Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
RiCHARD BALDWIN2 (RObertI), probably the youngest son of Robert Baldwin, is the
Individual with whom both C. C. Baldwin and Col. Chester commenced their genealogies I; 1881 and 1884, respectively. It's apparent that they thought him older than John and the more notable, perhaps because of his association with The Manor of Dundridge or because of the larger number of hi s descendants assumed to be in New England.
Richard wrote his will in January, 1552, and it was proved the next month by his wife Ellen and eldest son, Henry, as executors, in the Court of the Archdeaconry, 6ii.,c!(Buckinghamshire. It describes him as of "Donrigge" in Aston Clinton and asks for .burial in the churchyard there. It makes bequests of 4d. to the poor box at Aston Clinton and to each godchild, servant, and tenant, as well as a ewe and a lamb to each of the children of one John Straces. It leaves the lease on Dundridge to Henry, with provision for his widow to remain unless she remarries. The residue of his
!Personal property is left to Ellen and Henry.
The will leaves the farm of Dongrove, which he had received from his father, to his son John. It leaves his tenements and their lands in Cholesbury, as well as the remaining years in a lease held from Master Xpofer Ashefyld, to his son Richard until these sons reach age 23, however, it provides that the rents from these lands ,and houses are left to Ellen and Henry toward bringing up his children. No lands are devisedised to Henry, but any that Richard held at death and that were not devised by his will would have gone to Henry by right of descent.
Richard held by lease the property known to history as The Manor of
' .. " Dundridge, which his will refers to only as a farm. This property had been granted by ,Henry VIII in 1544 to Sir John Baldwin, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, following the beheading of the former owner, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury and lord ! If the manor of Aston Clinton. By an indenture dated the following year, Sir John
leased the property to Richard for 99 years. These facts are given by Richard's ,great, great grandson, Edward Baldwin, in a 1663 lawsuit (Seversmith, p. 238). Based In Richard being in possession by virtue of this lease, the name coincidence has suggested to some that there was a family connection with Sir John. From the evidence of the 1522 Muster Roll for St. Leonards (Hay, p. 83), however, it is probable that the local Baldwins were leasing Dundridge long before it was sold to Sir John, and so
the king's granting it to a Baldwin in 1544 is a pure coincidence from which no support can be taken that Richard and Sir John were related. Lady Margaret was beheaded because of a suspected plot against Henry VIII by her sons, Henry and Richard Cardinal Pole, the king's second cousins, potential pretenders to the throne,and leaders of a Catholic faction. Considering her advanced age and, apparently, absence of any complicity in the plotting, her execution can be ranked as one of Henry's blackest deeds. The resale by the king to Sir John Baldwin took place during the period when Henry was selling off great numbers of confiscated church properties in order to rescue his almost bankrupt condition.
In his will, Richard describes himself as a "yeoman”. The Horizon Book of :the Elizabethan World gives us the following insight concerning the social position of this class:
"Although he was still considered the "nerve and sinew" of the realm, the English yeoman of the sixteenth century was no longer the humble, steadfast bumpkin who had drawn the longbow at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. ....• Legally a yeoman was still one who derived an annual income of at least forty shillings from freehold land. Through cautious husbandry, conservative investment, and land enclosure, however, and by charging exorbitant rents to tenant farmers, many yeomen had acquired considerable wealth and social position by the beginning of Elizabeth's reign."
The latter portion of this quotation is an historical indictment that might seem to apply to Richard. The truth of the matter is, however, that enclosure of arable land for raising sheep (putting a great many small farmers off the land) was a social factor primarily of the prior century, and St. Leonards was largely non-arable pasture to begin with. To further exonerate Richard, he was of course principally paying rent, not collecting it, although there are records of his sub-leasing some of the parcels he received under the lease from Sir John. Dickens (p. 214) makes it clear that although rents had to go up on new leases in keeping with the high inflation that characterized the period, the long-held view of terrible “rent-racking" during the mid-sixteenth century has been vastly overstated. From this author's examples it's more than likely that the rent for Dundridge was not increased during the entire period that the lease ran, and in fact, that the fixed rent was firmly protected under the law. That would have left Richard, and then his son Henry,
in the best of all worlds, for this was a period of rising farm prices, particularly
wool, amid high general inflation.
From the circumstances of the wool trade alone we can imagine that Richard was very successful. Not only was he able to lease a large farm from Sir John Baldwin, and hold it under his heirs, but he also held or acquired other lands that hE would leave to his sons. Col. Chester says that his leaving ten silver spoons to his son Henry “elevates him at once to a position superior to those by whom he was surrounded”1evates him at once to a position superior to those by whom he was surrounded". Col. Baldwin, in his current work of deciphering the MedievaI script of the Muster Roll of 1535 for all of Buckinghamshire, gives us a view of Richard's stature. In this Muster he finds that one of the four archers from Aston Clinton, lncluding St. Leonards, is listed as “sirunt to Richard Baldwyn" (probably meaning servant, in the broad sense). Further, a note records that Richard owned apparently the: only “payre of almen ryvett" in the parish. This was the yeoman”s armor of the day consisting of a vest with shoulder and thigh protection made of heavy leather plates riveted together loosely for flexibility.
Richard married Ellen Apoke, presumably in 1524, as noted by Mr. Woodman. Her will was dated in 1566.It's apparent that the families of John of The Hale and Richard of Dundridge remained very close, as Ellen wills that her daughters, Ceci1ye and Lettys, take the advice of their cousin George in choosing their husbands, and only secondarily the advice of "other of ther brethern"• To put some teeth into this, shE disinherits the girls if they don't take that advice.
Richard and Ellen had seven children. HENRY, the heir, John, and Richard are important and are listed below. Their daughters A1is and Agnes died relatively young, presumably before their mother's will of 1566 as they are not specifically named in it.
, Cecilye and Lettys lived out the century.
Notify Administrator about this message?
Followups:
|
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/baldwin/messages/6786.html | ||
 |
Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|