{50} Edward III Descents for Eleanor (née Archer), Dame Wrottesley (1660-1694)

Archer of Coopersale Coat of Arms
Ermine, a cross sable

Returning to the ancestry of Susan (née Inge), first wife of George Moore of Appleby Hall, there remain Edward III lines of descent to explore for Sir John Wrottesley, 4th Baronet. First up are the three lines of descent he has through his mother Eleanor Archer, which are in addition to her line of descent from Henry IV, already posted.

The Archers of Coopersale House in the parish of Theydon Garnon, were a minor Essex gentry family who claimed descent from one Simon de Boys, a soldier at the Battle of Agincourt (which just celebrated its 600th anniversary this past October 25th). As the family legend goes, de Boys, who bragged that it was the skill of archers like himself that helped England win the battle, found himself in a shooting match against King Henry V. When de Boys won the match, the King commanded that he should assume the surname of Archer in lieu of de Boys.

By far the most significant member of the family to emerge was the judge (eventually knighted), Sir John Archer. Born in 1598, he benefitted from the connections of his mother Anne (née Crouch) Archer, one of the three daughters and co-heirs of influential London haberdasher Giles Crouch of Cornhill (d. 1601) - see the Crouch pedigree published in the Harleian Society's first volume of The Visitation of London, Anno Domini 1633, 1634, and 1635. Archer entered the law profession, and was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1627. But it was his lands that were the main draw in allowing him to make a good first marriage. Per his ODNB entry, "Archer had inherited a landed estate in Essex and Lincolnshire of sufficient substance to enable him to marry, in 1634, Mary [sic] Savile (b. 1612), a daughter of Sir George Savile of Thornhill, Yorkshire; their marriage was ended by her death in 1637."

Coopersale House, Essex, in 1958

Archer's first wife Margaret (not Mary) Savile was born at Thornhill Hall, Yorkshire, and baptized at St Michael Church, Thornhill on 23 August 1612. She was daughter of Sir George Savile, 1st Baronet of Thornhill (1551-1622) and his 2nd wife Elizabeth Ayscough (d. 1626, descended from Edward I). Archer truly mourned her early death at age 25, and it was eighteen years before he married again, taking as his second wife in 1655 (during the Protectorate) Eleanor Curzon. Archer had presbyterian sympathies, as did his reclusive new father-in-law Sir John Curzon, 1st Baronet. The parish registers of Kedleston Church have not yet been made available online, so I cannot determine when Eleanor was born or baptized, but there is a fine representation of her, and all of her siblings, on the monument of their parents in All Saints Church, Kedleston. By his second wife, Archer had two children, a son and a daughter. He apparently had a good second marriage, despite the large difference in their ages (Archer was at least 30 years older than Eleanor). In his will made in March 1679, he expressed ‘great affection to my deare and loving wife’, and left her "jewels, plate, hangings, furniture, coaches, and £3000 in cash, with a life interest in his Essex and Suffolk lands" ODNB].

Dame Eleanor (née Curzon) Archer,
from her parents' monument in Kedleston Church

The only son, John Archer (c.1661-1706), married 1680 Mary Jones (d. 1702), heiress of Welford Park, Berkshire, which he made his chief seat, and had an only child, Eleanor Archer (d.s.p. 1702), 1st wife of the architect Thomas Archer of Hale House, Hampshire (1668-1743, descended from Edward I), who was of the Archer family of Umberslade Hall, completely un-related to the Archers of Coopersale House. After his daughter's death without children, John Archer stipulated that Coopersale House, Welford Park, and his other properties should pass to William Eyre, husband of his niece Eleanor Wrottesley, as long as William changed his surname from Eyre to Archer, which he readily did. Eleanor (née Wrottesley) Archer, died without issue, and it was her husband's second wife who gave him heirs. William Archer (formerly Eyre) was allowed, though, to keep the original Archer inheritance, so, ironically, the subsequent Archers of Welford Park and Coopersale House do not descend at all from Sir John Archer (1598-1682) and Eleanor Curzon. See William Berry's 1838 Archer pedigree, published by the Harleian Society in the second volume of The Visitations of Essex by Hawley, 1552; Hervey, 1558; Cooke, 1570.

Through her mother Dame Eleanor (née Curzon) Archer, Eleanor Archer, the first wife of Sir Walter Wrottesley, 3rd Baronet, has the following three lines of descent from Edward III.

