Joan (Thornbury) Corbet (abt. 1385 - 1418)

Biography

On her second marriage, by 1408, Joan was likely born about 1388, or earlier. Joan (d. 10 Oct. 1418), da. of Sir John Thornbury of Little Munden, Herts., wid. of William Peyto of Chesterton, 1s. 1da.^[1]

Property

Manor of Shushions

"John de Knightley, junior (younger son of John and Elizabeth), probably had the manors of Shushions and a fourth part of Wilbrighton settled upon him at the time of his marriage with his wife Joanna, who was afterwards re-married, as I think, to Sir Robert Corbet, Knight, and held these manors for the term of her life. By inquisition taken at Penkridge on 22nd September, 1419, it was found that Joanna, who had been the wife of Sir Robert Corbet, Knight, had held for term of her life, on the day of her death, a fourth part of the manor of Wylbryghton with the appurtenances in the county of Stafford, by the dimission of Elizabeth Knyghtley, of which the reversion after the death of the said Joanna, belonged to George, son and heir of John Knyghtley, son and heir of the said Elizabeth, then under age, who held it of the heir of Edmund, late Earl of Stafford, now under age, who held it of the late King Henry, father of the present King, by military service, and in the custody of Joan, Queen of England, to whom the said late King had committed the custody of all the lands and tenements of the said Earl which had devolved upon the said late King by reason of the minority of his heir. The said Joanna also held on the day of her death the manor of Shuston with the appurtenances in the same county for the term of her life, by the dimission of John Knightley, father of the aforesaid John Knyghtley, the son, of which the reversion after the death of Joanna belonged to the aforesaid George and his heirs. The aforesaid fourth part is held of the aforesaid heir of the late Earl of Stafford by the service of a third part of a knight's fee, and is of the yearly value of 40s. And the said manor of Shuston with the appurtenances is held of the Prior of Wenlock, by the service of 10s. yearly for all services, and is of the yearly value of £10. The said Joanna died on 3rd October, 1418, and William Peyto is her son and nearest heir, of the age of twenty-two years and more. (fn. 33) This Joanna was the widow of Sir Robert Corbet, of King's Bromley, co. Stafford, and Hadley, co. Salop. She was the daughter of Sir John de Thornbury, Knight, and married for her first husband William de Peto, of Chesterton, co. Warwick, Esq., who died in 8 Henry IV. (1406–7), leaving a son and heir William Peto, whose lands, by reason of his minority, were, in 10 Henry IV. committed to the custody of John Knightley the younger. (fn. 34) I suppose her to have married the said John Knightley (son of John Knightley and Elizabeth de Burgh) for her second husband. He is styled in the pedigree, "of Chesterton, in the county of Warwick," and had issue by his wife Joanna a son, George Knightley, on whom his grandmother Elizabeth entailed her lands in Alreston and Apton, in the county of Stafford, with remainder to his uncle Edmund, in 4 Henry V. (1416); and a daughter Elizabeth, living in 4 Henry V. The said John de Knightley, junior, is also said in the pedigree to have been Justice of Chester in 4 Henry V.; but this is a mistake for 4 Henry IV. He was, in fact, Lieutenant Justice of Chester in 1399, under William Scroop, Earl of Wiltshire, and Hugh Percy, and in 4 Henry IV. (1402) was made Judge of Chester for one turn. (fn. 35) He probably died about 1416, leaving George Knightley his son and heir an infant."^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993 [1]
2. ↑ 'The parish of Church Eaton: Shushions,' in Staffordshire Historical Collections, Vol. 4, ed. George Wrottesley (London: Staffordshire Record Society, 1883), 103-114, accessed March 17, 2016, [2]