Sir Adam FitzJohn, of Rippingale, Hanthorpe

Douglas Richardson - https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/soc.genealogy.m...

See also attached document.

Sir Walter Hungerford, K.B., K.G. (died 1449), of Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset, and Heytesbury, Wiltshire, Speaker of the House of Commons, Steward of the Household to Kings Henry V and Henry VI, Lord High Treasurer of England.

Birch provides the following seal for Sir Walter Hungerford:

Seal dated 1447 - A shield of arms, couché: two bars, in chief three roundels [HUNGERFORD]. Crest on a helmet and ornamental mantling, out of a ducal coronet, a pepper garb between two sickles erect. Supported by two standards, that on the right charged with per pale indented, a chevron, for HUNGERFORD, and HEYTESBURY; that on the left, barry of six, HUSSEY. Within a carved bilobe ornamented on the inner edge with small ball flowers and cusps or engrailings [Reference: Birch, Catalogue of Seals in the British Museum 3 (1894): 132].

A similar seal of Walter Hungerford is attached to an earlier document dated 10 Henry V [1422] when he held the office of Steward of the Household to King Henry V. It bears a shield bearing two bars, and in chief three roundels, on either side of the shield a sickle.

J. J. Howard adds the following particulars regarding the origin of the Hungerford family arms:

"According to Hoare's Hungerfordiana, page 6, Walter de Hungerford, grandfather of the lord steward, married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Adam Fitz John, of Chevill, co. Wilts, whose arms were, Sable, two bars argent, and in chief three plates, which coat was assumed by this lady's descendants, or indeed by her husband. And this is to some extent borne out by the Roll temp. Edward II. which gives the coat in question to Sir Adam Fitz John, of the county of Lincoln, while Jenyns' Ordinary, MS. Harl. 6589, partly printed by Nicolas as a Roll temp Edw. III., assigns the same coat to Walter Hungerfield, the field, however, being azure instead of sable. The sickle is a well-known Hungerford badge." [Reference: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 2nd ser. 5 (1871): 177-178].

The arms mentioned for Sir Walter Hungerford's ancestor, Sir Adam Fitz John, of Lincolnshire, are elsewhere assigned to him in Papworth's An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, pg. 28. However, inasmuch as the record of Sir Adam Fitz John's arms derves him from Lincolnshire, it seems that Lincolnshire was his principal seat, not Wiltshire as alleged by Hoare.

Question is: Who is Adam Fitz John, of Lincolnshire? And what is his ancestry?

In answer to part of that question, the following abstract of anancient petition dated c. 1329-c. 1338 has been located in the helpful online National Archives Catalogue. This item indicates that Adam Fitz John and his wife, Elizabeth, held the manor of Ermesthorp, county unknown, which they evidently settled by fine, and, on their deaths, it was claimed that it "ought to descend" to their daughter, Elizabeth, wife of Walter Hungerford.

SC 8/53/2627 Online reference:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetail...

Petitioners: Walter de Hungerford and Elizabeth [de Hungerford] his wife. Addressees: King and council.

Places mentioned: Ermesthorp [unidentified]

Other people mentioned: Geoffrey Lescrop (Scrope), justice of King's Bench: Alice . . . stede [missing due to damage to ms]; Adam Fitz John, father of Elizabeth de Hungerford; Elizabeth [Fitz John] his wife, mother of Elizabeth de Hungerford

Nature of request: Walter de Hungerford and Elizabeth his wife request execution of a fine through which the manor of Ermesthorp ought to descend to Elizabeth, on which they have sued a scire facias before Geoffrey Lescrop and his companions, justices of King's Bench, and which has been delayed for four years and more. Endorsement: The justices are to be ordered by a writ containing the effect of this petition to put the party to answer the scire facias in this case. END OF QUOTE.

So the name of Sir Adam Fitz John's wife, Elizabeth, has now been found. Next question is: Where is Ermesthorp?

... location is better known (and spelled) as Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire.

... A cursory search of possible locations for "Ermesthorp" owned by Sir Adam Fitz John has turned up a location named Harmthorpe (archaic spelling Hermesthorpe) situated in Aveland Wapentake in Lincolnshire.

