Ralph de “Radulphus” KIRKETON

• General Notes
  • b. The moft ancient Lord of this Manor, that I have met with, was Raph de Sanfto Paulo, who had a Daughter and Heir called Dionyfia, married to Sir Alexander Bozon, Of Kirketon in Hoyland, Knight, in the Time of King RICHARD the First,  [ 1180 –1199 ] who left it to a Son called Raph de Kirketon, who dying without issue, his Brother Hugh Bozon, de Kirketon, was his Heir, and left to Simon de Kirketon his Son, who also had a Son and Heir tailed John de Kirketon, but he died without Issue, and so this Manor became the  Inheritance of his three Sifters, Margaret, Wife of John, Son of Raph Chaumpneys, of Quaplade, Alice, Wife of Fulc  Everard, of Sutton, the Black, and after of William, Son of Hugh del Flete ; and Joane, first Wife of Peter Hodle, and after of the Elder John, Son of Sir Reginald de Aflafcton, Knight, who passed this Manor by Fine, 20 E.
    3. to the said Thomas de Sibthorp, having obtained the Shares of all the Co-heirs ; and Reginald, Son of William del Woodhouses, c, upon whom his Uncle the faid John,
    elder Son of Sir Reginald de Aflafcton, had settled the Reversion of it; after the Death of himself  and the said Joane his Wife without Issue, and one, William Stan-
    fords, confirmed his faid Uncles Eftate, made of it to the faid Thomas de Sibthorp, with all the Appurtenances in Sibetborp, Shelton, and Kniveton.
    
    Jonathan:
    It is important to realize that Raph de Sancto Paulo's estate was the Manor of Sibethorpe, co. Notts. just one mile away from Screveton, where Gilbert de Kirketon had been established from before 1207.  I am almost certain that Sir Alexander was probably a nephew of Gilbert's, which was how he came to meet and marry Dionysia.  Sir  Alexander had dropped the "Bozon" name evidently soon after he acquired Sibethorpe, but he evidently eventually inherited his father's lands in Kirketon-in-Hoyland, because he maintained a "court" there until his death in London in 1285, when he was interred in the Church of the Gray Friars' there.
    
    Among the details he has provided is the following pedigree, taken from the Patent Rolls of 1348: 
    1. Sir Alexander Bozon de Kirketon in Hoyland, knight [who died 1285 and buried at Grey Friars, London]; married Dionisia, daughter and heiress of Ralph de St Paul, of Sibthorpe. Notts;
    issue:  2a. Ralph de Kirketon [who witnessed a charter of 1268, then called 'Dom. Ralph' and therefore likely a knight and presumably of age]; died without surviving issue 
    
    2b. Hugh de Kirketon; issue 
    3. Simon de Kirketon; issue 
    4a. John de Kirketon, died without surviving issue 
    4b. Joan de Kirketon, daughter and eventual coheiress; living in 3 Edward III [1329-1330]; dead by 21 Edward III [1337-1348]; married John de Aslacton; no issue 
    4c. Alice de Kirketon, daughter and eventual coheiress; living in 3 Edward III; dead by 21 Edward III; married William de Flete, and left issue 
    4d. Margaret de Kirketon, daughter and eventual coheiress; living in 21 Edward III; married John Chaumpeneys of Quappelade   There are other Kirketons who likely fit into this family, but whose position is uncertain or unconfirmed.  Firstly, there is Isabel, the wife of Sir William de Staunton, of Staunton, Notts (d 1326); according to Thoroton, she was still living in 1312, when her husband made his will. Jonathan has cited Burke's Commoners for the proposition that she was the sister of 'Sir Ralph de Kirketon'.  As Jonathan has noted, it would be good to have a more solid foundation for this assertion.  Additionally, there are Kirketons who feature in the ancestry of the Loudham family of Notts. According to the archives, Peter de Kirketon (d 1300) married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Woodthorpe; they were the parents of Sir Robert de Kirketon (d c1303) who married Beatrice de Driby and had a daughter, Alice (d 1344), wife successively to Sir John Loudham (d c1318) and John le Bret.  Sir John Loudham (d c1318) had a daughter Joan (d 1366), and she married Sir Geoffrey de Staunton (d 1369) - the grandson of Sir William and Isabel de Staunton (above). If Sir Geoffrey's grandmother was a de Kirketon, as was his wife Joan's mother, then (absent a consanguinity issue) those two Kirketon families cannot have been closely related.  MA-R .
    
    Google Books    
    A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and ... - Page 527 by John Burke - Heraldry
    Sir William De Staunton
    Sir William espoused Isabel, sister of Ralph de Kirketon, knt, and dying in 1326
    
        
    Calendar of the Close Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office
    by Great Britain Public Record Office, H. C. Maxwell Lyte, Sovereign (1272-1307 : Edward I, William Henry Stevenson, Great Britain Court of Chancery, Public Record Office, England Sovereign (1272-1307 : Edward I), Great Britain Sovereigns, etc., 1272-1307 (Edward I), Great Britain, England, Court of Chancery - Close writs - 1902
    Page 19... William de Ros, Robert his brother, Ralph de Kirketon, Ralph de Sancto Mauro, ... and William de Middelton, late keepers of the Westminster, ...
    
