General Notes

Sir William Fitz-William was summoned* to parliament in the 1st Edward III [1327], as a baron but never afterwards. This nobleman m. Maud, dau. of Edmund, Lord Deincourt, and had several children, but as none were subsequently esteemed barons, we presume, with Nicholas, that the summons was not a parliamentary but a military one. From this Sir William the present noble house of Fitz-William, Earls Fitz-William, lineally derive.

* So says Dugdale, "but it appears from his list of summonses in that year that Sir William Fitz-William was not included in either of the summonses to parliament, but only in the summons dated at Ramsay, 5 April, 1324, to attend at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with horse and arms. "Nicholas." [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 216, Fitz-William, Baron Fitz-William]

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Sir William Fitz-William, summoned to parliament as a baron 5 April, 1327, m. Maud, dau. of Edmond, Lord Deincourt, and had, with other issue, a son, Sir John Fitz-William. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 216, Fitz-William, Earl of Southampton]

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Copied from Dave Utzinger, World Connect db=utzing, rootsweb.com:

Various visitation pedigrees show Joan Fitzwilliam, wife of Henry Sothill (or Soothill), to be the daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam.  Given the chronology involved, it would appear she is the daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam, of Sprotborough, co. York, died c. 1342, by his wife, Isabel Deincourt. This couple definitely had a daughter named Joan, as indicated by Isabel (Deincourt) Fitzwilliam's will.  Below please find my accounts of Sir William Fitzwilliam and of Henry and Joan (Fitzwilliam) Sothill, which are taken from the forthcoming book, Plantagenet Ancestry, 3rd edition. My sources are fully cited.

I trust this information has been helpful.

Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah

E-mail: royalancestry@@msn.com


I. WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, Knt., of Sprotborough, Emley, Dalton (in Kirkheaton), and Darrington, co. York, and Plumtree and Hucknall, co. Nottingham, son and heir, born say 1270, adult before 1294. He married ISABEL DEINCOURT, daughter of Edmund Deincourt, Knt., 1st Lord Deincourt, of Blankney, co. Lincoln, by Isabel (descendant of Charlemagne), daughter of Reynold de Mohun, Knt., of Dunster, Somerset. They had three sons, William, John, Knt., and Thomas, and four daughters, Margaret, Joan, Isabel and Agnes. He was an adherent of the Earl of Lancaster. He was executor of his father's will in 1294. In 1296 Ellen widow of Adam Fitz Nicholas, clerk, released her right of dower to a tenement and land in Emley held by her late husband. In 1308 Maud widow of Roger de la Wodehall complained against William Fitzwilliam, his brother, Edmund, and others for trespass at la Woodhall near Wombwell. He was co-heir in 1312 to his great uncle, Roger Bertram. In 1317 his father-in-law, Edmund Deincourt, enfeoffed him with property in Elmeton, co. Derby in trust for Edmund for life, with remainders in succession to his grandson, Edmund's widow, Joan Clinton, and then to Edmund's great-grandddaughter, Isabel Deincourt. He was summoned for military service against the Scots on 5 Apr. 1327 by writ directed Willelmo filio Willelmi. The same year, he, his son, John, and Brian de Thornhill fled for the death of Richard de Plaiz, Knt., killed at Helaw. SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM was living 4 March 1338/9, but dead before 1342. In 1342-3, John de Wombwell and others came to the manor of Emley belonging to Isabel Fitzwilliam, seised her servants, raised the bridges, kept the servants, and killed the plough-oxen with arrows. His widow died testate shortly before 29 May 1348. Both are buried at Sprotborough.

References:

Rev. Joseph Hunter South Yorkshire 2 (1831):92-94 (identifies wife as "Maud, or Isabel Deincourt"). H.S.P. 19 (1884): 27-29 (1566 Vis. Bedford) (Fitzwilliam pedigree: "Sir William ffitzwill'm of Emley Knight sonne and heire = [Maude] daughter of [William Harl. MS. 5867] Deyncourte"). Yorkshire Arch. Journal 12 (1893): 482. J.W. Clay Yorkshire Church Notes (Yorkshire Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. 34) (1904): 135-137 (East and north windows of Sprotborough church both display arms of Fitzwilliam and Deincourt). Ancestor 12 (1905): 111-117.  W.P. Baildon Baildon and the Baildons 1 (1912): 353-355 (invents ficticious 1st wife Maud; miscontrues settlement dated 1324). C.P. 4 (1916): 118-120 (sub Deincourt), 5 (1926): 518-520 (sub Fitzwilliam).  Yorkshire Arch. Journal 27 (1924): 17; 29 (1929): 47, 53. Trevor Foulds Thurgarton Cartulary pp. xcii-xcvii (re. Deincourt family).

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Sir William Fitz William, of Emley and Sprotborough, co. York, was summoned for Military Service against the Scots, 5 Apr 1327 by writ directed "Willelmo filio Willelmi."  Dugdale, mistaking the nature of this writ, states that he "had summons to Parlaiment in I Edward III, but never after": but he was never, at any time, so summoned.  He was living 11 Apr 1340 (i) and was dead in 1342.  [Complete Peerage V:518]

(i) At which date he was exempted from going beyond seas or elsewhere on the King's service, as he was too old and infirm to serve, John fitz William, his son, having to serve in his stead as the King should order.

