Argentein Family
Argentein Family Part 1
Our family of Argentein starts with a William Argentein first appears when his father receives licence to entail the bulk of the family property on him and on Isabel, daughter of William Kerdeston, in May 1381. In the licence, Isabel is not called William's wife, so it seems likely that this settlement was made shortly before their marriage. Isabel seems to have been alive three years later, but unfortunately it is not clear how much longer she survived. Although it seems likely that she was the mother of William's son John, it is impossible to be sure? Not surprisingly, the settlement of the Argentein estates on John's illegitimate son William caused a great deal of friction between him and the lawful heirs. The conflict began even before John was buried. It was alleged by John's daughter Matilda and her husband Ivo Fitz Waryn, that the Prior of Wymondley was waylaid by 'certain evildoers' at Newmarket Heath near Babraham, while on his way to John's funeral at Halesworth.
John Argentein had entrusted certain deeds, in a sealed chest, to the Prior, and he was now forced to hand them over to William Argentein. The ruffians are said to have gone so far as to assault Ivo, and John's widow Margaret, at Halesworth, and to have disrupted the funeral service.
William's inheritance of the estates his father had settled on him was contested by his half-sister Matilda and the other coheirs. In 1383 and 1384 orders were issued for him to be given possession of the manors of Wymondley, Melbourn and Halesworth, until the king's court should decide between the parties. The court decided for William, and in May 1384 the escheator of the counties of Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk were ordered to give possession of the estates to him and his wife Isabel. Whatever his origins, it was not long before William, as a substantial landowner, achieved respectability. He served three times as knight of the shire for Suffolk, at the Parliaments held at Winchester in 1393, and at Westminster in 1395 and 1399.
In 1393 he was appointed sheriff and keeper of the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and Norwich Castle and he was again sheriff of Suffolk in 1401. In 1399, William Argentein was cupbearer at the coronation of Henry IV, although he had to dispute the right to perform this service with his half-sister's husband Ivo Fitz Waryn, who had apparently still not reconciled himself to the loss of his wife's inheritance. Probably this was why William obtained, in the following year, confirmation of the charter by which King Stephen had granted, two and a half centuries earlier, the manor of Wymondley and the service of cupbearer, to John de Argentein (apparently William's five-times-great grandfather). Strangely, the office seems to have been left unclaimed at the next coronation, that of Henry V in 1413. William's official duties were almost exclusively connected with Suffolk, and he had clearly continued, like his father, to live at Halesworth. In the next few years he received two more Suffolk commissions, and one concerning Norfolk. William also had military responsibilities. He received commissions of array in December 1399, July 1402 and twice in September 1403.
Perhaps it is appropriate that in 1415, close to the end of his life, we find William Argentein at Agincourt, in the retinue of the Earl of Suffolk, among the 'lances'. William Argentein married secondly after 1399, Joan the daughter and co-heir of John Hadley, a wealthy London grocer, and the widow of Sir William Pecche of Lullingstone, Kent. Joan died 21st March 1410. William Argentein seems to have died in February 1419. He had made his will at Halesworth nearly two years previously, but unfortunately it tells us nothing of his family. The will does not specify where he was to be buried, but a Latin note on one pedigree says 'died 15th February buried in the chancel of Halesworth, of which town he was lord as it is (said?) in his epitaphs'. His son John being already dead, William was succeeded by his grandson John, then a boy of six. William left a widow, Margery, who seems to have been previously the widow of John Hervey of Thurleigh, and the daughter of Ralph Parlys. Soon after his death, a provisional grant was made to Margery, of the custody of his lands during the minority of the heir, and of the marriage of the heir, for which she was to pay 200 marks. However, as 'no agreement could be made' with her, the custody and marriage were granted in May 1419, under similar conditions, to John Hotoft, Thomas Aleyn and John Fray. Margery was later granted dower, including the manor and advowson of Halesworth, the manors of Wissett, Great Wymondley and Wallington, and a third of the manors of Little Wymondley and Weston. Margery died on 28th September 1427, having made her will the previous April. In her will, she wishes to be buried in Elstow nunnery, and her monumental brass still remains there. This is the only depiction surviving of any of the Argentein family, and shows her wearing the widow's weeds of the early 15th century. As well as his son John, William had issue: Another son, William, who is mentioned in William's. Inquisition Post Mortem. Apparently a third son, Giles, presumably a child of William's second wife Joan, as he is named as a beneficiary in the will of her father, John Hadley, in 1405 (Roskell). Possibly a daughter Katherine, shown in pedigrees as the daughter of his last wife Margery, and the wife of (?John) Berneye. (A Katherine Berneye does appear as the godmother of Joan, the daughter of John Argentein, in June 1413, but chronologically she could hardly be Margery's daughter.)