    
    Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records - Page 221
    p221
    Kirton ("Kirketon") (Line.) ; appointment of John de ... ...against Radulph son of Alexander de Kirketon and others, touching a tenement in. in. 28d. (9). ...
    
    'Parishes: Hovingham', A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 1 (1914), pp. 505-511.
    HOVINGHAM
    The parish is composed of the townships of Hovingham, Airyholme with Howthorpe and Baxtonhowe (Backstone Howe, 1749), Coulton, Fryton, Ness, Scackleton, South Holme and Wath. It is a rich agricultural district, and of its 8,838 acres with 1,960 acres in Stonegrave and Muscoates, (fn. 1) 4,959 acres are arable, 4,298 acres permanent grass and 1,149 acres woods and plantations. (fn. 2) This was an ancient forest region. Hovingham Wood is mentioned in 1086 (fn. 3) and that of Coulton in 1222–3, (fn. 4) and before 1297 Roger de Mowbray granted to Ralph de Kirketon the forestry of Hovingham with trees blown down, their branches and bark, a quarter of wheat every ten weeks, and a robe of the suit of Roger's esquires or 20s. in lieu thereof at Hovingham at Christmas. (fn. 5)
    
    
    'Final Concords for Lincs: 41 Henry III (Case 131, File 41)', Final Concords of the County of Lincoln: 1244-1272 (1920), pp. 144-161.
    No. 69. At Lincoln; from St. Martin in one month, 41 Henry III, [9 December, 1256].
    
    Between Adam de Messingham, querent, and William son of Ralph de Kirketon, impedient, of 3 bovates of land in Messingham.
    
    Plea of warranty of charter. William has acknowledged the land to be the right of Adam, as that which Adam has of his gift: to hold to Thomas [sic] and his heirs of William and his heirs for ever; rendering therefor yearly one pound of cummin; and doing therefor to the chief lords of that fee all the other services which to the land belong. [Warranty.] And for this Adam has given him one sore sparrow-hawk.
    
    Sir Ralph de Kirketon, born circa 1224, first appears as an adult as a juror at the IPM of Robert de St. George, 30 Henry III (1245/6) "Ranulf, son of Alexander..." (evidently neither father nor son had yet been knighted). Knighted before 1268. A knight of John de Vesey's household (Close Rolls). July, 1283 in Wales for the King (Cal. of Patent Rolls, note that C. Moor "Knights of Edward I", p 290 seems to show an error here: CPR, 11 Edward I, Vol.2, pages 81 & 98 show: "Commission of oyer & termina for 2 individuals who depastured Ralph's corn at Aylswythesche & Dyleswezthorp, co. Norfolk"). The Dering Roll, No. A288, (Row 9, item 2) (on which, as of last April, there existed a temporary bar of its export from the UK, following it sale by Sotheby's), shows the arms of Ralph de Kirketon as "Argent, six eagles displayed, Sable", which are repeated on the Heralds' Roll, No. HE334. (Brian Timms' website)
    Later Sir Ralph evidently decided to simplify his arms and began to use a variation: "Argent, three eagles displayed, Sable" (ref.: St. George's Roll 8, No. E630 & Collins Roll, No. Q288)(Brian Timms' website)
    Subsequently it appears that in circa 1278 his father, Sir Alexander finally acquired a coat of arms of his own: "Azure, three water bougets, Argent", before his death in 1285 (interred at Gray Friars' Church, London, ref.: "A Survey of London, 1598", Stow, p. 120). In that period, between his father, Sir Alexander's acquisition of a coat of arms, and his death, it is evident that Sir Ralph had adopted the differenced coat of arms of his father, by the addition of a label of three points (colour undefined, but probably, in order to provide a contrast, in Gules (red)), as reported by Ellis, p. 1632. This is confirmed by Birch (1894) Vol. III, p.157, seal of "Ralph de Kirketon" No. 11.093, dated 1278, 1" diameter, with a beaded border and motto: which was revised by Brault (1997) and translated and transcribed as: "All who see me will know me."
    Sir Ralph died in 1303, leaving his brother Hugh de K
    
    From Jonathan Kirton
    Sir Ralph de Kirketon, son of Sir Alexander of Kirketon-in-Holland and Sibethorpe, Notts., before his father had assumed any coat of arms, had initially assumed the arms: "Argent, six eagles, (three, two and one), Sable". (see the Dering Roll, the sale of which out of the UK was recently stopped) He later simplified it to three eagles. Shortly before 1278 Sir Alexander, the father, finally assumed a coat of arms of his own, taking "Azure, three water bougets, Argent", almost certainly as a reversal of the blazon of his very old friend Robert de Ros, "Gules, three water bougets, Argent".
    
    This resulted in Sir Ralph, as Sir Alexander's eldest son and heir, by the rules of heraldry, having to relinquish his former eagles, and take his father's blazon, while his father still lived, with the difference of the standard label of three points of an eldest son and heir. (We do not seem to have any record of the colour of the label, but it would have had to contrast with both the blue and the silver, so it may have been red)  On Sir Alexander's death in 1285, his son and heir would have inherited his father's blazon, so Sir Ralph would then have dispensed with the label of three points, and passed the label on to his son, except that we know that he did not have one. On Sir Ralph's own death, circa 1305, he had no son so that his brother, Hugh or Hugo was his heir, who would have inherited Ralph's blazon.