William Calthorpe

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Sir Will-i-am Calthorpe, (30 January 1410 - 15 November 1494), Knight of the Bath, and Lord of the Manors of Burnham Thorpe, and Ludham, in Norfolk. He is on record as High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1442, 1458 and 1469 and 1479.

William Calthorpe is recorded on 28th June 1443, when he manumised one of his villeins, and set him free from all future services. He became an emo locum tenens and Commissary-General to the late most noble and potent William, Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Pembroke, and Lord Great Chamberlain of England, Ireland and Aquitaine, during the minority of the Duke's son and heir, Henry, Earl of Exeter. In 1469 Sir William described himself as Sir William Calthorp of Ludham, a manor which he owned, as well as that of Burnham Thorpe. In 1479 he was Steward of the household of the Duke of Norfolk.

William Calthorpe was made a Knight of the Bath in the Tower of London, by King Edward IV, on the Coronation of his Queen, Elizabeth Wydville, Ascension Day, 26 May 1465.

Sir William Calthorpe's first wife was Elizabeth (1406 - 1437), daughter of Sir Reynold, 3rd Baron de Grey of Ruthin, &c., (1362 - 1440), by whom Sir William had a son and two daughters. His second wife was Elizabeth (c1441 - 18 February 1505), eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Miles Stapleton, Knt., of Ingham, Norfolk, (by his spouse, Katherine de la Pole (c1416-1488)), who settled the manor of Hempstead, Norfolk, upon Elizabeth. Her husband, Sir William Calthorpe, was subsequently found to be lord of three parts of it in 1491; his second surviving son, Sir Francis, died possessed of it in 1544, and his son William next inherited it, and sold it about 1573.

Sir William Calthorpe made Presentations to the Rectory of Beeston, Norfolk in 1460, 1481, 1492, and the Rectory of Hempstede in 1479 and 1485.

In the church of St.Martin at the Palace, Norwich, is a tablet showing that in 1550 Lady Calthorp (Sir William's daughter-in-law) gave a silver cup and a velvet carpet to that church. It appears that the Calthorpes had their town house in this parish for many years, and Sir William de Calthorp certainly lived there in 1492, and probably long before then, for it is recorded that in 1447 the Executors of Joan Lady Bardolph, sold the old seat of the Erpinghams, in St.Martin's at the Palace, to William Calthorp, Esq., and the receivership of the Erpingham manor was vested in Sir Philip Calthorp (d.1535 - grandson of Sir William) and his wife Joan (née Blennerhasset), in 1487.

In Sir William's Will, he mentions that many of his ancestors were buried in North Creake Church, Norfolk. This Will is given in full in East Anglian Notes & Queries (vol.ii, p.210), as an interesting specimen of wills of that date. He mentions many of his family. He was buried within the Church of the White Friars, Norwich, Norfolk, beside his first wife.

One of Sir William's daughters by his second marriage, Anne (d.bef.March 1558), married Sir Robert Drury, Knt., of Thurston, & Hawstead, Suffolk.

[edit] References

Banks, Sir T. C., Bt., Baronia Anglica Concentrata; or Baronies in Fee, London, 1844. Elizabeth Stapleton and her husband, Sir William Calthorpe, with their immediate successors, can be found in the summary pedigree of the Stapleton family on page 267.

Visitation of Yorkshire, 1563/4 by William Flower, Norroy King of Arms, published London, 1881, p.295 (outline pedigree of the Stapleton family)..

Burke, John, and John Bernard, The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, with their descendants, Sovereigns and Subjects, London, 1851, vol.2, pedigree CXVII.

Burke, Sir Bernard, Ulster King of Arms, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, London, 1883, p.504, where Sir William is erroneously named as Sir Philip.

Shaw, William A.,Litt.D., The Knights of England, London, 1906.

Carr-Calthorpe, Colonel Christopher William, C.B.E., R.I., Notes on the Families of Calthorpe and Calthrop, etc., 3rd edition, London, 1933, p.38-9; 41-6.