All Categories - Meandering Through Time

Thomas Bytton Bishop of Exeter and the Wardship of John Arundell

11/4/2025

This last couple of days, I have been looking into the wardship of John Arundell, heir to the Cornish manor of Lanhurne, who was eight years old when his father died in 1306. As was the custom in days of yore, the guardianship of the young was granted to an individual whose job it was to take care of the ‘child’ until they turned twenty-one. The first of John Arundell’s guardians was Thomas Bytton, Bishop of Exeter.

Insignia of the Bishop of Exeter

Quite a bit of what we know about the 14th century bishops can be found in their registers; however, Thomas Bytton’s is missing, and this may account for the little we know about this man’s life and career. It would seem, from what is known, that he was a decent man and well thought of among his contemporaries. The clergy who, after his death, asked for the faithful within his dioceses ‘to pray for the soul of the good memory of Thomas, formerly Bishop of Exeter.’ In his will, he asked that one penny be given to 10,212 poor people.

Bytton was elected for the position of Bishop of Exeter in 1291 and consecrated on 16th March 1292 he held this position for sixteen years. He died on 21st September 1307 being John Arundell's guardian for under a year. His wardship was transferred to Walter Stapeldon.

Walter Stapeldon in a painting in the hall of Exeter College, Oxford.

The new Bishop of Exeter, unlike Bytton, was disliked during his time in the post on account of his corrupt and greedy ways. He was considered ‘beyond measure eager, and during his office greatly affected by wealth’, and this can be seen in his guardianship of Arundell. No sooner was he holding the wardship than he was selling off parts of his inheritance. One of the first to receive anything was his brother! A few years later, Stapeldon sold the wardship to a local noble, and later, having no real connection to the boy, was still attempting to make a profit from the arrangement of his marriage into his own family.

To cut Walter Stapeldon a bit of slack, he did have a lot to contend with once Isabella of France and Roger Mortimer arrived to overthrow Edward II.

Walter de Stapeldon - Bishop of Exeter

9/4/2025

Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter and twice Lord High Treasurer was born on the 1st February 1265 (1) in Stapeldon, Cookbury (2) in Devon. His father, William Stapeldon, a wealthy freeholder had previously moved to the parish and taken his name from the manor he farmed. Walter was the younger son. His elder son was Richard de Stapeldon, a judge and Justice of the Assizes. His daughters were Joan, who married Thomas Kaignes, Douce who married William Hereward, and a daughter who married John Prudhome.

Under the system primogeniture, the eldest son inherited the family estates and the youngest were required to make their own way in the world, either studying law or taking up a position within the church. Walter Stapeldon was educated at Oxford University, he is first mentioned there in 1286 where he is described as a ‘master’, this suggests that he had already graduated with a degree from the university. In 1300, he can be found in an official capacity under Thomas Bytton, Bishop of Exeter. Within five years he was a canon and precentor at Exeter Cathedral, and by 1306 he had graduated as a doctor of canon and civil law. These qualifications led to a career in royal service where he went on several diplomatic missions in Gascony. Following the death of Thomas Bytton in 1307, it was Stapeldon who was his successor. He was consecrated at Canterbury on the 13th October 1308 and enthroned at Exeter early in December. John Prince, in the Worthies of Devon, wrote of Stapeldon's enthronement "Before him Sir William Courtenay, Knt, his steward; after him followed abundance of gentlemen of place and quality. The whole street whereon he walked was covered with black cloth, which, as soon as he was passed over, was taken up again, and given to the poor. When he came to the entrance into the close of the cathedral, called Broadgate, he was received by the canons and vicars choral in their habits, who, singing the Te Deum as they went along, led the new prelate to the church with great pomp and solemnity, and placed him in the episcopal throne. Thus ended, they all hasten to a splendid feast, prepared by the bishop for abundance of nobility, clergy, and others, at the expense well near of one year's value of the bishoprick, which in those days amounted very high."

In 1294, Stapeldon can be found as rector of Aveton Gifford in Devon, and he appears in several records in connection with his home country and the neighbouring County of Cornwall. As Bishop of Exeter Stapeldon he was granted several wardships - an appointment as guardian of fatherless minors of English nobles. One young man was eight year old John Arundell of Lanhurne in Cornwall whose father had died between 1306 and 1309. Arundell's wardship had been granted to Stapeldon in 1309, an he was quick to sell some of his charges land. One of the first recipients was his brother Richard who received an acre of land and the advowson of the Church of St Columba in the town of St Columb Major, and Stapeldon himself would later recieve, in the form of a 'gift' the whole of the town itself.

