Calendar of the close rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, Henry VI, vol. 5 (1447-1454), pp. 354-55. 16. National Archives online catalogue, Ancient Petitions, SC 8/28/1391, at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetail... accessmethod=5. 17. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:180. 18. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:180. 19. Faris, PA_:143-46, traces his descent from Henry III. This branch of the Stanley family is treated in a long editorial note to Langton’s edition of 1533 Visitation, 1:1-11. 20. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:180. 21. The entry for Elizabeth’s father in the 1533 visitation, ed. William Langton, as cited above, 2:138-146, comes down not only to Elizabeth herself, but names her first three children, including her son William, below; the editor’s extended commentary is valuable as usual. The family of Moore also appears in the 1567 Visitation of Cheshire (Chetham Society, vol. 81), p. 92, and is treated in V.C.H. Lancashire, 3:37. We have not seen Calendar of that part of the collection of deeds and papers of the Moore family of Bankhall, co. Lanc., now in the Liverpool Public Library, by J. Brownbill, with an appendix containing a calendar of a further portion of the same collection, now in the University of Liverpool School of Local History and Records, by Kathleen Walker (Record Society for the Publication of Original Documents Relating to Lancashire and Cheshire, v. 67, 1913). 22. 1533 visitation, ed. Langton, 2:131-134, at p. 131. 23. Lancashire Record Office, calendar of the papers of the Molyneux family, Earls of Sefton, available on the Access to Archives website, at http://www.a2a.org.uk/, archival reference DDM 48/34. 24. The will was “not proved, the exectuors having renounced.” A nearly-complete transcription of this will appears in Lancashire and Cheshire wills and inventories from the ecclesiastical court, Chester, ed. the Rev. G.J. Piccope, vol. 2 (Remains, Historical & Literary connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester, ser. 1, vol. 33, 1857), 71-76. The bequests, which are summarized by Foley, loc. cit., were mainly to relatives of the Ireland family, and besides naming his daughters do not throw any light on his paternal lineage. The reference to this will in V.C.H. Lancashire 3:180 incorrectly gives the date as 14 May 1558. 25. Their daughter Frances was found to be aged 30 months at the time of her father’s i.p.m., which is dated 1 Elizabeth I (i.e. between 17 Nov. 1558 and 16 Nov. 1559). 26. AR7, line 233B, comes down to her paternal grandparents but (perhaps by oversight) does not mention her; Faris, PA2: 152-53, traces her descent from Edward I. There are brief but valuable remarks on this family in Langton’s edition of the 1533 Visitation, 2:182-187. 27. V.C.H. Lancashire, 4:144. 28. Faris, PA2: 212-13, traces her descent from Edward I, but makes a few mistakes regarding the Leghs, on whom see Langton’s commentary in his edition of the 1533 Visitation, 2:149-165. He makes favorable mention a work by William Beaumont, A History of the House of Lyme (Warrington, 1876), which we have seen. We are unable to recommend Evelyn Caroline Bromley-Davenport Legh Newton, The house of Lyme from its foundation to the end of the eighteenth century (1917), which contains numerous errors. 29. V.C.H. Lancashire 3:180. 30. The earliest possible birthdate for her son Oliver. 31. “Will of Dame Jane Gerard,” which was printed in A Collection of Lancashire and Cheshire Wills not now to be found in any probate registry, 1301-1752 (Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, v. 30, 1896), pp. 98-100; we owe the citation to V.C.H. Lancashire 4:144 n. 34. 32. The latest possible birthdate for their son Oliver.

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