Elizabeth (Clinton) Fitzwilliam (abt. 1330 - aft. 1400)

Born about 1330 in England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of John (Fitzwilliam) FitzWilliam — married before 1356 in England

Descendants

Died after 1400 after about age 70 in England [uncertain]

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Biography

Elizabeth was the daughter, the only known surviving child, of William de Clinton, Earl of Huntindon.^[1][2][3][4] Her mother was an unknown mistress.^[5][6][7] Her birth date is not known, and has been estimated as about 1330 on the basis that her husband was born in early 1328.^[5] Her birthplace is not known: her father had lands in Hertfordshire, Kent and Warwickshire.^[6][8]

Elizabeth married John Fitzwilliam.^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]} Their marriage date and place are not known, but they married before 1356: in January that year John Fitzwilliam knight and Elizabeth his wife were party to a land transaction.^[9] They had the following children:

• William^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}
• Edmund^{[1][2][3][4][5][7]}
• John^[3][4][5][7]
• Richard^{[1][3][4][5][7]}
• Thomas^[3][4][5][7]
• Mary, who married Henry Hastings^[3][5][7] (called Anne in Foster's Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire;^[10] first name not given in the late 15th century Visitation of the North^[4])
• Elizabeth, who married Brian Thornhill^[5][7] (first name not given in the Harleian Society edition of Bedfordshire visitations^[3] or the Visitation of the North^[4])
• a daughter who married Edmund Pierpoint^[3][4][5][7] (called Margaret in Foster's Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire^[10])

In 1378/9 a tax record recorded Elizabeth and her husband as being of Sprotbrough, Yorkshire.^[5][7]

Elizabeth's husband was said to have been killed shortly before 19 February 1384/5^[5][7][11] by Roger Spark, a servant of the Aske Family.^[12]

Elizabeth's death date is not known, but she is recorded as alive in 1400.^[5][7]

Research Notes

Father

The main evidence for Elizabeth's father comes from a number of Visitations. The Fitzwilliam section in the revised edition of Cokayne's Complete Peerage says in a footnote that John Fitzwilliam married an Elizabeth Clinton, but remarks briefly, with no further explanation, that it is "probably an error" that she was daughter of William de Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon.^[11] In the Clinton section, Cokayne also expresses hesitation, on the grounds that she did not inherit lands or title, but recognises that, if she was illegitimate, her illegitimacy would be reason.^[13] Richardson has a discussion in a footnote in his books.^[5][7]

It is just possible that the earldom of Huntingdon, held by Elizabeth's father, was created in tail male (that is, the title could pass only to male descendants) - if so, Elizabeth could conceivably have been a legitimate daughter by an unknown first wife.

Disputed daughter Joan

Joseph Foster's Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire says that Joan (wife of Thomas de Stapleton and John Felton) was the daughter of Elizabeth de Clinton and John Fitzwilliam. As usual with this work, no source is given.^[10] Clay's expanded edition of Dugdale's Yorkshire Visitation says the same.^[14] Thomas Stapleton's entry in the Complete Peerage (revised edition) names Joan's father as John,^[15] as does Clay's Extinct and Dormant Peerages.^[12]

Flower's 1563-4 Yorkshire Visitation says that Joan was the daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth de Clinton,^[16] but Elizabeth's husband was John Fitzwilliam. The History of Parliament Online entry for John Felton says that Joan's father was Sir William Fitzwilliam of Wentworth, Yorkshire, and does not name a mother.^[17]

Douglas Richardson does not list Joan as a daughter.^[5][7] The Harleian Society edition of Bedfordshire visitations does not include Joan in its list of the children of John Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth de Clinton, nor does the Surtees Society edition of the late 15th century Visitation of the North^[4] - these are the fullest accounts of children in any published edition of English Visitations, listing all the children mentioned in the biography, though not all the daughters are given first names.^[3]

Joan has previously been shown on WikiTree as a daughter of Elizabeth and her husband, but has been detached. She can be reattached if firmer evidence is found.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Fitzwilliam pedigree in the 1612 Essex Visitation, in The Visitations of Essex, Part I, Harleian Society, 1878, p. 198, Internet Archive
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} H Sydney Grazebrook (ed.). The Visitation of Staffordshire 1583, Mitchell and Hughes, 1883, p. 76, Internet Archive
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10} Frederic August Blaydes. The Visitations of Bedfordshire... with additional pedigrees, Harleian Society, 1884, p. 28, Internet Archive
4. ↑ ^{4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10} Visitations of the North, Vol. III, A Visitation of the North circa 1480-1500, Surtees Society, 1930, p. 74, Familysearch (image page 90)
5. ↑ ^{5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15} 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. II, pp. 215-216, FITZWILLIAM 6, Google Books
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City: the author, 2013), Vol. II, p. 263, CLINTON 9.ii.a
7. ↑ ^{7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 7.12 7.13 7.14} Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. II, pp. 675-6, FITZWILLIAM 13
8. ↑ Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, Vol. I, p. 516, CLINTON 9.ii, Google Books
9. ↑ Sheffield City Archives, ref. WWM/D/119, National Archives Discovery Centre catalogue entry
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} Joseph Foster. Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire, Vol. I (West Riding), W Wilfrd Head, 1874, Fitzwilliam pedigree, Internet Archive
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1} G E Cokayne. Complete Peerage, revised edition, St Catherine Press, Vol. V, 1926, p. 519 (in long footnote), Internet Archive
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} John William Clay. The Dormant and Extinct Peerages of the Northern Counties of England, Nisbet & Co, 1913, p 77, Internet Archive
13. ↑ G E Cokayne. Complete Peerage, Vol. III, St Catherine Press, 1913, p. 324, footnote b, Internet Archive
14. ↑ J W Clay (ed.). Dugdale's Visitation of Yorkshire, Vol. I, William Pollard, 1899, p. 164, Internet Archive
15. ↑ G E Cokayne. Complete Peerage, revised edition, Vol. XII, part I, St Catherine Press, 1953, pp. 264-265, viewable on Familysearch
16. ↑ Charles Best Norcliffe (ed.). The Visitation of Yorkshire in the Years 1563 and 1564, made by William Flower, Esquire, Harleian Society, 1881, pp. 123-124, Internet Archive
17. ↑ History of Parliament Online, entry for 'FELTON, Sir John (c.1339-1396), of Edlingham, Northumb.'

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile was developed for the Magna Carta Project by Michael Cayley on 14 September 2022 and was reviewed the same day by Thiessen-117.

Elizabeth (Clinton) Fitzwilliam appears in trails badged by the Magna Carta Project from Magna Carta surety baron Robert FitzWalter to the following Gateway Ancestors:

• William Asfordby (MCA I:46-47 ASFORDBY): badged September 2022. See the trail HERE.
• Anne Skipwith: badged September 2022. See the trail HERE.

Elizabeth (Clinton) Fitzwilliam also appears in unbadged trails from surety Robert FitzWalter to the following Gateway Ancestors:

• Richard Saltonstall (MCA III:484-488 SALTONSTALL): needs development. See the trail HERE.
• Skipwith Gateways (siblings Diana and Grey Skipwith: trails needs further development and can be seen HERE (see 3rd cousin, Anne, above).
• Margaret Toutville (MCA I:215-224 FITZ WILLIAM): not yet developed. See the trail HERE.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".