In 1311/12, a case was brought against Stapeldon by Thomas Lercedeakne and heard at the Court of Kings Bench by William de Bereford. The case was most certainly linked to the wardship of Arundell. This plea mentioned selling the wardship for £100 and certain lands that went with it, it is likely that a promise had been made, monies paid and then Stapeldon attempted to renay on the deal or extract more money. Stapeldon lost the case and was forced to 'remit and quitclaim' costs. Just over a year later Walter Stapeldon did sell the wardship of John Arundell to the aforementioned Thomas Lercedeakne for £100 (3) Wardships were a lucrative business, and Stapeldon made one last attempt to profit from this family. In 1316 he tried twice, unsuccessfully, to marry John Arundell to his own niece Joan Kaignes (4)

On the 12th November 1320, after being made Lord Treasurer of England in the September, the king granted him the power of hue and cry (5) in the county of Cornwall. The king's favour also brought him the lordship of the Hundred of Budleigh in which he was able to grant two new fairs in in the town of Crediton and one in Ashburton, Chudleigh and Clist, and it is written of him that there is ‘ample testament to his dilgence in visiting he diocese, and how attentive he was to the adminstration of holy orders’ (6) One of his last duties in the West Country was in September of 1324 when he was at Lawhitton (7) where, on the 9th August, he addressed the Dean and Chapter of Cornwall, stressing the need to enforce standards and order within the church. He also pointed out the neglected state of several of the parish churches, ordering the clergy to look into the substantial repairs needed. At the same time, he granted the village a Wednesday market.

Exeter College, Oxford founded by Walter Stapeldon in 1312

Walter Stapeldon was ‘anxious for the enlightenment of the public mind and the extension of the circle of knowledge.’ For this purpose, he purchased Hart Hall (referred to as Stapledon Hall) in Oxford to house twelve poor students. Later it became Exeter Collage, here his intention was to educate clergy for his diocese, and during the first centuries the college drew students from mainly Devon and Cornwall.

On a national level Stapeldon’s star was on the rise. He is known to have attended parliament, missing no sittings between 1313 and his death. In 1315 he was appointed to Edward II’s council and was one of the king’s most loyal supporters, and despite many of the country’s bishops disliking both Hugh Despencers, Walter Stapeldon was not one of them. Kathryn Warner (8) writes of Stapledon ‘Bishop Walter was sometimes seen in the 1320s merely as a creature of the two Hugh Despensers’ which she says was ‘unfair and inaccurate’ he was, she continues ‘too intelligent and able to be merely a yes-man of the king and his over-mighty chamberlain Hugh the Younger.’

Walter Stapeldon’s support of the king and his favourites was ultimately his undoing. One of his early connections with the Isabella and Mortimer affair was in 1323 when he was ordered by the king to take over from Stephen Segrave, 3rd Baron Segrave, under whose watch rebel Roger Mortimer escaped from the Tower of London. Mortimer eventually fled to France, followed a year later by Isabella. Walter Stapeldon was disliked by Edward’s queen, and blamed when the king deprived her of money, and confiscated all her land's property, which included Cornwall. Stapeldon unpopular in London too, and in July 1325, he was dismissed as Lord Treasurer of England and replaced by William Melton. He was accused, justly I think, of avarice and corruption (9) He was ultra modum cupidus et durante officio suo uehementer dives effectus (beyond measure eager and during his office greatly affectd by wealth) Despite that, and maybe to get him out of the way, Edward ordered that he accompany Isabella and Edward, Prince of Wales, later Edward III, to France on his behalf to do homage to the new French king, Charles IV. It was while Isabella was in France that history tells us that she conspired with the exiled Roger Mortimer to overthrow her husband. Isabella and Mortimer’s invasion of England would lead to riots in the capital, the capture and execution of the Despencers, the abdication of Edward II and the gruesome death of Walter Stapeldon.