Argentein Family Tree
Heraldic Arms of the Argentein Family.
Argentein Family Part 2
Of John Argentein, the son of William, we know virtually nothing, because he died in his father's lifetime. The only contemporary document in which he appears is his quit claim, to Robert Newport and others, of his rights in his father's lands in Fordham, 'Wethermundforde' (Wormingford) and Bergholt Sackville in Essex, in June 1412. We know from later evidence that John married, before 1411, Margery the daughter of Sir William Calthorpe, of Burnham Thorpe, and had by her three children: Elizabeth, who was born 11th May 1411. Joan, who was born 24th June 1413. John, his heir, of whom below. We know that John's wife Margery was the daughter of William Calthorpe (of Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk), because she is so named in William Argentein's Suffolk. Margery had settled the manors of Gisleham and Chalgrove on William and trustees for life, in return for an annuity of £20. Presumably these manors had been settled by William on John and Margery at their marriage, and she consequently held a life interest in them. We also know that Margery was the mother of John's children from the detailed statements made in 1427 proving the age of the daughters Elizabeth and Joan. The first of these refers to 'Margaret Merwyn, the midwife of the same Margery, mother of the said Elizabeth'; and since Elizabeth was the eldest of the children, Margery must have been the mother of all three of them. Joan's proof of age provides a vivid picture of a 15th century baptism (one man carrying salt in a silver cellar, with a towel, another carrying a basin and ewer to wash the rector's hands, and four more standing by the font with burning torches), and a moment of unexpected drama: as the midwife carried the baby back to the manor house 'a certain large oak standing in the aforesaid manor before the door of the aforesaid hall suddenly fell, and one branch of the tree touched the midwife'.
By 1422, Margery had remarried to Walter Aslak (Aslake) of Sprowston. This Walter has earned a small place in history as a deadly enemy of William Paston, who had annoyed him by defending the Prior of Norwich in an action brought by Aslak, concerning the advowson of Sprowston. Following the brutal murder of one John Grys and his son in 1424 at Wighton, Aslak and his servant Richard Kyllynworth posted bills on the gates and churches of Norwich, threatening to murder and dismember William Paston, his clerks and his servants, 'as John Grys in the same form was slain.' Disputes between the adversaries continued for several years, with Paston writing in March 1426, 'I pray the Holy Trinity deliver me of my three adversaries, this cursed Bishop for Bromholm, Aslak for Sprouston, and Julian Herberd for Thornham.' (See Aslake family.) . It seems that Margery was still living in 1459, when she is mentioned (as Margery formerly the wife of John Argentein) in the will of William Alington, her son-in-law, as holding a life-interest in the manor of Gisleham. Presumably she was dead by November 1466, when the manor was held by William's son John, the twin of Joan, the younger of his sisters, although John, the son of John Argentein, succeeded his grandfather William in 1419, when he was said to be 5 or 6 years old (this suggests that he was there is no hint of this in her proof of age). But the following July he died, leaving his two sisters as coheirs. Arrangements were swiftly made for Elizabeth and Joan to be married to two brothers (as, curiously enough, their namesakes, also daughters of a John de Argentein, had been a century earlier). Their husbands were to be William and Robert Alington, the sons of William Alington of Horseheath. In February 1423, William Alington entered into two recognisances, one for 800 marks to Margery, the widow of the girls' grandfather William Argentein, and another for 200 Nicholas Huwysshe and John Tolle, (the last two had been appointed feoffees by William Argentein in 1417). The marriages had certainly taken place by 1427, when Margery Argentein died, and after Elizabeth and Joan had proved their age, her dower estates were divided between the two couples. However, the younger daughter, Joan, did not survive long. She died on 15th May 1429, aged 15, and left no children. There was formerly a monumental brass commemorating her in the Chancel of Horseheath Church. Thus Elizabeth became the sole heir to the Argentein estates. They passed through her to her son, John Alington, and were to remain in the Alington family for more than 250 years.
Image:
Heraldic Arms Argentein impaling Calthorpe Family.
Heraldic Arms Argentein impaling Aslake Family.
Battle of Agincourt, France.
