William (Carrington) Caryngton

Born [date unknown] in Cheshire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died about 1297 in England

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NOTE: Birth and death years only a rough indication.

Biography

This is a real person who was mentioned in a 1361 legal case by his great grandson William Carinton, (son of John).^[1] The names of his parents have not yet been confirmed with reliable sources, although the family was obviously present in the same part of Cheshire near Carrington itself for many generations. William was also mentioned in other earlier legal cases which can be checked using David Bethell's website (https://cheshireplearolls.org/).

From these legal cases the following children can be named (sons first then daughters):^[2]

• William Carington, who was eventually the main heir (and possibly the eldest son to begin with). He was alive in 1296 but so was his father of the same name. He appears to have been the family's chief landholder from about 1298 until about 1320.
• Thomas Carington. His wife's name was clearly Lecia.^[3]

• According to the summary of the 1361 case made by Wrottesley he had a daughter Agnes who married Richard de Sale. Richard was presumably a member of the Massey family of Sale. Ormerod placed a Carrington daughter within that family tree although her husband was named Robert.^[4]
• According to Copinger's (p.24) summary of a plea roll case of 25 Edward I (1296/1297, as quite often his reference is vague), his only daughter Beatrix had died before then. There were several cases that year, but none seem to mention Beatrix.^[5]
• Copinger needs to be treated with caution, partly because he twisted the chronology to suit the Carrington imposture, but combining what he says about the supposedly two different Thomases (p.24 and p.33) he: was fined for not attending as a juryman at Chester, 21 Edward I. (1293); was a witness to the inquisition post mortem in 1294 of Geoffrey de Chedle; was again fined for not attending as a juryman at Chester in 1310, and yet again in 1313. There seems to be no reason to presume that these are two different people.

• John Carington, who had a son John who predeceased his father according to the 1361 case. He was also apparently already dead before the 1296 cases.
• Richard Carinton, also died before the 1296 cases, but was survived by his wife Agnes and daughter Alice who sued William, Richard's father. Alice sued first.^[6] Agnes later also tried without much apparent success.^[7] It seems that the 1361 case was also an extension of this, brought
• Jordan Carington, still alive and mentioned in 1296. Copinger (pp.33-34) gives the following without any citations so it needs to be checked and treated with caution: "In 1298 he was summoned, with others, to answer the King for divers trespasses. This Jordan de Carington was Bailiff at Chedle for Sir Roger de Chedle alias Dutton, Lord of the Manor of Chedle in 1312, and in 1316 he was defendant in a claim made by Sir Roger de Chedle on a plea of account. He slew Richard fil. Robert de Radesleia in a duel and fled the country in 1323".
• Avicia.
• Mabilla. Copinger needs to be treated with caution, but he says (p.33) that in 1349 as widow of Adam de Lyston she made a quit claim to Hugh, the son of Roger de Toft, that tenement and those lands which William de Caryngton her father gave to John his son, my brother, in the vill of Carington.^[8]
• Alicia.

In about 1270 William was bailiff of Dunham Massey, and signed a charter in this way.^[9]

He was being sued in 1296 but by 1298 Agnes Toft, who seems to be his widow, had remarried, and mentioned him in a legal case. (See her profile.) He therefore appears to have died about 1297.

Research notes

Frustratingly, Copinger implies that he saw records but does not always say where they were, and upon inspection he was not above changing or making up information.

Concerning Thomas, Copinger says that he inherited lands in Carrington and Ashton "in fee tail" according to the will of his father William. He adds, with no explanation, a regnal year which is clearly mistaken, 25 Henry II, 1274. (1274 was 3 Edward I. Henry II lived a century earlier.) This appears to relate to a contested claim discussed in the legal cases.

Looking at what Copinger writes about Thomas's brother Richard, it seems like it does indeed involve the 1361 legal case, and the earlier cases after Richard died. Here it says that the entailment to Thomas was really in 25 Henry III (1240/41). The claim appears to have been that Thomas had left his estate to Richard, and the descendants of Richard's daughter Alice claimed this in 1361. This dispute apparently also also involved violence and forged charters.^[10] See William's great grandson's profile, Carrington-106 for more background information about what appears to be a long running group of disputes involving the Bowden family, and their Massey kin.

