William CALTHORPE of Burnham Thorpe (Sir Knight)

Knight of the Bath, and Lord of the Manors of Burnham Thorpe, and Ludham, in Norfolk. He is on record as High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1442, 1458 and 1469 and 1479.

Calthorpe is recorded on 28 Jun 1443, when he manumised one of his villeins, and set him free from all future services. He became locum tenens and Commissary-General to the late most noble and potent William, Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Pembroke, and Lord Great Chamberlain of England, Ireland and Aquitaine, during the minority of the Duke's son and heir, Henry, Earl of Exeter. In 1469 Sir William described himself as Sir William Calthorp of Ludham, a manor which he owned, as well as that of Burnham Thorpe. In 1479 he was Steward of the household of the Duke of Norfolk.

Calthorpe was made a Knight of the Bath in the Tower of London, by King Edward IV, on the Coronation of his Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, Ascension Day, 26 May 1465.

Calthorpe's first wife was Elizabeth (1406-1437), daughter of Sir Reynold, 3rd Baron de Grey of Ruthin, &c., (1362-1440), by whom Sir William had a son and two daughters. His second wife was Elizabeth (c. 1441-18 Feb 1505), eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Miles Stapleton, Knt., of Ingham, Norfolk, (by his spouse, Catherine de la Pole), who settled the manor of Hempstead, Norfolk, upon Elizabeth. Her husband, Sir William Calthorpe, was subsequently found to be lord of three parts of it in 1491; his second surviving son, Sir Francis, died possessed of it in 1544, and his son William next inherited it, and sold it about 1573.

Calthorpe made Presentations to the Rectory of Beeston, Norfolk in 1460, 1481, 1492, and the Rectory of Hempstede in 1479 and 1485.

In the church of St. Martin at the Palace, Norwich, is a tablet showing that in 1550 Lady Calthorp (Sir William's daughter-in-law) gave a silver cup and a velvet carpet to that church. It appears that the Calthorpes had their town house in this parish for many years, and Sir William de Calthorp certainly lived there in 1492, and probably long before then, for it is recorded that in 1447 the Executors of Joan Lady Bardolph, sold the old seat of the Erpinghams, in St.Martin's at the Palace, to William Calthorp, Esq., and the receivership of the Erpingham manor was vested in Sir Phillip Calthorp (d. 1535 - grandson of Sir William) and his wife Joan (née Blennerhasset), in 1487.

In Sir William's will, he mentions that many of his ancestors were buried in North Creake Church, Norfolk. This Will is given in full in East Anglian Notes & Queries (vol.ii, p.210), as an interesting specimen of wills of that date. He mentions many of his family. He was buried within the Church of the White Friars, Norwich, Norfolk, beside his first wife.

One of Sir William's daughters by his second marriage, Anne (d. bef. Mar 1558), married Sir Robert Drury, Knt., of Thurston, and Hawstead, Suffolk.

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