If we accept that Sir Adam Fitz John was of Lincolnshire as stated by Jenyns' Ordinary and by Papworth, the county is right for "Ermesthorp" to be the same place as Harmthorpe, Lincolnshire.

...The online resource, Genuki, indicates that the hamlet of Hanthorpe (also called Harmthorpe) is situated in the parish of Morton by Bourne, Lincolnshire [Reference: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LIN/Morton]. I find that Hanthorpe also occurs in ancient records as Hermthorpe and Hermethorpe.

Now that a prospective identification has been made for Ermesthorp, the next step is to determine if Sir Adam Fitz John held property in this location.

As a followup to my original post, I'm now able to report that Sir Walter Hungerford's ancestor, Sir Adam Fitz John, living 1324, was in fact of Lincolnshire, not of Wiltshire as commonly thought to be the case. Sir Adam Fitz John's chief land holdings were situated at Rippingale and Kirkby Underwood, Lincolnshire [see Feudal Aids, 3 (1904):149]. Both of these properties lie nearby to Sir Adam's other known holding at Hanthorpe (in Morton by Bourne), Lincolnshire (also known as Ermesthorp). For a modern map showing the close proximity of all three of these localities, see the following weblink

Sir Adam Fitz John's family typically employed a patronymic for their surname which changed each generation, but they occasionally occur in the records simply as "de Rippingale" from their chief seat. Sir Adam Fitz John is represented under his patronymic name "Fitz John" in Moor, Knights of Edward I vol. 2 (H.S.P. 81) (1929): 42. However, his father, Sir John Fitz John, occurs under the name, Sir John de Repingale, in Moor, Knights of Edward I, vol. 4 (H.S.P.83) (1931): 117.

That the two men were son and father is confirmed by the fact that both men used the same arms, Sable two bars and in chief three roundels argent, and both men resided at Rippingale, Lincolnshire. For a visual depiction of Sir John de Rippingale's arms, see the following weblink for the Camden Roll:

http://perso.numericable.fr/~briantimms/rolls/CamdenD3.html

The arms of the Rippingale family were subsequently adopted by their descendants, the baronial Hungerford family of Somerset and Wiltshire.

As best I can determine, the link between the Rippingale family of Lincolnshire and the Hungerford family has never before been made in print.

The following is a preliminary pedigree of the ancestry of Elizabeth Fitz Adam, wife of Walter Hungerford:

• *1. Hugh, of Rippingale, Lincolnshire, died before 1259.
• 2. John Fitz Hugh, of Rippingale and Kirkby Underwood, Lincolnshire.
• occurs c. 1243-1259, died before 1281. He married Amabel _____, living
• 1281.
• 3. John Fitz John, Knt., of Rippingale, Lincolnshire, died testate
• 1298.
• 4. Adam Fitz John, Knt., of Rippingale, Hanthorpe (in Morton by
• Bourne), and Kirkby Underwood, Lincolnshire, occurs 1303-1324, died
• before 1333. He married (1st) Constance, probable daughter of Bernard
• de Brus. They had one son, John Fitz Adam. He married (2nd) Elizabeth
• _____. They had one daughter, Elizabeth (see below).
• 5. Elizabeth Fitz Adam, married Walter Hungerford.

As stated above, it appears that Sir Adam Fitz John was married twice and that he had a child by each marriage. His son by his 1st marriage, John Fitz Adam, evidently sold or conveyed the manors of Rippingale and Kirkby Underwood, Lincolnshire to John de Stonour and his wife, Maud, in or about Easter, 7 Edward III [1333] [see Genealogist, n.s. 9: 8; Lincolnshire Notes & Queries, 4 (1896): 38]. John Fitz Adam presumably died soon afterwards, leaving his half-sister, Elizabeth Fitz Adam, wife of Walter Hungerford, as his heir. Being an heir of the half-blood, her claim to her brother's lands at Hanthorpe was evidently disputed. Under normal circumstances, a sister of the half-blood was not allowed to inherit; however, it appears that Elizabeth Hungerford made her claim to Hanthorpe on the basis of a settlement by fine, not by inheritance. It is not known whether or not her claim was successful. In any event, the chief family properties at Rippingale and Kirkby Underwood were already in the hands of John de Stonour.

It should be mentioned that it would be correct to refer to Walter Hungerford's wife as Elizabeth Fitz Adam (or de Rippingale). I find that her half-brother was known as John Fitz Adam Fitz John de Rippingale.