Stapeldon’s death, on the 15th October 1326, was a horrific one. It appears he returned home from France in fear of his life, and in London he encountered a mob as he was riding home along Eldeadanes Lane with his steward John Padyinton and his nephew William Walle (10) Shouts of ‘traitor’ could be heard above the noise, terrified, the three men rode at speed to St Paul’s Cathedral but did not make it through the door because they were recognised All three were captured and pulled from their horses, striped and beheaded (11) Walter Stapeldon’s head was presented to Isabella at Gloucester and bodies buried in ‘rubbish outside the new episcopal residence, afterwards called Exeter House, then in the process of erection’ (12) John Leland, the Tudor antiquary translated a French chronicle, written by William de Pakington in which he wrote "but after xi. weeks, at the request of Queue Isabel's lettres, the bishop's body was carried to the church thereby, ajid after to Excestre, and the two esquires' bodyes were carreyed to St. Clement's Chirch, and there buried."

It was at Exeter Cathedral that Stapeldon was finally laid to rest.

Walter Stapeldon was a generous benefactor of Exeter Cathedral, and his magnificent tomb can be seen in the cathedral to the left of the alter. Another spectacular piece of religious art, the eighteen metre high Bishops Throne, made of oak felled in Devon was commissioned by Stapeldon in 1312.

Footnotes
1  His own deed, dated Exeter, 25th February, 1323, states that his birthday occurred on the first of that month: ''prout ex parentum relatione didicimus."
2  Devon - W G Hoskins – p375 - Manor of Stapeldon, now a farmhouse, on the site of a 13th 14th century manor house.
3  Letters Patent - Westminster, the fifth Ides of March, in the eight year of the reign of King Edward (11th March 1314/15)
4  Register of William Stapeldon - p34
5 Statute of Winchester 1285 - Anyone who witnessed a crime shall make hue and cry, and that the hue and cry must be kept up against the fleeing criminal from town to town and from county to county, until the felon is apprehended and delivered to the sheriff.
6 Itinerary - Register of Walter Stapeldon - P547
7 Lawhitton anciently had been the occasional residence of the Bishops of Exeter - In 1261 there were some substantial religious buildings.
8  Edward II: The Murder of Walter Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, 15 October 1326
9 Vita Edwardi Secundi
10  Reports and Transactions of the Devonshire Association – The Memoir of Walter Stapeldon -p450
11  ‘He was clubbed or hammered over the head (percusserunt in capite) and 'cruelly dragged' half-conscious through the churchyard into Cheapside, where a butcher whose name was apparently Robert of Hatfield beheaded him with a bread-knife' Kathyn Warner
12  Reports and Transactions of the Devonshire Association – The Memoir of Walter Stapeldon -p450

John Segrave - 2nd Baron Segrave

1/4/2025

John Segrave, 2nd Baron Segrave, was an English military commander who fought in campaigns in Wales and in the first Scottish Wars of Independence. His most important role was his involvement with the execution of William Wallace.

John Segrave - Sable, a lion rampant, argent, crowned.

Wallace was handed over to Segrave following his capture, and he had escorted him to London and been put at the head of the special commission to try him. He was also responsible for Wallace's custody during his imprisonment, had pronounced the sentence of treason against him and had attended his execution in London in the summer of 1305.

Trial of William Wallace at Westminster Hall - William Bell Scott

These were cruel times, and men like Wallace, who was deemed to be a traitor, met a barbaric death. His death was a punishment, but it was also a message. This message was the fate of his body, which was divided into quarters and despatched to Scotland for his supporters to see, and it was Segrave's job to transport Wallace's limbs to be displayed in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth.

Invereted Shield of Stephen Segrave

John Segrave's came from a long line of important English Barons. His father had been wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Evesham and his great grandfather, Stephen Segrave was Chief Justicar and Controller of the Tower of London during the reign of Henry III.

Henry de Tracy and the Devon Manor of Lapford

9/2/2025

Nicholas Vincent, a Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia wrote in 2004 that the descent of the de Tracy’s is a ‘veritable mare’s nest, from which few genealogists have emerged unscathed’ and how right he was! If an expert can say that, what chance does an enthusiastic amateur like me have?

