Will of Alexander Aylmer 1549

[WillowG]

my Uncle Thomas Aylemers wyll. Also I give to will(ia)m my sonne and heyre my mansion howse at Catington with all the Landes woodes medowes pasturs with thappurtun(an)ces that was my fathers Robt Aylemers

I am wondering if we here have the answer to something that has puzzled me exceedingly, namely the cases below:

Reference: C 1/460/19
Short title: Aylmere v Elys.
Description: Plaintiffs: Thomas and Robert Aylmere, gentlemen, sons of Elizabeth Aylmere, sister of John at Wood, gentleman. Defendants: William Elys of Attlebridge, surviving feoffee to uses.
Subject: Manors and lands in East and West Barsham and Houghton devised by the will of the said John. (Annexed is an interpleader by Henry Fermour). Norfolk.
Date: 1518-1529
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7471516

Reference: C 1/378/20
Short title: Aylmere v Elys.
Description: Plaintiffs: Thomas and Robert, sons of Elizabeth Aylmere, gentlemen, and nephews of John at Wood, of East Barsham, gentleman. Defendants: William Elys, feoffee to uses. Subject: Refusal to sell manors and lands in East and West Barsham and Houghton, as directed by the said John's will, on the death of Margaret, his wife. Norfolk
Date: 1515-1518
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7468913

I am wondering if these are the same Thomas and Robert Aylmer. Then we have some information about their mother and her kin.

We have previously discussed the possibility that Edmund Aylmer, Roger Aylmer and Thomas Aylmer, mentioned together in about 1486, could be brothers.
'Plaintiffs: Edmund Aylmer, esquire. Defendants: William Paston. Subject: Detention of bonds between Roger and Thomas Aylmer and complainant of the one party, and Harry Straunge, Thomas Drury, and John Sharnburgh, of the other.'
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7452975

In a document over Essex fines that we have looked at before, but without me checking all spellings, we find:

Laurence Ailmer, John Ailmer and Thomas Ailmer mentioned together in 1488.
'1488 [...] 4 Henry VII County of Essex [...] 33. Mich. Laurence Ailmer, John Ailmer, Thomas Ailmer, John Barley, Robert Godewyn and William Hampton, pl. Richard Pake and Elizabeth his wife, def. 1 messuage, 24 acres of land, 3 acres of meadow and 18d. rent in Eisonham. Def. quitclaimed to pl. and the heirs of Laurence. Warranty as in 10. Cons. 201.'
http://esah1852.org.uk/images/pdf/ffines/F1400000.pdf

I am wondering if they could be brothers also.

We know that Sir Laurence Aylmer was the son of Thomas Aylmer of Ellesnam in Essex, and that he also had a brother named Thomas Aylmer.

Could the John Ailmer mentioned above be brother of Sir Laurence and Thomas Aylmer?

Could we here have the father (or grandfather?) of Bishop John Aylmer, whose father is said to have been called John?

Could Sir Laurence's brother Thomas Aylmer have married Elizabeth de Wood and the brothers Robert and Thomas have been their children?

[goldie61]

so fortune to marye or ellye to accomplish
their full age of Twentie yeares Then I woll
the Survyver or Survyvers shall enyoye
hir or there parte so deceased evenlye amongest
them equallye to be devided And yf yt so fortune
I woll that my dawghter Thethourth have hir
parte and be a p(ar)taker accordinge to the parte
so to be devided Allso I orden and make Anne
my wyff my hole Executrix In wytnes herein

is conteyned my Testament and Last wyll
Robert Sclater clearke and Andrewe Thetforth
Alexandre Aylemer



You'd have expected that word on he first line to say
'or ellse', but it's a 'y' instead of an 's'.................. ?

[horselydown86]

You'd have expected that word on he first line to say
'or ellse', but it's a 'y' instead of an 's'.................. ?

Goldie, that word is actually ellys = else (as you thought it should be).

The last letter is yet another style of s, typically found in end-of-word positions.

There are others in the same snippet - in yeares on the next line and wytnes on the last line.

It's very easily confused with e.

See the second and third examples on the last line here:

https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/alphabets/minuscules/s.html

Just one other minor suggestion - the last word on the third-last line is part(es).  It's the -es brevigraph again.

ADDED:

In Snippet 13, line 4, it is:   ...hir or thers parte so deceased...

