Project Profile of the Month: Elizabeth Grey
Elizabeth Grey was a substantial heiress, inheriting from
- her father
- her mother following the death of a half-brother
- an uncle and
- that uncle's wife.
This is a good illustration of the way people dying childless, or deaths of siblings, could lead to someone inheriting extensive properties that would not otherwise have passed into their hands.
She married Henry FitzHugh, who supported Henry IV when he seized the English throne from Richard II. They had fourteen known children, five of whom died young, one being drowned in the River Humber.
For one of the daughters, Joan, Douglas Richardson and Cokayne's Complete Peerage give different information relating to her marriage in different places. They both say at one point that Joan married Robert Willoughby, 6th Lord Willoughby of Eresby, one of the senior English commanders over several decades of the Hundred Years' War. But in their entries for Robert himself, they say he married Elizabeth Montagu and Maud Stanhope, and this is what is generally believed. A reminder that all substantial genealogical works have mistakes.
Henry FitzHugh died in January 1425. It appears from a court case that, after his death, custody of at least some of the lands to which Elizabeth was entitled was given to others "under a misapprehension". The mistake was presumably remedied fairly quickly, as her Inquisitions Post Mortem show her a substantial landowner when she died in late 1427.
Her will was an example of medieval piety on a large and expensive scale. She requested burial beside her husband at Jervaulx Abbey, Yorkshire, with 24 torches round her hearse and 25 large candles at the high altar. There were then to be 300 masses sung for her soul as soon as possible, followed by another thousand masses within three months. At this time, there were chantries - chapels, often in larger church buildings, which specialised in singing masses for deceased persons, on what must have been a system rather like a manufacturing conveyor belt, with clerics taking it in turn to sing the masses. A lot of chantries must have been kept employed in the three months after Elizabeth's death - and they would have been well rewarded.
Tip of the Month: Relationship Terms
In the period covered by the Project, wills and other documents often use relationship terms more loosely than they are generally used in legal documents today. In particular,
- it was common not to distinguish between blood relations and relations by marriage: for instance, "daughter" may mean daughter-in-law, "son" may mean stepson, and "sister" may mean a spouse's sister-in-law;
- "cousin" could have a wide meaning, indicating little more than "relation" (whether by blood or marriage), and occasionally it is even found used of siblings; and
- grandchildren are sometimes referred to as sons or daughters.
The context or a last name will often help to clarify the relationship, but does not always do so.
Team News
The trail development team badged the following trails in June 2022:
