Nicholas Steward (1467 - abt. 1499)

Born 1467 in Wells, Norfolk, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died about 1499 at about age 32 in Upwell, Norfolk, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Allan Stuart [send private message]

Nicholas Steward was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

This profile is part of the Stewart Name Study.

Biography

Nicholas Steward, a lawyer of the Middle Temple was from an established Norfolk family of minor gentry, and resided at Wells next to the Sea, Norfolk. He m. Cicely, daughter of John Baskerville.

The family was convinced that they descended from the Stewart royal house, via Sir John Steward, the so-called Scotangle, who moved to England in the service of Henry V. In 1511 the heralds prepared a full, if questionable, genealogy for them, and this became a document of obsessive importance for the family. Their surname is often spelled as a variation of the Scottish surname Stewart/Stuart/Steuart etc.

There were eight children recorded in the will of Nicholas Steward. It is presumed they were all the children of Nicholas Steward and Cecily Baskerville:

1. Robert Steward (d. 1557)
2. Nicholas Steward
3. Simeon Steward
4. William
5. Richard ^[1]
6. John^[1]
7. Thomas Steward (d. 1568)^[1][2][3]
8. Agnes^[1]

In the early days of the Reformation Nicholas' son Robert Steward, who was the last prior of Ely and first Dean of Ely, assigned long leases of abbey (later dean and chapter) lands to his brothers Nicholas and Simeon.^[4]

His will was dated 14 March 1497/1498 and probate was granted 24 January 1498/1499. In the will the family name is rendered ‘Stward’".^[5][6] His wife Cecily was nominated a co-Executor along with the Testator's brother Robert, and others.

Research Notes

The HoP mentions two other sons of Nicholas and Cicely - one was Edmund Steward chancellor (in 1554, dean) of Winchester, and was deprived at the accession of Elizabeth; and another went into exile under Mary, prob. Thomas Steward, and he became pastor of the English congregation at Frankfurt and was associated with William Whittingham and John Knox.^[7] [The HOP Biography for Mark Steward does not mention Edmund or Thomas].

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Cromwell Royal Ancestry
2. ↑ wikipedia:Marian Exiles
3. ↑ DNB 1898 p. 260
4. ↑ Felicity Heal, ‘Steward , Robert (d. 1557)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008
5. ↑ The son of Scotangle: Sir John Steward (d. 1447). By Michael Bennett. Journal of the Sydney Society for Scottish History. Vol. 15, May 2015, pp 17-47 see p 39 Sydney.
6. ↑ Will of Nicholas Stward of Outwell, Cambridgeshire. 24 January 1499. PROB 11/11/545. The National Archives, Kew Discovery.
7. ↑ STEWARD, Mark (1524-1604), of Heckfield, Hants; later of Stuntney, Cambs. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981

• John Morrill, ‘Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2015
• <http://minerdescent.com/2011/06/08/sir-henry-cromwell/ />
• Dickinson, Wharton. Record of the Lambert-Dickinson Family (Flushing, N.Y., 1901) Page 85
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Steward