[Vance Mead]

Here are two cases in Common Pleas in which Alexander Aylmer is the executor of Thomas Aylmer, of Tivetshall St Margaret. The relationship between them is not given.

Hilary term 1531
f 710
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/H8/CP40no1068/aCP40no1068fronts/IMG_0710.htm
Suff. Christopher Jenney, of Great Cressyngham Magna, Norf, esq, summoned to answer Thomas Asty, clerk; and Alexander Aylmer, gent, executors of Thomas Aylmer, of Tybityshale, gent. Debt of 20 pounds.

Hilary term 1536
f 2364
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/H8/CP40no1088/aCP40no1088fronts/IMG_2364.htm
Suff. William Aldred, of Denyngton, yeoman, summoned to answer Alexander Aylmer, gent, executor of Thomas Aylmer, of Tibytishale St Margaret, esq. Debt of 10 pounds.

[WillowG]

Thank you so much, Goldie and HD! This is absolutely beautiful work!!! I am so unbelievably grateful!

Andrewe Thetforth

This must be Andrew Thetford, the brother of Christopher Thetford, son-in-law of the testator!
https://archive.org/stream/visitacionievisi32ryew#page/280/search/Aylmer

Frances does appear to have been the favourite

Thank you so much for all the effort and the wonderful work you have put into the transcription of this will I honestly don't know how you do it

[WillowG]

Here are two cases in Common Pleas in which Alexander Aylmer is the executor of Thomas Aylmer, of Tivetshall St Margaret. The relationship between them is not given.

Hilary term 1531
f 710
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/H8/CP40no1068/aCP40no1068fronts/IMG_0710.htm
Suff. Christopher Jenney, of Great Cressyngham Magna, Norf, esq, summoned to answer Thomas Asty, clerk; and Alexander Aylmer, gent, executors of Thomas Aylmer, of Tybityshale, gent. Debt of 20 pounds.

Hilary term 1536
f 2364
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/H8/CP40no1088/aCP40no1088fronts/IMG_2364.htm
Suff. William Aldred, of Denyngton, yeoman, summoned to answer Alexander Aylmer, gent, executor of Thomas Aylmer, of Tibytishale St Margaret, esq. Debt of 10 pounds.

Ooh, this is interesting!

If it is the same Thomas Aylmer as below, we now know that Alexander Aylmer's uncle Thomas Aylmer died in or before 1531

Short title: Aylmer v Wygmore.
Plaintiffs: Alexander, nephew and heir of Thomas Aylmer, gentleman.
Defendants: Robert Wygmore.
Subject: Detention of deeds relating to messuages and land in Tivetshall.
Norfolk.
2 documents
Date: 1532-1538
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7479310

I have two Thomas Aylmers:

'one Thomas Aylmer, of Norwich, grocer; whose last will bare date 1500; who therein left a legacy to his aunt, Margaret Parker: which Margaret seems to have been grandmother to Matthew Parker, Queen Elizabeth's first and most worthy and well-deserving and learned Archbishop of Canterbury.'
https://archive.org/stream/historicalcollec00stryuoft#page/n149

Thomas Aylmer, died 1518, and wife Alys, with seven sons and four daughters, buried in Harlow in Essex.
'Fittings—Brasses: In N. transept, mounted on boards—(1) inscription lost, small figures of man in armour with wife, c. 1430; (2) of Thomas Aylmer, 1518, and Alys, his wife, small figures of man in civil dress, with wife, seven sons and four daughters, and shield of arms; (3) of [William Sumner, 1559] figure in civil dress, inscription lost; ' - https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/essex/vol2/pp113-116

But none of them quite fits

[Bookbox]

Snippet 15
Probatum fuit hu(ius)mo(d)i Testamentum apud
Norwicum Coram Officiali principali
Curie Cons(istorialis) ib(ide)m Auc(torita)te Illustrissimi
D(omi)ni nostri Reg(is) Edwardi Sexti &c primo die
mensis Julij Anno D(omi)ni mill(es)imo quinge(ntesim)o
quadragesimo nono Regni vero dicti Illustri(ssi)mi
D(omi)ni nostri Reg(is) Anno Tertio Et com(m)issa fuit

Snippet 16
Adm(in)istratio bonorum &c Executrici in d(i)c(t)o
Testamento no(m)i(n)ate de bene et fideliter Ad-
m(ini)strando bona et persolvendo debita et
legata iux(ta) ratam et vires Inventorij bono-
rum &c in debita iur(is) forma iurate &c.

