William Gilbert (bef. 1550 - 1608)

Born before 1550 in Derbyshire, England [uncertain]

Husband of Anne (Clere) Crompton — married 23 Apr 1578 in Blickling, Norfolk, England

Descendants

Died Feb 1608 after age 58 in Mickleover, Derbyshire, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: April Dauenhauer [send private message]

Biography

This profile is part of the Gilbert Name Study.

This William Gilbert of Mickleover may be related to the Gilbert family of Locko shown in the Visitation Pedigrees for the County of Derbyshire as they are 8 miles apart but with a common ancestor before they acquired Locko in 1576 when some descendants may have been living in and around Barrow Upon Trent.

The Lysons in 'General history: Gentry families extinct since 1500', in Magna Britannia: Volume 5, Derbyshire, claim that "The heiress of a younger son of the Gilberts of Locko, settled at Mickle-Over, married Newton in the reign of Queen Elizabeth."^[1]

William's daughter Clere Gilbert married her first husband Robert Newton on 8 May 1609. Queen Elizabeth died on 24 Mar 1603.

16 Feb 1575: Lease by Sir Thomas Gresham to William Gilbert of Mickleover manor house and other premises in Mickleover:^[2]

Indenture between Sir Thomas Gresham of Osterley, Middlesex, and William Gilbert, servant to Sir Thomas, of the manor house of Mickleover, a messuage called Fowlers and close of land in the field of findern (late in the tenure of John Adderley) and a cottage on the common of Mickleover and several closes of land, in consideration of £180, for a term of 1000 years at an annual rent of £6.

7 Dec 1575: Copy of deed and other papers relating to premises at Mickleover and payments by William Gilbert to Richard Harpur and others. Including copy deed of conveyance by Sir Thomas Gresham to William Gilbert, of the manor house of Mickleover, 7 Dec 18 Elizabeth [1575].^[3]

4 Dec 1576: William Gilbert of Great Over, als. Mickleover, co. Derby, gent. received a grant of arms by G. Dethick.^[4]

7 Feb. 1578. Licence for William Gilberte to alienate lands in Great Over alias Mickleover and Finderne, co . Derby, to Edward Clere to the use of William and his heirs until the marriage of William and Anne Clere, and then to the use of William and Anne and the heirs of William's body by her, with successive remainders to the heirs male of the body of William and to his right heirs. For 40s. 11d. paid to the Queen's farmer.^[5]

23 April 1578: William Gilbert (Gent) married Anne Clere at Blickling in the county of Norfolk. ^[6]

His wife Anne was the daughter of Edward Clere and Frances Fulmerston. ^[7] They had two sons, Henry and John, and two daughters, Temperance and Clere (wife of Robert Newton, Gent., and John Beresford, Gent.). ^[7]

2 September 1585: A licence of alienation. William Gilbert, Anne his wife, to John Adderley. Fields lying in parish of Mickleover, Derby. ^[8]

William was escheator of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire from 1591 to 1593. ^[7]

In 1604, William Gilbert of Mickleover, gentleman, appears as one of the witnesses at the inquisition after the death of Philip Okeover, esq.^[9]

• INQUISITION taken at Derby, 24th September, 2 James I. (1604), before Thomas Tye, esquire, escheator, and John Bullocke, esquire, feodary, after the death of Philip Okeover, esquire, by the oath of William Gilbert of Mickeover, gentleman, Robert Hant, Francis Bruckshawe, William Trubshawe, John Gregson, George Gregson, William Meriman, Christopher Bentley, John Richardson, Edward Newton, William Smyth, Robert Walker, robert Whiniard, Hugh Royle, William Revet, Richard Mesham, William Meakin, William Henshawe, and Thomas Hill ; WHO SAY that Philip Okeover was seised of the manors of Okeover, Woodhowses, Casterne, Ham, and Swynscowe, in the county of Stafford, with messuages and lands there; and of the manor of Atlowe ; and lands there and in Snelston, county Derby, Which Nicholas Okeover, gentleman, lately held for his life, and Other lands in Atlowe...^[10]

William made his will on 27 Feb 1607/08 when he describes himself as a Gent of Mickleover in the county of Derbyshire. He names his son John, friend Sir John Harper, cousin William Fisher, three children Henry, Clere and Temperance Gilbert. He notes that Sir Edward Clere owed him 200 markes and 20 pounds. The Will was proved on 2 May 1609.^[11]

He was buried at Mickleover on 21 Feb 1607/08.^[12]

Memorial Inscription reportedly indicates that he was the husband of Anne Clere, daughter of Sir Edward Clere and Frances Fulmerston. They had two sons and two daughters; Henry, John, Clere, wife of Robert Newton and John Beresford, and Temperance.

His widow Anne married Okeover Crompton about 1610. ^[7]

Brief in the Chancery case of John Harpur, knight, executor of the late William Gilbert of Mickleover, gentleman, against Anne Gilbert, wife of Oker Crumpton, gentleman, Agnes Cleere, widow of the late Edward Cleere, knight and William Reade, knight.^[13]

Research Notes

The Jan 1613/14 Will of John Newton of Littleover (right next to Mickleover) bequeaths £5 to his brother-in-law William Gilbert and £5 to William's son John. This is after the William of this profile had died. William's daughter, Clere, had married a Robert Newton on 8 May 1609, only a few days after her father's will was proved. It is to be assumed that Robert was John Newton's brother. This suggests that William may also have had a son called William, with a grandson John. The timing of Clere's wedding and the fact that neither a son William or a grandson John are mentioned in William's will suggests the possibility of a family rift. (From the Will, John Newton's wife would appear to be a Locker and he had another brother-in-law called William Collier.)

Sources

1. ↑ Daniel Lysons and Samuel Lysons, 'General history: Gentry families extinct since 1500', in Magna Britannia: Volume 5, Derbyshire (London, 1817), pp. cxii-clii. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/magna-britannia/vol5/cxii-clii [accessed 29 April 2021].
2. ↑ Ref D2375/D/D/31/2 at Derbyshire Archives
3. ↑ Reference D2375/D/D/31/1 at Derbyshire Archives
4. ↑ Grantees of arms named in docquets and patents to the end of the seventeenth century: in the manuscripts preserved in the British museum, the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Queen's College, Oxford, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and elsewhere: alphabetically arranged by the late Joseph Foster and contained in the Additional ms. no. 37,147, in the British museum by Foster, Joseph, 1844-1905; Rylands, W. Harry (William Harry), 1847-1922 Published 1915
5. ↑ Great Britain. Public Record Office. Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved In the Public Record Office. Elizabeth I. London, Eng.: H.M. Stationery Off., digitized at Hathitrust.
6. ↑ Image of Bickling Church Register on Find My Past
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3} Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), Vol. I, p. 8, ALSOP 15
8. ↑ Reference: MS 917/1199 at Birmingham Archives
9. ↑ Collections for a History of Staffordshire; Staffordshire Record Society, Vol 7, 1904, p 81.
10. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/collectionsforhi07stafuoft/collectionsforhi07stafuoft_djvu.txt
11. ↑ Will of William Gilbert, Gentleman of Mickleover, Derbyshire Ref PROB 11/113/392 at the National Archives, IMAGE on Ancestry.co.uk
12. ↑ Derbyshire Deaths And Burials, FindMyPast
13. ↑ Ref D2375/L/A/2/4/3 at Derbyshire Archives

• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. 2nd edition, 4 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham, (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2011). Space:Magna_Carta_Ancestry, volume I, page 8, #15.