Arms of de Tracy: Or, a lion passant sable between two bends gemelles gules

Firstly, my interest in this family is regarding one Henry de Tracy who was the overlord of the manor of Lapford, a parcel of the barony of Torrington, held by my ancestor Richard Umfreville, and secondly the feudal baronies of Bradninch, Barnstaple and Torrington. A Henry de Tracy is known to have held these baronies, or parts of them during the reigns of King Stephen, Henry II and King John. There is a Henry de Tracy who died in 1165 and there is a Henry, his great-grandson, who died in 1274, however ‘my’ Henry appears not to be either of them. He had been quite elusive until I looked into the life of William de Tracy, one of the four murderers of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. I discovered, to my delight, that he had a son named Henry, this Henry is the one I have been looking for.

Miniature of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket c 1430 – 1440, Harley MS 2900, f. 56v

In 1180, some ten years after his father died in the Holy Land, Henry, later named Henry the Hunchback* appears holding the aforementioned Devon manor of Lapford where he is said to have ‘enlarged the Norman church.’ It would seem that the families of the four murderers inherited their guilt and made amends with charitable donations and repaired or enlarging churches in their manors as a form of penance. In Henry de Tracy’s case, the church of All Saints in Lapford received a brand-new tower, and later when the cult of Becket took off, it would be rededicated and its name changed to St Thomas of Canterbury.

St Thomas of Canterbury, Lapford, Devon. Photo Credit Philip Halling

Henry de Tracy held the manor of Lapford until it passed to the crown and in 1189 when it was returned to the aforementioned Richard Umfreville

* In 1236, an inquisition into the Devon manor of Morton (Morton Hampstead) we can find Henry referred to as a hunchback:

‘... the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury, for which deed he went into exile and the barony became the escheat of King Henry the king's ancestor. The same William had a son Henry de Tracy, le Bozu (a derogatory French term for a person with kyphosis or an abnormal convex curvature of the spine) was born in Normandy…’ - Inquisition Post Mortem, Saturday after St. Edmund the King, 4 Edw. I.

John Bradshaw

20/1/2025

In 1649, John Bradshaw, lawyer and politician was made president of the parliamentary commission to try King Charles I. He was also President of the High Court of Justice for his trial which began on the 20th January 1649. When the trial began the king refused to recognise the authority of the court and would not plead, and despite his protests Charles I was found guilty and condemned to death on the 26th.

Bradshaw called the king a 'tyrant, traitor, murderer, and a public enemy' and refused him the right to speak. Charles' death warrant was signed by fifty-nine commissioners.

The fear of attack saw Bradshaw accompanied by a personal guard. He carried a sword at his side and wore a velvet covered broad-brimmed, bullet-proof beaver hat lined with steel. He also wore armour underneath his robes.

Bradshaw's hat - held at the Ashmolean Musuem Oxford

Despite his reputation as the 'viper from hell' or 'god's battleaxe' John Bradshaw died in his bed in 1659, unrepentant of the 'murder of a king' declaring that he would be "the first man in England to do it" if he was called upon to try a king again. He was buried in Westminster Abbey where he lay for ten years. However, an avenger arrived in the form of Charles's son Charles II, and on the anniversary of his father's execution Bradshaw's body was exhumed and hung in chains for three days, he was then decapitated and his head was displayed on pikes at Westminster Hall and his body thrown into a pit.

Bradshaw's poor wife, Mary Marbury was also exhumed from the abbey and reburied in a common pit at St Margaret's in Westminster along with other followers of Oliver Cromwell.

Robert Cecil Ist Earl of Salisbury

3/11/2024

Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, is viewed in history as an 'archetypal, shadowy, creepy man' who 'operated quietly, but dangerously in the shadows.' Born on the 1st June in 1563, he was physically frail and small in stature with a curvature of the spine, and despite the pain he must have endured, he devoted himself to the service of the crown following in the footsteps of his father. He entered parliament in 1534, and very quickly established himself, but was not as popular.

