Page under construction 3 June 2018 - please excuse any non-functioning links or lacking details
These Thirkelds and Williamsons may well not be my direct ancestors, but I think they were probably related in some way and I am trying to identify the link, if link there was. If I could show direct ancestry it would be lovely, because it would extend my paternal line back further, and connect it to a coat of arms. But the only possible direct link I have so far is dubious. I have got this genealogy from published records and studies of gentry genealogy in the 17th century and a bit before. This page covers those that seem to have lived at New Hall, in the parish of Crosthwaite in Cumberland, and primarily follows the Visitation of the Heralds to Cumberland, 1615.
Sir Lancelot THIRKELD, who would have lived in the 15th century More
His son John THIRKELD of Mehere More
His daughter and heir Elizabeth, who married John WILLIAMSON of Millbeck (died 1544) More
His son John (1508-58) of New Hall, whose first wife was Alice SALKELD of Pardshaw More
For research notes, click here.
There have been a number of Sir Lancelot THIRKELDs (or THRELKELDs), and I haven't yet positively identified this one with any that appear in other records. He came from a place beginning with M, variously rendered Mehere, Motherd, Milberton. There was a THRELKELD family of Melmerby in Cumberland, and theirs was the coat of arms given for this Sir Lancelot in the 'Williamson of Lincolns in Grange' entry in the book of the Heralds' Visitation to Middlesex (Argent on a maunch Gules a trefoil slipped Or--the trefoil being a mark of difference, absent in the arms of the main THRELKELD of Threlkeld line).
This Sir Lancelot would have lived in the 15th century, probably born in the first half, since his great-grandson was born in 1508.
Sir Lancelot had two sons, one was also Lancelot and was knighted in his turn, the other was John, detailed below
Sticking a research note here for now, there's a pedigree in W. Jackson, F.S.A (1889) 'The Threlkelds of Melmerby,' TCWAAS 1:10. (pp. 1-47). that is headed by a Lancelot THRELKELD buried at Melmerby and also not directly dated but implied to be 'end of the 15th century'. This would be about the right time for one of these Lancelots. The pedigree sets out his children, which do not include a John, but it must be possible that he was the younger Lancelot, whose marriage and children, if there were any, the Williamson pedigrees don't show. Jackson does say that he thinks the Threlkelds of Melmberby were a distinct branch of the family from at least the late 14th century.
Cumberland Families and Heraldry, by C Roy Hudleston and R S Boumphrey, CWAAS ES XXIII (hereafter CFH) mentions Christopher (c1495-1569) Lord of Melmerby. He looks a good match for the Christopher shown as son of Jacksons' Lancelot. CFH gives him uncles Humphrey (d. 1526, lord of the manor) and Roland (d 1565, rector) so Jackson's Sir Lancelot would have to be a brother of theirs. If the Visitation Sir Lancelot is the same Lancelot, then its John would be another brother and its first Sir Lancelot the father of all the brothers Humphrey, Roland, Lancelot and John.
John married Elizabeth HANFORD. She was the daughter and heir of Thomas HANFORD.
The Hanford arms showed a star (the Oxford visitation says an estoile of ten points, while Richard Mundy's Middlesex Williamson pedigree depicts a six-pointed star and tags it A[rgent], and the field S[able]). As Elizabeth was her father's heiress, heraldically (which I think means she had no brothers, or if she ever had any they and any children of theirs died before her) her children became entitled to quarter the Hanford arms with the Threlkeld arms from their father.
John and Elizabeth had a daughter and heir Elizabeth (or Isabel) probably by about 1490, who married John WILLIAMSON of Millbeck, presumably by 1508. Note that she, having no brothers, was herself an heraldic heiress and passed the combined Hanford/Thirkeld arms to her descendants in turn.
John WILLIAMSON, Elizabeth's husband, had arms himself. According to CFH (credited to CWAAS Old Series VI 104-5 and to JM Ewbank, Antiquary on Horseback, 1963), it was Argent on a chevron engrailed [invected in one illustration] between three trefoils slipped [Sable] as many crescents Or. The chevron is invected rather than engrailed in an illustration in Ewbank; the square brackets are in CFH, so I don't know how much weight to put on its testimony that both charges are Sable--Magna Britannia: Volume 5, Derbyshire gives those arms to CLAY of Criche, which existed in the male line in the 16th century. The Oxfordshire Visitation and Richard Mundy's Middlesex pedigree make the chevron Azure, rather than Sable. The Northamptonshire Visitation makes both the chevron and trefoils Azure.