Note of caution

This profile has previously been influenced by what the genealogist J H Round called the "The Carington Imposture", a famous genealogical myth connecting modern Smith families to the medieval Caringtons. At least some of the people in that pedigree never existed and others are represented inaccurately.

Copinger, who tried to modernize the myth using Ormerod and other sources, has been cited above, but where possible he has been cross-checked using other sources.

Further information:

• The Carrington Imposture
• Round, John Horace, 1910. Peerage and Pedigree: Studies in Peerage Law and Family History, volume II, Pages 134-258. Reprinted Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1970. The Great Carrington Imposture] Pages 134-258. Available on Hathitrust, and Familysearch.

For reference, this myth reached its most complex version with the publication of an enormous work compiled by Walter Copinger in 1907.

• Walter Copinger, "History and records of the Smith-Carington family" Available online here. Use with caution!!

Sources

1. ↑ Wrottesley, Pedigrees from the Plea Rolls, p.148
2. ↑ For genealogy, the most important series of cases were brought by Alice the daughter of Richard, son of William Carington against William Carington.
   • Plea Roll, Chester County Court, CHES 29/8, Case 25, 25 October 1295, https://cheshireplearolls.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/8_1.pdf (Alice together with her mother Agnes).
   • Plea Roll, Chester County Court, CHES 29/8, Case 117, 17 January 1296 https://cheshireplearolls.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/8_3.pdf
   • Plea Roll, Chester County Court, CHES 29/8, Case 182, 28 February 1296. See scan: http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT7/E1/CHES29no8/bCHES29no8dorses/IMG_0053.htm
   • Plea Roll, Chester County Court, CHES 29/8, Case 235, 22 May 1296, Alice versus "Will’ fil’ Will’i de Caryngton’. Will’. Thom’ & Jordanu’ fil’ eius. Auic’, Mabill’, Alic’ fil’ eius & Will’m le Grubbere" https://cheshireplearolls.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/8_6.pdf
3. ↑ Plea Roll, Chester County Court, CHES 29/8, Case 132, (Tuesday 17 January 1296) https://cheshireplearolls.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/8_3.pdf
4. ↑ Ormerod (Helsby ed.), History of Cheshire, vol. 1, p.565. It appears from the plea rolls that they had sons and daughters, but no grandchildren who survived until 1361. (Sale is adjacent to Carrington. Both are now within Greater Manchester, but south of the Mersey river, and therefore historically Cheshire.)
5. ↑ The only sessions in this period 20 November 1296-1297 were part of one case which was apparently called off for want of better evidence, although they were probably related to earlier and later cases. These involved Agnes the widow of Richard de Carington against William de Carington.
   • Plea Roll, Chester County Court, CHES 29/9, Case 26, (Tuesday 25 September 1296) https://cheshireplearolls.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/9_1.pdf
   • Plea Roll, Chester County Court, CHES 29/9, Case 95, (Tuesday 29 January 1297) https://cheshireplearolls.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/9_4.pdf
6. ↑ CHES 29/8, cases 25, 117, 182, 235, already cited.
7. ↑ CHES 29/9, cases 26, 95, already cited.
8. ↑ In this case Copinger gives a clear citation to Harleian manuscript 2059, folio 101, which was by one of the Randle Holmes.
9. ↑ Ormerod (Helsby ed.), History of Cheshire, vol. 1, p.431.
10. ↑ P H W Booth and A D Carr, 1991, Chester Chamberlain's Accounts 1361-2, Volume 125, http://rslc.org.uk/api/file/Vol_125.pdf pp.41, 45, 121, 126.

• Ormerod https://books.google.be/books?id=DYY1AQAAMAAJ&vq=carrington&pg=PA544
• Ormerod: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924088434042&seq=44