General Notes

[Direct Linage1.FTW]

Note:
"Lygon Line" (McBride):
Thomas Lygon, second son, born at Madresfield Court, first appears in the records in 1461 (Patent Rolls 1461, p. 98) when "Richard, Earl of Warwick, John Beauchamp of Powyck, Knight, and Thomas Lygon were to array the men of Worcester against the king's enemies." The king at the time was Edward IV. and this definitely places Thomas Lygon as a Yorkist in the War of the Roses. This arraying of the men of Worcester was just before the battle of Towton, fought in March 1461, in which the Yorkists led by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the "Kingmaker," obtained a decisive victory over the Lancastrians.
Before the battle, Hume says (Vol XI, p. 311), "the Earl of Warwick dreading the consequences of disaster at the time when a decisive action was every hour expected, immediately ordered his horde to be brought him, which he stabbed before the whole army, and kissing the hilt of his sword, swore that he was determined that day to share the fate of the meanest soldier." Thomas Lygon was a commissioner of the peace for Worcester in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years of Edward IV, whose reign began in 1461 and was on various commissions and inquests until 1470 when he was again called upon to array the men of Worcester against the king's enemies. This was before the battles of Barnet and Tewksbury. In 1472, Thomas Lygon, Esq., was granted lands of the king's enemies and was on commissions to collect
taxes. In 1475, he was on an inquisition to determine what lands Richard De Beauchamp had left in Warwick. He was on various commissions until 1484-85, when he was again called upon to array the men of Worcester. Richard III was king at that time, and the array was probably for the battle of
Bosworth Field fought in 1485. The succession of Henry VII, of the House of Lancaster, did not seem to vary the fortunes of Thomas, for he kept on serving the reigning monarch, as he was commissioner of array for Worcester in 1488 to oppose the rebellion in the north. He was a Member of Parliament for
Worcester in 1477. In 1491 he was custodian of the Castle of Gloucester, probably sheriff. He was commissioner of Oyer and Terminer in 1495 and in 1496 was commissioner of array against the Scots preparing at Berwick. He last appears in the records about 1499, when he, together with Richard and William Grevyle, had royal license to enfeoff John Grevyle and Joan, his wife, in the manors of "Milcote super avon and Miolcote super Stowe" in Warwick. Thomas Lygon is first mentioned in the settlement
of 1456, and again in 1460, in a deed which may possible imply that he was a lawyer. He probably succeeded to the original Lygon lands; for in1470, he was made an enfeoffment of his lands at Hightington, Stanford, Pensax, Foxley, Wyke Episcopi, and St. John in Bedwardine in Worcestershire and Wulfirlowe in Herefordshire, which lands were next year confirmed to him and his wife, and to the heirs of his body, with remainder in default to his son, William Lygon. This was presumably on the
occasion of his marriage to Anne Gifford; believed to be the daughter of Nicholas Gifford, and seems to have brought her husband the manor of Bradwell. In 1478, he acquired the messuage called `Childes' at Powye, and held the Manor of Nether Mytton, 1479. He apparently succeeded his brother William, at Madresfield, about 1484, and acquired lands at Madresfield in 1485. The first mention of him as `Thomas Lygon of Madresfield' occurs in 1495, and the latest mention of him in the Muniments, occurs in 1497. He died on April 10, 1507, when he must have been well over 70 years of age. He and his
wife had two children as follows:
1. Jane Lygon, married Thomas Salwey (Salway), and there was issue.
2. Richard Lygon.