John would have been born by about 1490; his parentage is not recorded in any old sources I have found. There are trees on the internet that fit him to ancestry, sometimes back for several more generations, but they do not seem to include the kind of evidence that could lead me to trust them.
John and Elizabeth had a number of children. I will list them in the order given in the Cumberland Visitations pedigree. Note that only the sons are placed in birth order by this; Alice could come anywhere in the sequence. I've added the one date given in CFH.
John, 1508, detailed below
Nicholas
Humphrey, who married a woman from the STONOR family of Stonor in Oxfordshire, and whose descendants lived in Oxfordshire and further south: details here
Anthony
Thomas
Alice, who married Robert BRAITHWAITE of Ambleside in Westmorland
Since they were descended from an armigerous father and an heraldic heiress, these children could combine their parents' arms. They displayed the Williamson arms in the first and fourth quarters of the shield (top left and bottom right to the viewer), Thirkeld in the second (top right) and Hanford in the third (bottom left).
According to CFH, John WILLIAMSON senior died in 1544 owning the manor of Crosthwaite and houses and lands there and in Keswick, Thornthwaite, Portinscale, Braithwaite and Cockermouth, which descended to his son John (see below). Other records date his purchase of the manor to 1540 (more or less: 32 Henry VIII; it had previously belonged to Fountains Abbey which was dissolved and its lands appropriated by the king in 1539) and state that Vicar's Island in Derwentwater was included.
The younger John's first wife was Alice, the daughter of John SALKELD. Their eldest son was born about 1536 (according to CFH) so they presumably married by then (when John was about 28).
A little aside on the SALKELDs: Alice was the daughter of John and the sister of Thomas. John was of 'Pradsey' in the Cumberland visitation, which is now I think known as Pardshaw, a couple of valleys over from where the Williamsons lived. John died by 1543 and Thomas was his heir. In another document he is described as of Corkby [Corby] and holding the manor of Mosargh [Mosser, adjacent to Pardshaw] in 1543. The SALKELDs of Corby were a knightly family, with some genealogical details in CFH; I can't find anyone mentioned in it who fits a Thomas who died childless in the 1540s, but that is what appears to have happened. The Cumberland Visitation says Alice was Thomas's heir, and documents show Mosser being transferred from John WILLIAMSON to another in 1548, so I infer he had acquired it as the inheritance of his wife by then. John was perhaps a nephew or cousin of Sir Richard SALKELD of Corby and Little Salkeld, who was High Sheriff of Cumberland a number of times and died in 1501. The arms are different though: the Williamson pedigree in the Oxford Visitation gives the Salkeld arms as per pale Argent and Vert, three bull's faces cabossed Gules, whereas CFH gives all its Salkeld families Vert fretty Argent or some fairly small variation thereof.
According to the Williamson pedigree in the Oxford Visitation, John's wife and Alice's mother was Katherine, daughter of Sir Christopher CURWEN. CFH gives a few men of that name, belonging to 'the oldest family in Cumberland'. The most likely to be Katherine's father is perhaps the last, who was High Sheriff of Cumberland 1524-6 and 1533, and had a son Thomas in 1494. The CURWENs were already connected by marriage to the SALKELDs.
Back to the WILLIAMSONs. John and Alice's children were (again, in order according to the Cumberland Visitation, which may or may not be strict about the order of the daughters, and again will be putting the son and heir first regardless of where in the sequence he was actually born):
Thomas, born about 1536 according to CFH, who married Bridget WILLIAMSON, probably a relative, and moved to her county of Northamptonshire: details here
Mary, who married Thomas SKELTON of Cumberland
Eleanor, who married Gawen RADCLIFFE of High Hill near to Crosthwaite--the Radcliffes were the local nobility but Gawen may have been up to four or five degrees removed from the titles.
Elizabeth, who married Henry PEARSON of Embleton in Cumberland
Isabel, who married Oswald CRAKEPLACE of Crakeplace Hall in the parish of Dean, Cumberland (and who therefore became my direct ancestor by another route)
Both John's father and Alice's brother appear to have died in the 1540s, so they would have inherited two families worth of property. However, Alice must have died within a few years after this, because John had a second wife. The Visitation does not give her first name, but says she was daughter of John THWAITES, of Varigg in Cumberland. They had three more children:
Anthony
Nicholas
Dorothy
John in his turn died, in 1558 according to CFH.
If you are interested in this line I'll be very pleased indeed to hear from you. Email me at deletethis.ianwilliamson161@gmail.com but delete everything up to and including the first dot, leaving just my name and number @ service provider. Please do not delete the automatically-generated subject line, so that I know your email is not spam. You can add more to the subject if you like but if you delete what appears I may not read your mail.