William Grenville (abt. 1405 - bef. 1450)

Ancestors

Descendants

Died before 1450 before about age 45 in Stowe, Cornwall, England

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Biography

Death

“He died before 29th Henry VI [1451], for in that year John de Almescombe and Philippa his wife, late the wife of William de Graynvil, had a grant from John de Copleston and others of lands in Wildhays and Guakmore.” ^[1]

Parents, Wife and Children

The old Grenville genealogy, following the 1620 Grenville pedigree in the 1620 Cornwall Visitation, appears to conflate two William Grenvilles, father (who married Thomasine Cole) and son (who married Philippa Grenville), giving the impression that a single William Bonville, born perhaps 1370 and certainly by 1380, married Thomasine Cole by 1402, had a childless marriage for almost 30 years, and then had three children by second wife Philippa Bonville when he was around 60 years old. (The problems with the 1620 Grenville pedigree are discussed at length on the profile of William's wife Philippa Bonville.)

The old Grenville genealogy states: "It appears from the old records that he was twice married, and that Thomasine, daughter of John Cole, was his first wife, as it should seem by the indenture made at Bideford the Monday after the Feast of St. John ante portum Latinam, 5th Henry VI [1427], between William de Greynevill and Thomasine his wife on the one part, and John Cole on the other part, which witnesseth that the aforesaid Thomasine had certain lands and tenements in Yllecomb and Hodesland, within the manor of Kilkhampton, of Sir John de Greynvill, Kt., deceased brother of the said William, whose heir he is by knight's service, and doing suits to his courts and mill.^[2]

Thus the Grenville genealogy makes it appear that William Grenville, born by 1380 (adult in 1402) and possibly a decade earlier (his brother John was born in the 1360s), had a childless first wife in 1427.

“By his first wife, Thomasine Cole, he left no issue, but by his second wife, Philippa, he left issue one son Thomas, who succeeded him, and two daughters, viz., Margaret, the wife of John Thorne, and Ellena, who was married to William Yeo…. According to old deeds and family records, his son Thomas was the first of the family who altogether dropped the pronoun ‘de’ which had hitherto been a prefix to the surname, although both of the last two representatives of the family had sometimes omitted it.” ^[3]

It would make more sense if we suppose that William Grenville, husband of Thomasine Cole, was the father of the William Grenville who married Philippa Bonville.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Roger Granville, The History of the Granville Family (1895), p. 57.
2. ↑ The History of the Granville Family (1895), p. 56.
3. ↑ Roger Granville, The History of the Granville Family (1895), p. 57.
4. ↑ This is discussed by Joe Cochoit at "The Parentage of Philippa Bonville.

• William Grenville & Philippa Bonvile, posted 2014.

http://www.thepeerage.com/p14870.htm#i148696