Christopher Savage Knt. (bef. 1464 - 1513)

Born before 1464 in Clifton, Cheshire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 9 Sep 1513 after age 49 in Battle of Flodden, Northumberland, England

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Christopher Savage Knt. is Notable.

Biography

Christopher probably was born in the third quarter of the 15th century, the seventh son of Sir John Savage of Clifton and his wife, Catherine Stanley, the daughter of Sir Thomas Stanley of Lathom.^[1] He married Anne Stanley, the daughter of Sir John Stanley of Elford, and they had at least one son, Christopher, and one daughter, Margaret. Christopher held the manors of Aston Subedge, Camden, Burlington, and Westington, all in Gloucestershire, England. However, he was living in Cheshire, England where he was listed as a Freeman on 14 March 1484/1485.^[2] Six of his brothers also were on the Freeman list of that date.

On 26 June 1503, King Henry VII granted Christopher and his elder brother, Thomas, Archbishop of York, a lease of 89 years duration for the control of the game park and water mills that surrounded Macclesfield, Cheshire. The rent for the lease was set at £15 per annum.^[3] Christopher was further rewarded by King Henry VII, who made him Governor of all of the Kings servants in the lordship and forest of Macclesfield. This was not a permanent position for he served at the pleasure of the king.^[4]

King Henry VII’s son and successor, King Henry VIII, also supported Christopher by rewarding him with the title of Governor of the lordship and forest of Macclesfield on 11 July 1509, the first year of his reign. Two years later on 30 June, the king converted the appointment of Christopher to a life tenure.

In the summer of 1513, King Henry VIII invaded France with a major force. King James IV of Scotland saw the absence of the English king as an opportunity to cause disruption in England in support of his ally, the French king, Louis XII. He marshaled a force of thirty to forty thousand Scots in late summer. Because the major English forces were across the North Sea, militias from all of the English counties and towns of northern England were called to fend off the Scots. Christopher was the Mayor of Macclesfield at that time, and he assembled a cadre of local men and marched north. On 9 September 1513, the two armies met near the village of Branxton, Northumberland in what was to become known as the Battle of Flodden Field, which was a defeat of drastic proportions for the Scots. King James IV and most of his generation of Scots nobility were slain. But the victory was not without cost to the English; about 1,500 Englishmen died also died on Flodden Field.^[5] Among those were Christopher Savage and many of the men that he had recruited from Macclesfield. It was claimed that Macclesfield was so bereft of quality men that the town was ruled by the Earl of Derby for the next fifty years:^[6]

“Thomas Pylkinton of Macclesfield of the age of 80 yeres or there aboute sworne and examined upon the holy evangelists upon his oathe sayth ......... that he hath heard read in auncient records in the County of the Mayor of the sayde boroughe that the Mayor and the burgisses have used to kepe 3 weekes of courts from the tyme of Kynge Edward the fyrst untyll the tyme of Kynge Henrye the eight, and also sayd desponent sayth that he dothe perfectly know that from the begynninge of the ragne of Kynge Henrye the viiith untyll the Scots field Mayor of Macclesfield dyd kepe 3 weekes Courts at whch tyme Christopher Savage esquire, then mayor of sayd Boroughe, was slayne and many other substantiall burgisses also, synce the wch tyme the want of men of perfect knowlage the offycers of the ryght honourable Erle of Derbie usurped the liberties of the sayd Boroughe untyll that our charter of Macclesfield was confirmed”.

The charter mentioned above was the Fifth Charter for the town of Macclesfield, which was confirmed in 1564 by Queen Elizabeth I. Thus the town experienced the loss of local leadership for fifty-one years. In her confirmation, the Queen simply reiterated and reconfirmed all of the four previous charters.^[7]

Christopher Savage and his wife Anne Stanley, daughter of John Stanley, and George Stanley, cleric, had declaimed ownership of the manor of Bourton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire, but did homage for the manors of Chipping Campden and Aston-sub-Edge, Gloucestershire. [TBGAS, Vol. 16]

This Christopher Savage is a 13th great-grandfather of Gregory Lauder-Frost.

Sources

1. ↑ 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. IV, p 558-9, SAVAGE #17.
2. ↑ Bennett, J. H. E. The Roles of the Freemen of Chester, The Record Society, London. 1906, p. 8.
3. ↑ Davies, C. Stella. A History of Macclesfield. Macclesfield Council, 1961, p. 39.
4. ↑ The Thirty-first Annual Report of the Duty Keeper of the Public Records. Eyre & Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen, London, England, 1870, p. 237.
5. ↑ Wikipedia contributors. "[1]." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 2 Jul 2018.
6. ↑ Davies, C. Stella. A History of Macclesfield. Macclesfield Council, 1961, pp. 43-44.
7. ↑ The History and Directory of Macclesfield and Its Vicinity, 1825; Manchester, UK, p. 14-15. This reference states that Christopher’s elder brother, Sir Edmund, was the Mayor of Macclesfield who died at the battle of Flodden Field. However, George Omerod (1815, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, London, UK; vol. I, p. 527) states that Edmond was conferred knighthood in 1545 and thus could not have died at Flodden Field in 1513.

See also:

• Richardson, Douglas: Plantagenet Ancestry, 2nd Edition (2011), 3 vols, Volume 3, page 143, SAVAGE 13.
• Marlyn Lewis.
• Visitation of Gloucs1623, Harleian Soc 21 (1885), page 144.

Acknowledgements

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