ROCHFORD OF FENNE AND STOKE ROCHFORD Volume Two Source Material Edited by Nick Nettleton First published 2016 Online edition and additional materials at http://therochfords.wordpress.com © 2016 Nick Nettleton. Some rights reserved. This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The terms of this license can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Except where noted, all illustrations by the author. Privately printed. CONTENTS Introduction to this volume 7 Abbreviations 10 Records of the earliest Rochfords, 1086-1200 11 Records of the earliest Fennes, 1086-1198 23 Records of the Rochfords of Fenne, 1198-1550 37 Richard I 39 John 40 Henry III 52 Edward I 70 Edward II 87 Edward III 100 Richard II 136 Henry IV 158 Henry V 178 Henry VI 193 Edward IV 218 Henry VI (again) 221 Edward IV (again) 221 Henry VII 225 Henry VIII 235 Mary I 238 Elizabeth I 238 Records of the Stanhope heirs of the Rochfords 239 Topographical evidence 245 Fenne, Lincolnshire 247 Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire 249 Freiston, Lincolnshire 256 Lincoln St Mark 257 Lincoln cathedral 258 Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire 258 Bag Enderby, Lincolnshire 259 Horncastle, Lincolnshire 259 Halstead Hall, Stixwold, Lincolnshire 259 Haltham-on-Bain, Lincolnshire 260 Coningsby, Lincolnshire 260 Stamford St Mary, Lincolnshire 261 Carlby, Lincolnshire 261 Hougham, Lincolnshire 261 Walpole St Peter, Norfolk 261 Walpole St Andrew, Norfolk 264 Tilney All Saints, Norfolk 264 Terrington St Clement, Norfolk 264 King’s Lynn St Margaret, Norfolk 265 Ingatestone, Essex 265 Braintree, Essex 266 Nottingham St Mary 266 Haughton, Nottinghamshire 267 Skeffington, Leicestershire 268 Shelley, Suffolk 269 INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME This volume of the history of the Rochfords of Fenne is a comprehensive compendium of original records about them. These are the pieces of the puzzle. They come from sources as diverse as chancery rolls, letters, charters, warrants, surveys, tax lists, property deals, court cases, castles, churches, monuments, stained glass windows and more. ORGANISATION The first two sections are brief calendars of records of the earliest Rochfords and the earliest Fennes in the areas around Boston; the Rochfords of Fenne originated in a union between these two families just before the year 1200. The third – and by far the longest – section here is a detailed calendar of records of the Rochfords of Fenne and Walpole from 1198 to the mid-1500s. This is organised in the traditional way, under headings for the reigning monarch of the time. The kings and the political landscapes of their reigns had a great effect on the lives of the Rochfords, so this system aids interpretation of the records. The fourth section is another brief calendar of records tracing the family’s eventual heirs, through the Stanhopes to the Skeffingtons. The fifth and final section offers a selection of topographical evidence that does not have a known date by which it can be placed into a calendar – mostly records of stained glass windows in Lincolnshire and Norfolk that once had the arms of the Rochfords in them. PRIMARY SOURCES The vast majority of the records are from primary sources. I have aimed to be as comprehensive as possible, and as a result there is a large volume of material. But has only been by collecting, sorting, connecting, comparing and analysing these together that a rich and accurate story of the Rochfords and their tangle of family branches has been possible. It is this approach that has revealed, for example, that there was only one Sir Sayer de Rochford, that he two sons named John who became knights, that their 7 ROCHFORD: SOURCE MATERIAL brother Sir Ralph was not the Sir Ralph who was living in the 1400s, and so on. Many of these records, such as those from the chancery rolls, have already been translated or abstracted into English. Others I have transcribed and translated myself. Most are originally in Latin, some in Anglo-Norman French. My skills here are modest so I welcome any corrections. The earliest original English-language records in this calendar date from the 1400s – these I have left in their original dialects, as they are easily intelligible and add a little colour to the story. Since many of the records are also rather long and packed with legal jargon elusive to modern ears, I have summarised and abstracted where appropriate. But I have aimed to preserve much of the character of the original language used, and I have retained the often-wonderful original spellings of names and places throughout, where they can be understood. SECONDARY SOURCES With great caution, I have included evidence from secondary sources where either the original records referred to have been lost or destroyed or are hard to access, or where a secondary source provides valuable context and analysis for interpreting the primary evidence. However, all of the most-used secondary sources for the Rochfords are riddled with mistakes, mistranscriptions