Lastly, it should be noted that Sir Adam Fitz John, of Rippingale, Lincolnshire, living 1324, was a separate and distinct person from his contemporary, Adam Fitz John Fitz Simon, of Little Shoebury, Essex, who occurs 1298-1310. It was Adam Fitz John Fitz Simon who married Joan Grapnel, daughter and co-heiress of Henry Grapnel (or Grapinel), of Great Stambridge and Latchingdon, Essex. Moor's Knights of Edward I collapsed the records of the two men into one account, which unfortunately has caused unnecessary confusion.

For interest's sake, the following is a list of the 17th Century New World immigrants who descend from Sir Adam Fitz John, of Rippingale, Lincolnshire, living 1324:

Dorothy Beresford, Humphrey Davie, Anne Humphrey, Mary Launce, Percival Lowell, John Nelson, Thomas Owsley, Herbert Pelham, Edward Raynsford, Mary Johanna Somerset, John Stockman, John West, George Yate.

As a followup to my earlier posts, I'm now able to give more particulars regarding Hugh Fitz Alan, of Rippingale, Lincolnshire, who was the great-grandfather of Sir Adam Fitz John, of Rippingale.

My research indicates that Hugh Fitz Alan died sometime before 1230, when his widow, Ivette, and her three probable sisters, Maud (wife of David Anglicus), Agnes de Walecot, and Lucy de Iwarby unsuccessfuly claimed the right to present to the church of Walcot, Lincolnshire [Reference: F.N. Davis, Rotuli Hugonis de Welles Episcopi Lincolniensis A.D. 1209-1235, vol. 3 (Lincoln Record Society, 9) (1914): 186-187]. I assume that Ivette and the three other women were sisters and co-heirs of some unidentified individual, possibly William de Walcot, whose unnamed heirs are mentioned in the Pipe Rolls about 1210.

Ivette, widow of "Hugh Fitz Alan de Repinghall" was still living in 1245, when she is mentioned in a fine concerning 1-1/2 bovates of land in Morton, Lincolnshire (the parish in which Hanthorpe, Lincolnshire is located) [Reference: C.W. Foster, Final Concords of the County of Lincoln (Lincoln Record Society, 17) (1921): 8].

Hugh Fitz Alan (husband of Ivette) is quite possibly a grandson of an earlier Margery, widow of "Hugh filii presbiteri de Reppingehal'" [i.e., Hugh son of the presbyter (elder) of Rippingale]. This Margery figures in a fine dated 1212 involving land in Rippingale, Lincolnshire [Reference: Margaret S. Walker, Feet of Fines for the County of Lincoln for the Reign of King John, 1199-1216 (Pipe Roll Society, n.s., 29) (1954); 169]. If Margery can be proven to be the grandmother of Hugh Fitz Alan, this would push back the Rippingale pedigree still further in time. Hopefully, Fowler's article on the early Rippingale charters will shed some further light on this possible connection.

For now, [27 9 2006] the following is a revised pedigree of the ancestry of Elizabeth Fitz Adam de Rippingale, wife of Walter Hungerford:

1. Hugh Fitz Alan, of Rippingale, Lincolnshire, died before 1230. He married Ivette _____, living 1245. They had one son, John Fitz Hugh, Knt.

2. John Fitz Hugh, Knt., of Rippingale and Kirkby Underwood, Lincolnshire, occurs c. 1243-1259, died before 1262. He married Amabel _____, living 1281. They had two sons, John Fitz John, Knt., and Adam Fitz John.

3. John Fitz John, Knt. (also known as John de Rippingale), of Rippingale, Lincolnshire, adult by 1262, died testate 1298. He married _____. They had one son, Adam Fitz John, Knt.

4. Adam Fitz John, Knt., of Rippingale, Hanthorpe (in Morton by Bourne), and Kirkby Underwood, Lincolnshire, occurs 1303-1324, died before 1327. He married (1st) Constance, probable daughter of Bernard de Brus. They had one son, John Fitz Adam, living 1333.

He married (2nd) Elizabeth _____. They had one daughter, Elizabeth (see below).

5. Elizabeth Fitz Adam de Rippingale, married Walter Hungerford.

Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah