Chapter Five - The Mowbrays and their Management Networks

Summary

Willington manor was held by the Mowbrays from 1265 and managed through a council of close associates who in turn delegated responsibilities to a network, or affinity, of friends, blood relatives and in-laws who were to differing extents dependent on them for status, contacts, influence and income. It has not been possible to reconstruct the membership of these networks or affinities, partly because so many documents have not survived but also because of problems caused by the irregular spellings and abbreviations of names of people and places.

Further difficulties are caused by the occasional use of locative or occupational aliases as well as, or instead of, family names. The same man might appear under different names in the records. John Kempston and John Wodeward(e) were referred to ten times in Willington manor court rolls October 1418-September 1426. In three of the rolls the phrases, ‘John Kempston the wodeward’, ‘John Kempston wodewarde of Shirehatch’ and ‘John Wodewarde keeper of Shirehatch’ were used, suggesting that Kempston was the family name and that wodewarde was an occupational alias.

The surviving records show very clearly that the five men and one woman who were part of the Mowbray affinity, and who had the most influence over Willington manor in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were: Thomas Mowbray, first Duke of Norfolk, from 1383 until he was exiled to Venice in 1398; his brother John Mowbray (the fifth), who became second Duke of Norfolk, from 1413 to his death in 1432; John's head steward, Thomas Bekyngham, October 1417 to at least 1424; Katherine Neville, wife of John Mowbray and then dowager Duchess of Norfolk for fifty years, widowed 1432 and died c.1482; Katherine Neville's third husband, John Beaumont 1448–58; and Thomas Rokes, steward, 1457–74.

In the century after the Peasants’ Revolt, Willington was not only part of the huge Mowbray estate but also part of smaller groupings of properties formed for convenience as the Mowbray's council divided up the lands according to the availability of receivers, stewards, accountants and auditors. Willington bailiffs, often members of the local Rider and Gostwyk families, formed the link between members of the council and the tenants. Other important, influential members of local families included Roger Hunte of Roxton, Robert de Wyllyton and William Launcelyn of Cople.