and mix-ups between different people with the same name. These include Pishey Thompson’s The History and Antiquities of Boston, Francis Blomefield and Charles Parkin’s An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Maddison and Larken’s Lincolnshire Pedigrees, and essays on the Rochfords in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and The History of Parliament. The latter are the most reliable, but they still have critical mistakes that permeate into other histories based on them. William Dugdale’s The Antiquities of Warwickshire and the Victoria County History volumes for Warwickshire refer to the Rochfords in connection with their properties there, but the accounts are incomplete and have a few errors. The Rochfords also appear in passing in the Visitations, but these must be taken with a pinch of salt. Statements from all these publications that cannot be independently verified should not be taken at face value. Where I have concerns about the reliability of secondary evidence I have usually not included it at all, as there is plenty of primary evidence to work with. But in those circumstances where uncertain evidence is all that is available, I have included it with appropriate caveats. 8 INTRODUCTION COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS Alongside the evidence, I have included notes on its interpretation and how the various pieces fit together. Where there are gaps and uncertain- ties, I have expressed these. The notes are normal text, while the records themselves are indented for clarity. 9 ABBREVIATIONS Blomefield, Norfolk Francis Blomefield and Charles Parkin, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk CCR Calendar of Close Rolls CFR Calendar of Fine Rolls CIPM Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem CPR Calendar of Patent Rolls FRH3 Fine Rolls of Henry III Holles, Church Notes Lincolnshire Church Notes Made by Gervase Holles, 1634-1642 HoP The History of Parliament Huntingfield Cart. Lincolnshire Archives 3ANC2/1 ODNB The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Rymer, Foedera Thomas Rymer, Foedera, conventiones, literae, et cujuscunque generis acta publica… Thompson, Boston Pishey Thompson, The History and Antiquities of Boston TNA The National Archives VCH Victoria County History 10 RECORDS OF THE EARLIEST ROCHFORDS, 1086-1200 11 Four places named Rochford, or similar, appear in the Domesday Book. The earliest record of a person named Rochford in England dates from the 1140s. By the 1170s there were several distinct branches of one or more families going by the name. The records of these early Rochfords provide clues about the possible origins of Waleran de Rochford, the first of the Rochfords of Fenne, who first appears on record in 1198. The following is calendar of such records. 1086 – Domesday: “Rochefort” or Rochford, Essex, held by Alured or Alfred under Swein of Essex. Open Domesday, http://opendomesday.org/place/TQ8790/rochford/ “Recesford” or Rochford, Herefs & Worcs, held by Widard under Durand of Gloucester and Walter son of Roger; and Drogo son of Poyntz. Open Domesday, http://opendomesday.org/place/XX0000/rochford-and-upper-rochford/ “Rochesforde” or Roxford, Herts, held by Guy the priest under Geoffrey of Bec. Open Domesday, http://opendomesday.org/place/TL3010/roxford/ “Rocheford” or Rockford, Hants, held by Hugh of St Quentin under Hugh of Port. Open Domesday, http://opendomesday.org/place/SU1607/rockford/ 1146-1149 – Charter of “John de Cheney” granting land to the canons of Rudham “for the soul of my grandfather Ralph de Cheney and his wife, and the soul of my father and my mother and William de Cheney my uncle, and Roger and their sisters, and Waleran de Rochefford, and all my forebears…” Dated from the witnesses. A History of Coxford Priory, p331-2, https://archive.org/stream/norfolkarchaeol30socigoog#page/n450/mode/2up VCH Norfolk, v2, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/norf/vol2/pp378-380 This is earliest known record of a Rochford in England. Discussion of the early Cheneys can be found in Salzman’s account of the family. L. F. Salzman, ‘Sussex Domeday Tenants. IV. The family of Chesney of Cheyney’, Sussex Arch Soc, vol LXV, http://powys.org/Genealogy/articles/SsxArcCol_v65_pp20-53.pdf About 1150-1157 – “Simone de Rocheford” witness to a charter of William de Vescy to the nuns of Watton, Yorks. Early Yorkshire Charters, v2, p407, https://archive.org/stream/earlyyorkshirech02farruoft#page/406/mode/2up 13 ROCHFORD: SOURCE MATERIAL 1162?-1164 – “Wido de Rocsfort” witness to the founding charter of Nutley Abbey for Walter Giffard, earl of Buckingham, and his wife Ermingarde. Date unknown, but probably not from the time of Henry I, as Blomefield claims. Monasticon claims Nutley was founded in 1162. Walter Giffard died by 1164. Monasticon, v6.1, p278, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZGKGPcFww8EC&pg=PA277 VCH Bucks, v1, pp377-380, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol1/pp377-380 Wido is the same as Guido/Guy.