Note [CP V:518, just after the above text concerning William FitzWilliam]: The following information has been supplied by Mr. W. Paley Balidon, F.S.A., who has made a special study of the Yorkshire FitzWilliams.  For a well-documented pedigree of the main line down to the death of Sir John FitzWilliam of Emley in 1417, see "Baildon and the Baildons."

The family of FitzWilliam, notwithstanding the Norman form of the name, is certainly of Anglian or Scandinavian descent.  The story of William FitzGodric, cousin to Edward the Confessor, and his son William FitzWilliam, "Ambassador at the court of William, Duke of Normandy," and Marshal of the Norman army at Hastings, is obviously mythical, as is the story of the Conqueror's scarf, even if the scarf is seen today. [Bridges, "Northants", says that the first William FitzWilliam was a "natural son to the Conqueror"!]  William, son of Godric is , however, a real person, but he flourished a century and more after the Conquest. Godric's father was named Ketelborn; in a lawsuit in 1211 he is said to have been seised of land at Hopton, not far from Emley, on the day of the death of Henry I, 1 Dec 1135.  Godric was probably born about 1110-1115; there is no direct record of him.

William son of Godric was probably born about 1140; he occurs in the Pipe Rolls from 1169-70 to 1179-80, and was dead in 1194.  He married, probably about 1169-70, as her third husband, Aubrey, daughter and heir of Robert de Lisours (son of Fulk de Lisours, the Domesday tenant of Sprotborough and other West Riding manors under Roger de Busli), who married, about 1129-30, Aubrey, daughter of Robert de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, and in her issue heir of the great Lacy estates on the death of Robert de Lacy II, 1193-4.  Aubrey de Lisours was therefore a great heiress through both parents.  She married (1) Robert FitzEustace, c 1150, by whom she had issue John the Constable of Chester (died 1190, from whom the 2nd house of Lacy descended); (2) William de Clairfait, c 1167; and (3) William FitzGodric, c 1169-70.

The son of this marriage, William FitzWilliam (the alleged Marshal of Hastings) was probably just of age in 1194, when, by a fine dated 21 Apr, Roger the Constable, Aubrey's grandson by her first husband, released to her and her son William (FitzWilliam) all the lands which had belonged to Robert de Lisours her father.  The subsequent pedigree can be sketched very briefly.  Aubrey's son William FitzWilliam, was living 9 Feb 1218/9.

His son, Sir Thomas FitzWilliam, had a grant of free warren, market and fair at Emley in 1253, the first mention of Emley in connection with the family.

His son, Sir William FitzThomas, was dead in 1294.

His son, Sir William FitzWilliam (the subject of this article), was executor of his father's will in 1294, and was dead in 1342.  He apparently married twice, (1) Maude, dead in 1324, and (2) Isabel Deincourt, who died 1348, apparently s.p.  [Note: the 1st marriage to Maude is a mistake.]

His son, Sir William, was hanged at Pontefract, 22 Mar 1322, for joining in the Earl of Lancaster's rebellion; he was apparently unmarried.

The next brother, Sir John, died 10 Aug 1349; he married Joan, daughter of Adam de Reresby of Thribergh.

His son, Sir John, was born 1327, and was murdered at Howden in 1385.  He obtained the manor of East Haddlesey and other property in Yorkshire on the death without issue of Sir Thomas Stapleton, husband of his sister Joan, in 1373.  He married Elizabeth Clinton, said to have been a daughter of William Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon, but this is probably an error.  No inquisition can be found.

He was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir William; the 3rd son, Edmund, was ancestor of William FitzWilliam, created Earl of Southampton 1528.  Sir William, the eldest son, married Maude, daughter of Sir Ralph de Cromwell, and died 8 Apr 1398.

His son, Sir John, died 5 July 1417; he is said to have married Eleanor, daughter of Sir Henry Green, of Drayton, Northants, a younger son of the Green's Norton family, and to have had six sons, John, Nicholas, Ralph, Robert, William, and a second John.

Of these the younger John is said to have been of Green's Norton, and the ancestor of the Milton FitzWilliams.

The eldest son, John [b. 15 Aug 1397--see below], died in 1421; he married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Clarell, of Aldwark; she m. (2) Robert Waterton, of Walton, and was living in 1441 the wife of (3) Sir William Gascoigne, of Gawthorpe.

His son, William, m. Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Chaworth, and d. 1 Dec 1474.

His son, Sir William, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Conyers, and d. in 1494.

His son, John, m. Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard FitzWilliam, of Aldwark, and had an only child, William, who dvp in 1484, leaving as his coheirs hsi father's sister, Dorothy, wife of Sir William Copley, of Batley, and the only child of her sister Margery--Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Soothill, of Soothill, and wife of Henry Saville, of Thornhill.

Reverting to John FitzWilliam of Green's Norton, the alleged 6th son of Sir John of Emley, I have never found any references to him in any document, and neither he nor his family are mentioned in any of the numerous fifteenth-century wills of members of the Yorkshire branches of the family.  This, of course, does not prove his non-existence, but I doubt if he could have been the father of Sir William who bought Milton. John cannot have been born, at the latest, more than a few months after his father's death on 5 July 1417, and it may have been some years earlier (his eldest brother, the first John, was born 15 Aug 1397).  I do not know when Sir William I of Milton was born--his age is not given on his brass at Marham--but his son, Sir William II of Milton, was born in 1503 or 1504.  We have thus a period of 86 years to cover only two generations; it is not phyically impossible, but demands strict proof. [Complete Peerage V:518-520 Note]