Robert Cecil was the son of Elizabeth I's chief minister Lord Burghley, he was a courtier, a successful politician, and an administrator who took over his father's role in government when he became too ill to do the job himself. In 1596, Cecil became Elizabeth's secretary and out-maneuvered her favourite Robert Devereux resulting the what history calls Essex's Rebellion, thus eliminating any rivals to his position as the queen's minister. He was also responsible for the smooth transfer of the crown to James VI of Scotland on Elizabeth's death in 1603. On the succession of James to the English throne, he temporarily lost some of his influence as James had been a supporter of Essex, but the king came to trust and rely on Cecil, eventually calling him his 'little beagle'. In 1605 Cecil quashed yet another rebellion - the infamous Gunpower Plot, although it is thought that Cecil was actually behind the plot with the aim of convincing James that he should not trust those of the Catholic persuasion.

Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury 1602. NPG 107

As well as a bit of political intrigue Cecil was a dab hand at entertaining, welcoming both Elizabeth and James to his home, he had an eye for the arts, like collecting paintings and even swapped one of his homes for one of the kings. However, the burden of work eventually wore him down and in the spring of 1612, he complained of being "in great pain and even greater wretchedness of mind" and following a trip to take the waters in the town of Bath, he died on the 24th of May in 1612 of cancer.

How sad is it then that both Elizabeth I and James I referred to Cecil in an unkind manner, Elizabeth is said to have called him her pygmy and a monkey, and James called him a beetle, and after all he had done for them too! It is highly likely that Shakespeare was referring to Robert Cecil, as the unpopular hunchback, when he was writing his play Richard III, and this is captured very well in the 2011 film Anonymous where he is portrayed as a small dark creature, underhand, and skulking.

Robert Cecil is buried in St Etheldreda's Church, Hatfield in Herefordshire. His tomb, seen below, deserves a blog of its own!

St. Ethelreda, Hatfield Tomb of Sir Robert Cecil, 1st. Earl of Salisbury: Credit John Myers

Le Bossu (The Hunchback)

29/10/2024

In the world of fiction the character of Manthara, an Aaya in the 6th BCE Hindu story Ramayana, is depicted as ‘hunch-backed, ugly and antagonistic in appearance’. In Victor Hugo’s story The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the residence of Paris are afraid of Quasimodo because of the way he looks. In history there are those who suffered the same indignity. King Richard III is one being vilified for centuries and depicted as a cruel hunchback.

Richard III's scoliosis is first mentioned in 1490 by historian John Rous ~ ‘unequal shoulders, the right higher and the left lower’ but it is Shakespeare’s king ‘…deformed, unfinished, sent before my time’ that we remember. However, Richard III wasn’t the only person in history to have suffered from a curved spine and mimicked for it, Henry, the son of William de Tracy, one of the four knights who set upon and murdered Thomas Becket was another.

In 1276, Henry de Tracy was referred to as le *bozu in an inquisition into the Devon manor of Morton (now Mortonhampstead) which was his father’s principal manor.

‘Morton. The manor, tenure unknown for, William de Tracy who held the barony of Braneys and Morton of the king in chief, took part (fuit in auxilium) in the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury, for which deed he went into exile and the barony became the escheat of King Henry the king's ancestor. The same William had a son Henry de Tracy, le Bozu, born in Normandy, who long after came to Geoffrey son of Peter, chief justice of England, grandfather of John son of John, praying him to aid him in recovering his inheritance…’ - Inquisition Post Mortem, Saturday after St. Edmund the King, 4 Edw. I.

*Bozu or Bossu is a derogatory French term for a person with kyphosis or an abnormal convex curvature of the spine.

My family history research into the Umfreville family led me to Henry de Tracy, he held, among others, the manor of Lapford in Devon. Here, in 1180, he granted the village a market/fair. By 1184 Lapford had passed to the Umfreville's and descended to John Umfrevilles in 1241.

Thomas Cook: Father of English Tourism

7/9/2024

On the 18th July 1892, Thomas Cook, preacher, businessman and forefather of English tourism, died at his home in Leicester.

Thomas Cook was born in 1808 in the Derbyshire town of Melbourne, he began his working life at the age of ten in a local market garden and later as a cabinet maker. In his mid-twenties he became involved with the Temperance Movement, a society that promoted moderation and abstinence in the use of alcohol, he organised meetings and anti-drink marches. It was while Cook was "walking from Market Harborough to Leicester to attend a meeting of the Temperance Society" that he came up with the idea of the excursion which led to the foundation of the travel agent company Thomas Cook and Son in 1872.

