John Digby (died 1533)

Last updated April 12, 2019

Sir John Digby (died 1533) of Eye Kettleby, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, was Knight Marshal for King Henry VIII.

Melton Mowbray is a town in Leicestershire, England, 19 miles (31 km) north-east of Leicester, and 20 miles (32 km) south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye and the River Wreake and has a population of 25,554. The town is best known for its culinary speciality, the Melton Mowbray pork pie. In addition, it includes one of the six makers of Stilton cheese. Melton Mowbray is promoted as Britain's "Rural Capital of Food".

Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warwickshire to the south-west, Staffordshire to the west, and Derbyshire to the north-west. The border with most of Warwickshire is Watling Street.

The Knight Marshal is a former office in the British Royal Household established by King Henry III in 1236. The position later became a Deputy to the Earl Marshal from the reign of Henry VIII until the office was abolished in 1846.

Origins

John was the third son of Everard de Digby, MP ^[1] (whose father had died at Towton, 1461) of Tilton on the Hill, Leicestershire and Jacquetta, daughter of Sir John Ellys of Devonshire.^[2]

Towton is a small village and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England.

Tilton on the Hill is a village in the civil parish of Tilton on the Hill and Halstead in the Harborough district of Leicestershire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 601. It lies 2 miles north of the A47, on the B6047 to Melton Mowbray. Halstead civil parish was merged with Tilton in 1935, while the deserted medieval village of Whatborough was merged in 1994. Marefield remains a separate civil parish, but is part of the Tilton Electoral Ward. St Peter's Tilton, the Parish Church is in the parish of Halstead, as is the vicarage.

Career

Digby was knighted by King Henry VIII for his services at the Battle of Bosworth Field, and appointed Knight Marshal for the King's household.^[3]

He was Steward of Lewes Priory, Sussex. He was High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1515 and was also Sheriff of Rutland in 1491, 1517 and 1523, as was his father before him.

Lewes Priory Grade I listed ruins in the United Kingdom

Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building.

Sussex, from the Old English Sūþsēaxe, is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English Channel, and divided for many purposes into the ceremonial counties of West Sussex and East Sussex. Brighton and Hove, though part of East Sussex, was made a unitary authority in 1997, and as such, is administered independently of the rest of East Sussex. Brighton and Hove was granted City status in 2000. Until then, Chichester was Sussex's only city.

The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions are now largely ceremonial. The High Sheriff changes every March. Under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 the office previously known as Sheriff was retitled High Sheriff.

In 1513 Digby accompanied Henry VIII to Calais and fought in the battle of Thérouanne.

Calais is a city and major ferry port in northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. The population of the metropolitan area at the 2010 census was 126,395. Calais overlooks the Strait of Dover, the narrowest point in the English Channel, which is only 34 km (21 mi) wide here, and is the closest French town to England. The White Cliffs of Dover can easily be seen on a clear day from Calais. Calais is a major port for ferries between France and England, and since 1994, the Channel Tunnel has linked nearby Coquelles to Folkestone by rail.

Thérouanne Commune in Hauts-de-France, France

Thérouanne is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. It is located 10 km (6.2 mi) west of Aire-sur-la-Lys and 13 km (8.1 mi) south of Saint-Omer, on the D 157 and D 341 road junction. Located on the river Lys.

Family

He married Catherine, daughter of Sir Nicholas Griffin of Braybrooke, Northamptonshire. They had at least two sons and two daughters.

Braybrooke is a small village in north west Northamptonshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 378. It is situated about halfway between Market Harborough and Desborough. It lies in a valley between two ridges one of which is surmounted by the A6 trunk road. The surrounding land in the parish is a mixture of pasture and arable.

Northamptonshire, archaically known as the County of Northampton, is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015 it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by Northamptonshire County Council and by seven non-metropolitan district councils. It is known as "The Rose of the Shires".

William
Simon, his heir, who married Catherine Clapham of Beamesley
Elizabeth, married Sir Humphrey Hercy of Grove, Nottinghamshire
Anne, married Sir William Skeffington (died 1535) of Skeffinton, Lord Deputy of Ireland

After the death of Catherine, Digby married as his second wife Sanchia (née Willoughby), widow of John Strelley, on 24 October 1517.^[4]

Death and Burial

Digby died in May 1533 and was buried at St Mary's Church, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, where as well as at Frisby, Leicestershire, there is a monument to his memory.^[5]

Digby had been responsible for the construction of the clerestory of Melton Mowbray church in 1500, and the vestry located on the north side of the chancel in 1532, which is confirmed by a date stone set into the east wall.^[6]

Related Research Articles

Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, 3rd Marquess of Dorset, was an English courtier and nobleman of the Tudor period. He was the father of Lady Jane Grey, known as "the Nine Days' Queen".

Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, 12th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG, of Belvoir Castle, Rutland, was created Earl of Rutland by King Henry VIII in 1525.

John Digby may refer to:

Sir William Skeffington, was a Lord Deputy of Ireland.

Sir Thomas White was an English cloth merchant, Lord Mayor of London in 1553, and a civic benefactor and founder of St John's College, Oxford.

Sir William Parr, KG (1434–1483) was an English courtier and soldier. He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Parr (1405–1461) and his wife Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Tunstall of Thurland, Lancashire.

John Harington, 1st Baron Harington of Exton in Rutland, was an English courtier and politician.

John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath English noble

Sir John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath, PC was an Earl in the peerage of England. He also succeeded to the titles of 12th Baron FitzWarin, Baron Daubeney and 4th Count of Eu.

Ashby Folville is a village in the Melton district of Leicestershire, south west of Melton Mowbray. The civil parish of Ashby Folville was abolished in 1936 and its 1,796 acres (727 ha) were merged with Gaddesby.

Sir Thomas Parr was an English knight, courtier and Lord of the Manor of Kendal in Westmorland during the Tudor period. He is best known as the father of Catherine Parr, queen consort of England and the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII.

Sir Philip Wentworth, Knight, of Nettlestead, Suffolk was an English knight and courtier. Wentworth was the great grandfather of Jane Seymour, third wife of King Henry VIII, and was beheaded at Middleham, Yorkshire.

William Coffin (courtier) English politician

Sir William Coffin was a courtier at the court of King Henry VIII of England. He was a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Henry VIII and Master of the Horse to Queen Jane Seymour. He was elected MP for Derbyshire in 1529.

William Brandon (died 1491) English knight

Sir William Brandon, of Wangford in Suffolk, was an English landowner, administrator, soldier, courtier and politician. His grandson was Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, a courtier and close friend of King Henry VIII.

Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead, Suffolk, KB, de jure 4th Baron le Despencer, was the grandfather of Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour, and the great-grandfather of Jane's son, Edward VI.

Sir Giles Strangways, of Melbury House, Melbury Sampford, and of Abbotsbury, both in Dorset, was an English politician.

Simon Digby was an English Member of Parliament for Rutland.

The Palmes family of Naburn Hall, and the cadet branches of Lindley Hall, North Yorkshire; Ashwell, Rutland; and Carcraig in Ireland, are an ancient English aristocratic family, noted for their adherence to Catholicism.

The historic manor of Iron Acton was a manor centred on the village of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire, England, situated about 9 miles (14 km) north-east of the centre of the City of Bristol. The manor house, known as Acton Court is a Tudor building which survives today, situated at some distance from the village and parish church of St Michael. It was long the principal seat of the prominent Poyntz family, lords of the manor, whose manorial chapel is contained within the parish church.

Sir Thomas Berkeley of Wymondham, Leicestershire was an English lawyer and politician who represented Leicestershire in Parliament and served as Sheriff for Rutland, Warwickshire and Leicestershire.

Sir John Harington of Exton, Rutland was an English politician.

References

↑ "History of Parliament".
↑ Armytage, G.J., ed. (1870). The Visitation of the County of Rutland in the year 1618-19, taken by William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms, and other descents of families not in the visitation. Harleian Society, 1st ser. 3. London. P.17.
↑ The Peerage of Ireland: Or, A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom, Volume 6 By John Lodge, Mervyn Archdall 1789 p.264
↑ Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. III, p. 469.
↑ A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland by John Burke 1838 p.465
↑ St. Mary’s Parish Church, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire (SK 75276 19029): Archaeological Desk-based Assessment and Statement of Significance by Sophie Clarke. University of Leicester, 2013 http://www.melton.leicester.anglican.org/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=116149

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "History of Parliament".

[2] Armytage, G.J., ed. (1870). The Visitation of the County of Rutland in the year 1618-19, taken by William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms, and other descents of families not in the visitation. Harleian Society, 1st ser. 3. London. P.17.

[3] The Peerage of Ireland: Or, A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom, Volume 6 By John Lodge, Mervyn Archdall 1789 p.264

[4] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. III, p. 469.

[5] A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland by John Burke 1838 p.465

[6] St. Mary’s Parish Church, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire (SK 75276 19029): Archaeological Desk-based Assessment and Statement of Significance by Sophie Clarke. University of Leicester, 2013 http://www.melton.leicester.anglican.org/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=116149