Robert Cheddar (bef. 1355 - abt. 1384)

Born before 1355 in East Harptree, Somerset, , England

Husband of Joan (Hanham) Brooke — married about 1378 in East Harptree, Somerset, , England

Descendants

Died about May 1384 after about age 29 in Bristol, England

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Biography

"In the later fourteenth century Robert Cheddar and his father William were clients of Thomas, Lord Berkeley; Joan’s marriage into the family of the Berkeleys’ great enemy may perhaps be seen as indicating how far their influence had declined by the 1440s" ^[1]

Robert Cheddar "amassed the fortune that caused him to be remembered a century later as the richest man ever in Bristol" ^[2]

He was "a successful Bristol cloth exporter, who was mayor of the city in 1361-2 and 1363-4, and whose wealth was proverbial. Robert died, insane, in May or June 1384, leaving his property, which in Bristol alone was worth £120 a year, to Richard, the eldest of his four sons but then only four years old. The estate was extensive enough to excite the interest of Sir Thomas Brooke*, who married the merchant’s widow and became Cheddar’s stepfather some time before May 1388."^[3]

Member of the Bristol Common Council 1381

In 1381 he was named in the will of John Stoke of Bristol, sometime Mayor and MP. ^[4]

He had numerous properties, among them the manor of Michaelchurch and the manor of Avill:

• "The manor of MICHAELCHURCH was held of the honor of Trowbridge, later part of the Duchy of Lancaster, by 1324 and until 1604...In 1377-8 the manor was settled by trustees on William Cheddar of Bristol, and in 1380 he gave it to Robert Cheddar, possibly his brother, and to Robert's wife Joan. Joan and her second husband Sir Thomas Brooke held the manor in 1409. After Sir Thomas's death in 1418 Joan continued to hold the manor, probably until 1425 when their son Thomas conveyed it to John Seymour (d. 1438) and Elizabeth his wife. Elizabeth survived her husband and died in 1457 in possession; the manor passed to her son Sir Thomas Seymour. "^[5]

• "In 1382-3 and by a further deed in 1383-4 Robert Cheddar of Bristol and Joan his wife purchased the manor of Avele juxta Dunster and property in various places including at Axbridge from William Draper and Roger Seward of Cheddar for two hundred pounds. Among the Axbridge property was a messuage held for life by Elena atte Ree of the inheritance of William Draper. In 1388-9 Sir Thomas Broke and Joan his wife sold the manor of Avele juxta Dunster and the Axbridge property along with property elsewhere to Ralph Perseval and Henry Bokerel" ^[6]

• " In 1371 Ellen and John sold Avill for £333 to Robert Cheddar of Bristol and others, possibly in trust for William Cheddar. Litigation resulted in confirmation of the sale in 1374" Avill was "a separate manor and tithing from the end of the 11th century, included freehold farmsteads such as Ellicombe, Frackford, and Kitswall, houses in West Street and Gallox Street, and land in Carhampton and Timberscombe. By 1746 land in Bicknoller, Crowcombe, Carhampton, Cutcombe, Old Cleeve, Dunster, St Decumans, and Timberscombe had been added to the manorial estate." In 1380 and 1383 "the estate was settled on William’s brother Robert Cheddar (d. c. 1384) and his wife Joan who held Avill with her second husband Sir Thomas Brook (d. 1418). Joan and Robert Cheddar’s son Richard (d. 1437) was succeeded by his brother Thomas (d. 1443) whose widow Isabel received Avill in dower although half the manor was also claimed by her elder daughter Joan, widow of Richard Stafford, and later Viscountess Lisle" ^[7]

Fleming, from the University of the West of England, relates how "John, Viscount Lisle married Joan, the daughter of Thomas Cheddar. The latter’s father, Robert Cheddar, had been an extremely wealthy Bristol cloth merchant who, while he invested in extensive properties in the surrounding counties, still left Bristol property worth £120 at his death in 1384. Thomas had three brothers, two of whom predeceased their father, and on the death of the third in 1437 he acquired much of the extensive family estates. While at Thomas’s death in 1443 he left substantial property to an illegitimate nephew and a distant kinsman, he had also been able to make generous provision for his daughter Joan, born in 1425. John Talbot was her second husband, her first, Richard Stafford, having died by 1443.905 As the result of this marriage the Talbots acquired a number of Bristol properties." ^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ Fleming, P. (2013) Time, space and power in later medieval Bristol. Working Paper. University of the West of England. Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/22171 [1]
2. ↑ Historic Town Atlas, Bristol in the fifteenth century
3. ↑ CHEDDAR, Richard (1379-1437), of Thorn Falcon, Som. [2]
4. ↑ Notes or abstracts of the wills contained in the volume entitled the Great orphan book and Book of wills: in the council house at Bristol: Wadley, Thomas Procter, 1826-1895 pg5 Internet Archive
5. ↑ A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 6, andersfield, Cannington, and North Petherton Hundreds (Bridgwater and Neighbouring Parishes). Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1992.St. Michaelchurch: Manor and other estates, Pages 315-316 [3]
6. ↑ O’Brien, Niall C.E.J., "Medieval Axbridge and the Bishop of Bath and Wells [4]
7. ↑ LANDOWNERSHIP [5]
8. ↑ Fleming, P. (2013) Time, space and power in later medieval Bristol. Working Paper. University of the West of England. Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/22171 [6]