This will was proved at Norwich before the Principal Official of the Consistory Court in that place, by the authority of our most illustrious Lord King Edward the Sixth etc., on the first day of the month of July in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred and forty nine, that is, in the third year of the reign of our said most illustrious Lord the King; and administration of the goods etc. was granted to the executrix named in the said will, to well and faithfully administer the goods and complete the payment of debts and legacies according to the proportions and powers of the inventory of goods etc., sworn in due form of law etc.

[WillowG]

Snippet 15
Probatum fuit hu(ius)mo(d)i Testamentum apud
Norwicum Coram Officiali principali
Curie Cons(istorialis) ib(ide)m Auc(torita)te Illustrissimi
D(omi)ni nostri Reg(is) Edwardi Sexti &c primo die
mensis Julij Anno D(omi)ni mill(es)imo quinge(ntesim)o
quadragesimo nono Regni vero dicti Illustri(ssi)mi
D(omi)ni nostri Reg(is) Anno Tertio Et com(m)issa fuit

Snippet 16
Adm(in)istratio bonorum &c Executrici in d(i)c(t)o
Testamento no(m)i(n)ate de bene et fideliter Ad-
m(ini)strando bona et persolvendo debita et
legata iux(ta) ratam et vires Inventorij bono-
rum &c in debita iur(is) forma iurate &c.

This will was proved at Norwich before the Principal Official of the Consistory Court in that place, by the authority of our most illustrious Lord King Edward the Sixth etc., on the first day of the month of July in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred and forty nine, that is, in the third year of the reign of our said most illustrious Lord the King; and administration of the goods etc. was granted to the executrix named in the said will, to well and faithfully administer the goods and complete the payment of debts and legacies according to the proportions and powers of the inventory of goods etc., sworn in due form of law etc.

Thank you so much, Bookbox!!! This is stellar work!  I am continously so impressed with your work

Norwich, 1st of July 1549, executrix his wife Anne

So he passed away sometime between the 8th of October 1548 and the 1st of July 1549.

This was really great work!

Thank you so much again!!! This is fantastic! I am so grateful for your help

[WillowG]

Hi Willow, earlier, on p.3 of these comments, you mentioned Catelyn's Manor in https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_Norfolk/Volume_5

If you scroll down to STRATTON and numeral [188] on LHS, 4th para.

"Sigebert King of the East-Angles, on his erection of the bishoprick, gave the southern part of the town to Felix, the first Bishop of the East-Angles, and so it became part of the bishoprick; and in the Confessor's time, Bishop Ailmer held it as such, when there were 2 carucates in demean, 7 villeins, 6 bordars and an half, (that is, half the services of one bordar,) 26 socmen, and 12 freemen, whose rents and services were valued at 20s. per annum; .... "

Would this be an earlier ancestor ? Maybe the first at Stratton (Long-Stratton) ?
francoso0

That is indeed very possible! Let me dig a little and see what I can find Thank you so much!

The is the result of my research into Bishop Ailmer:

Sedgeford in Norfolk - Besides the lordship that Guert had, from the tenures abovementioned, it appears that Agelmar or Aylmer Bishop of Elmham, had also a considerable manor in this town and Frenge, in the reign of King Edward: he was brother to Archbishop Stigand, was a married prelate, had many lordships in lay fee, as his own inheritance; some of them he gave to Bury abbey, and that of Blofield, which he had as a portion with his wife, before he was Bishop, to his own see, and probably that of this town, which he had till the year 1070, when being deprived, this lordship, with that of Frenge, we find possessed at the survey by William Beaufoe, late chancellor to King William, and then Bishop of Thetford, to whom the said King had granted the lordship of Guert, which he then also held, and on his death, granted it to his see for ever.
An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk by Francis Blomefield

Stigand - The brother of Bishop Ailmer
Stigand, Bishop of Elmham and was later Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of Canterbury. Stigand was an advisor to several members of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman English royal dynasties, serving six successive kings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigand

He was born in East Anglia, possibly in Norwich, to an apparently prosperous family[4] of mixed English and Scandinavian ancestry, as is shown by the fact that Stigand's name was Norse but his brother's was English. His brother Æthelmær, also a cleric, later succeeded Stigand as bishop of Elmham. His sister held land in Norwich, but her given name is unrecorded.

This certainly sounds as if this could be our Aylmers

North Elmham in Norfolk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Elmham