William Ufford

On the 15th February 1382, the Earldom of Suffolk fell into abeyance on the death of William Ufford when he collapsed and died whilst climbing the stairs into Parliament.

William Ufford - St Andrews Church in Wimpole Cambridgeshire

Ufford was highly regarded, he carried the royal sceptre at the coronation of ten year old Richard II, was a councillor during the king's minority and was one of Richard's men who put down the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.

William Ufford among the crowd at Richard II's coronation.

Three years after Ufford's death, part of the family estate and the Earldom of Suffolk passed to Michael de la Pole, William's cousin via sisters Catherine and Margaret Norwich, mother's to Pole and Ufford respectively. However, the vast majority of the Suffolk estate passed in accordance to Ufford's will to his sister Cecily, wife John Willoughby of Eresby in Lincolnshire.

William's father Robert, was granted the Earldom of Suffolk in its second creation in March 1337. The family take their name from their manor in Ufford in Suffolk, it being descended through the family of Peyton. The Ufford name died along with William in 1382, their bloodline however continued through three daughters.

The descendants of the de la Pole and the Willoughby families play important parts in history. Michael de la Pole's grandson William was blamed for the loss of French territories Maine and Anjou, a scapegoat who was exiled and murdered in 1450. The Willoughby's, in the form of Robert Well's, fought against Edward IV at Losecoat field in 1470 and fourteen year old Catherine Willoughbly would marry Charles Brandon.

William Ufford was buried at Campsey Priory, in Campsea Ashe, Suffolk.