Ralph (Cromwell) de Cromwell (abt. 1240 - bef. 1289)

Born about 1240 in Cromwell, Nottinghamshire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died before 18 Sep 1289 before about age 49 in West Hallam, Shardlow, Derbyshire, England

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Biography

Ralph III Cromwell was a member of the aristocracy in England.

Ralph de Cromwell was son and heir to Ralph de Cromwell of Cromwell, Nottinghamshire, West Hallam, Derbyshire, etc.^[1]

Ralph's first marriage was to Mazere/Macerie Marmion.^[2]

They had one daughter:

• Joan, married Alexander de Freville^[3]

His second marriage was before 20 jan 1270/1 to Margaret de Somery, daughter of Roger Somery and Nichole D'Aubeney.^[1]

They had the following children:^[1]

• Ralph, 1st Lord Basset of Drayton
• John, Lord Cromwell
• Maud

He served in the army with the king in Wales, and from 1276-83, and to attend the king in Shrewsbury.^[1]

Ralph de Cromwell died just before 18 sept 1289.^[1]

Research

from soc.genealogy.medieval, post by Douglas Richardson:

Complete Peerage 3 (1913): 551 (sub Cromwell) includes an account of Sir Ralph de Cromwell [died 1289], of Cromwell and Lambley, Nottinghamshire, West Hallam, Derbyshire, Kettleby, Lincolnshire, etc. Regarding Sir Ralph's 1st marriage, the following information is provided:

"He married, 1stly, Mazere or Macerie, 2nd daughter and in her issue coheiress of Philip Marmion, of Scrivelsby, co. Lincoln, Tamworth, co. Warwick, &c., by his 1st wife, Joan, 2nd daughter and coheiress of Hugh de Kilpek, of Kilpeck, co. Hereford. She d.s.p.m." END OF QUOTE

In footnote g on the same page, the following additional information is provided regarding Mazere or Macerie Marmion:

"Her only child, Joan, married Alexander de Friville. They were ancestors of the Frevilles of Tamworth."

Unfortunately there is no documentation presented for any of these statements, although all of it is correct. Even so, the lack of documentation should be a red flag for any historian or genealogist.

Recently I came across two lawsuits in the Court of King's Bench which document the marriage of Sir Ralph de Cromwell with a daughter of Sir Philp Marmion, and also that Sir Ralph de Cromwell had one daughter by that marriage. Below are the references and weblinks for these two lawsuits:

Court of the King’s Bench, KB27/11, image 5988 (available at http://aalt.law.uh.edu/E1/KB27no11/IMG_5988.htm).

Court of King’s Bench, KB27/16, image 6553 (available at http://aalt.law.uh.edu/E1/KB27no16/IMG_6553.htm).

The first lawsuit: In Michaelmas term 1274 Ralph de Crumwell sued Robert Marmion in the Court of King's Bench regarding a debt of six score 17 1/2 marks', i.e. 137 1/2 marks. No disposition of the lawsuit is mentioned.

The second lawsuit: In Easter term 1275 Philip Marmion was summoned in the Court of the King's Bench to respond to Ralph de Crumwell in a plea that he render him 137-1/2 marks. They settled with the court's licence, for which Ralph paid 1 mark, on the basis that Philip acknowledged that he owed 50 marks and undertook to pay 25 marks in the quindene of St John the Baptist that year and 25 marks the following Christmas. Philip also undertook to give 60 marks at the marriage of Ralph's daughter, begotten by Ralph on Philip's daughter, whoever she should marry, and to expend 17 1/2 marks for the soul of his daughter, Ralph's deceased wife.

I wish to thank Dr. Matthew Tompkins for providing me abstracts of the two lawsuits above. His generous assistance in these matters is much appreciated. I found the second lawsuit above absolutely fascinating.

I should point out that the defendant is wrongly called Robert Marmion in the first legal action above. However, he is correctly called Philip Marmion in the second legal action. The first lawsuit is a good example in which the person's name is recorded wrong in medieval records. Why such errors happened, I can not say.

For interest's sake, the following is a list of the 17th Century New World immigrants that descend from Sir Ralph de Cromwell and his 1st wife, Mazere Marmion:

Dannett Abney, Walter Aston, Barbara Aubrey, John Bevan, Elizabeth Bosvile, Nathaniel Browne, Charles Calvert, Grace Chetwode, Jeremy Clarke, Katherine Hamby, Matthew Kempe, Mary Launce, Henry, Jane & Nicholas Lowe, Percival Lowell, Thomas Owsley, Richard Parker, Mary Johanna Somerset, Olive Welby, Margaret Wyatt.

Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah ^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2013), Vol. V, p 5, STAFFORD #4.
2. ↑ See Research note discussion by Douglas Richardson.
3. ↑ See Research note discussion by Douglas Richardson.
4. ↑ (https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_source=digest&utm_medium=email#!searchin/soc.genealogy.medieval/cromwell|sort:date/soc.genealogy.medieval/UTLjz1vyKIQ/f4x97RWQCQAJ)

• The Complete Peerage entry for Cromwell

Acknowledgements

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