Also born and living in Melbourne at the same time as Cook's family, were my 3x great grandparents George and Anne Tivey. An incident in Anne's life, a generation before Thomas Cook was born, would bring Anne, in her later years, into the Temperance movement, Anne knew too well the perils drunkenness could bring. Anne and George's marriage was a short one, the entry in the Melbourne burial register explains why:

“George Tivey was kill’d by a fall in ye belfry, being taken up by ye rope as he was ringing. He languishe’d about 30 hours after ye accident. N.B. He was in Liquor.”

There is no other written evidence regarding George's accident, therefore we can only speculate whether or not he was a serious drinker or how it affected Anne and their marriage. George would have certainly died at home, leaving her a widow at twenty-five and a baby to bring up, however, what would keep Anne going was her religion.

The growth of Methodism in the second half of the 18th century, the teachings of the Baptist church, and its involvement with the Temperance Movement would have been a comfort to Anne, she had, as we have seen, good reason to be been keenly involved with this movement and its attempts to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed within a community and in society.
Most of the movement's main supporters would have been women who were opposed to the domestic violence associated with alcohol abuse, and the large share of household income it could consume, which was especially burdensome to the low-income working class. Anne remarried, and she went on to have six children with her second husband John Calow.

As if to prove her commitment to their religion, six days before they were married, Anne and John were baptised at their local Baptist church.

The Mystery of the Blue Ring

25/2/2024

Robert and Philadelphia Carey were two of the many children of Henry Carey, the son of Mary Boleyn and Anne Morgan. This family connection made them cousins to Elizabeth I. Robert was an ambassador and courier, and Philadelphia had risen through the ranks of the Tudor court, and by 1590 she held the important position of Lady of the Bedchamber.

Tradition has that this brother and sister were tasked with informing James VI of Scotland of the death of Elizabeth I.

The story goes that James VI of Scotland had given Philadelphia a 'blue ring' with the instructions that it was to be sent to him as a notification of Elizabeth's death. On the 24th of March 1603, the queen died, and waiting under the window of the royal bed chamber was Robert. As soon as the queen had died, Philadelphia dropped the ring to Carey so he could take it to the Scottish king.

A great story but was it true?

We know that Philadelphia was with the queen, and Robert Carey is known to have been in Elizabeth's court in the days before her death, but he made nothing of the ring in his memoirs, he only states

* 'that I heard with my ears, and saw with my eyes I thought it my duty to set down, and affirm it for the through, on the faith of a Christian, because I know there have been many false lies reported of the ed and death of that good lady'

Robert Carey, Ist Earl of Monmouth

Robert Cecil, Ist Earl of Salisbury

I always thought Robert Cecil sent word to the king, perhaps he sent it via Carey. Cecil had, about three years before the queen's death, begun secret correspondence with James continually assuring him that he favoured his claims to the English throne. So, how did James VI hear of Elizabeth's death?

* The Memoirs of Robert Carey - https://archive.org/details/memoirsrobertca00orregoog/page/n11/mode/2up

Thomas Wilson - Tudor Privy Councillor

1/6/2023

A weekend away in our motorhome proved to be rather interesting. We stayed at a campsite just a few miles from the tiny hamlet of Strubby in Lincolnshire whose church we were able to visit before we headed home. To my delight, I discovered that a man of some note was from this tiny hamlet. Thomas Wilson was born there in 1523, the son of a landowner/farmer, he would go on to be a writer and Privy Councillor in the court of Elizabeth I.

Nothing is known of Thomas’s life until 1537 when he attended Eton College. Twelve years later he received an MA at Cambridge and went on to write what he is remembered for, that is Rule of Reason and The Arte of Rhetorique written in 1552 whilst staying at Scrivelsby, the Lincolnshire home of Edward Dymoke. It is possible that he or his family had connections to other prominent local families as later in his career he can be found as tutor to the sons of Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk whose family were at Ewerby. He would also tutor the children of John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland.

Wilson is known to have been tortured for his writings in regard to his views on the Protestant faith and to have tortured those of the Catholic faith. He also spied for Francis Walsingham.

Thomas Wilson was married twice, his first wife was Agnes Wintour, whose great nephews were Robert and Thomas Wintour, of the Gunpowder Plot fame and his second wife was Joan, daughter of Richard Epsom, one of the first men to be executed by Henry VIII.