Edward III had two sons A1 & C1 (see below)
A1) John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399) m. 3) Katherine Roet (c.1350-1403), and had
A2) Lady Joan Beaufort (1377-1440) m. twice, and had a dau A3 and a son B3 (see below)
A3) Mary Ferrers, by 1st husband (1394-1458) m. Sir Ralph Neville of Oversley (c.1395-1458, descended from Edward I), and had
A4) John Neville of Oversley (c.1415-1482) m. 1) Elizabeth Newmarch (b. c.1415), and had
A5) Joan Neville (c.1434-bef.1482) m. 1) Sir William Gascoigne of Gawthorpe Hall (c.1428-1463), and had
A6) Agnes Gascoigne (c.1462-1504) m. Sir Robert Plumpton of Plumpton Hall (1453-1525), and had

Pole of Radbourne Coat of Arms,
from a window in Kedleston Church

A7) Anne Plumpton (b. c.1483) m. German Pole of Radbourne Hall (1482-1552), and had
A8) Eleanor Pole m. Richard Curzon of Kedleston Hall (1505-1546), and had
A9) Francis Curzon of Kedleston Hall (by 1523-1592) m. Eleanor Vernon (see C7 below), and had
A10) John Curzon of Kedleston Hall (1552-1632) m. Millicent Sacheverell (c.1573-1619), and had
A11) Sir John Curzon, 1st Baronet of Kedleston (1598-1686) m. Patience Crewe (see B10 below), and had
A12) Eleanor Curzon (c.1535-aft.1682) m. Sir John Archer of Coopersale House (1598-1682), and had
A13) Eleanor Archer (1660-1694), 1st wife of Sir Walter Wrottesley, 3rd Baronet of Wrottesley

B3) Richard Neville, 1st Earl of Salisbury (c.1398-1460) m. Lady Alice Montagu (1406-1462, descended from Edward I), and had

Sir Thomas Crewe -
see Generation B9

B4) Lady Alice Neville (c.1434-aft.1503) m. Henry, 5th Lord Fitzhugh (1429-1472), and had
B5) Elizabeth Fitzhugh (1462-bef.1507) m. 1) Sir William Parr of Kendal (1434-1483), and had
B6) Anne Parr (c.1482-aft.1513) m. Sir Thomas Cheney of Irthlingborough (by 1449-1514), and had
B7) Elizabeth Cheney (c.1504-1556) m. Thomas, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden (1509-1556, descended from Edward I), and had

B8) Anne Vaux (c.1542-1619) m. Reginald Bray of Steane Park (c.1539-1583), and had
B9) Temperance Bray (1580-1619) m. Sir Thomas Crewe of Steane Park (1566-1634), and had
B10) Patience Crewe (c.1602-1642) [*1] m. Sir John Curzon, 1st Baronet of Kedleston (see A11 above)

C1) Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (1341-1402) m. 1) Infanta Isabel of Castile (1355-1392), and had

From a window in Kedleston Church

C2) Lady Constance Plantagenet of York (c.1375-1416) = Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent (1382-1408, descended from Edward I), and had
C3) Eleanor Holland, illegit. (b. c.1406) m. James Tuchet, 5th Lord Audley (c.1398-1459), and had
C4) Margaret Audley (c.1441-1481) m. 1) Richard, 1st Lord Gray of Powis (1436-1466, descended from Henry IV), and had
C5) Elizabeth Gray (c.1462-bef.1493) m. John Ludlow, Heir of Stokesay Castle (1459-bef.1493), and had
C6) Anne Ludlow (b. 1482) m. Thomas Vernon of Stokesay Castle (c.1482-1562, descended from Edward I), and had
C7) Eleanor Vernon m. Francis Curzon of Kedleston Hall (see A9 above)

[*1] For those who find mtDNA as interesting as I do, thru Line B above, Eleanor (née Archer), Dame Wrottesley can be traced back thirteen generations, in an unbroken female line, to Maud Chaworth (1282-1322), wife of Henry Plantagenet, 3rd Earl of Lancaster.

My next post will wrap up the ancestry of Susan (née Inge) Moore, and cover the Edward III descents for Sir John Wrottesley, 4th Baronet, thru his father the 3rd Baronet.

Cheers,                                                --------Brad