21. PAUNCEFOOT

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Fay Sampson’s Family History

This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back 30 generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from my own as (1)

 

HUGH PAUNCEFOOT and KATHERINE (21)

 

Hugh and Katherine’s son John was an MP. Thanks to a website which gives detailed biographies for MPs, we know a great deal more about him than we do about his parents. [1]

 

HUGH PAUNCEFOOT was the son of Emerick Pauncefoot and his wife Ellen Charlton . He was born in 1345, probably at the family home of Hasfield, Toddington in Gloucestershire. Hasfield lies 6 m north of Gloucester on the western  bank of the Severn.

He survived the Black Death, which reached its peak in 1348, killing one third of the population.

Following the death of their father, the lordship of Hasfield and other Pauncefoot lands passed to Hugh’s elder brother Grimbald by 1367.

 

Hugh married Katherine around 1371.

 

 

KATHERINE. She was born round 1348 in Toddington.

In some family trees her name is given as Katherine de Roet, but this is a confusion with another Pauncefoot ancestor, who married a different Hugh. Katherine de Roet was a herald’s daughter. One of her sisters was wife to Geoffrey Chaucer. Katherine herself married Sir Hugh Swynford and had several children by him. She became the mistress of John of Guunt, by whom she had several .more children. After her marriage to Gaunt they were legitimised with the surname Beaufort. Colourful though it would be, I have found no evidence to link Katherine de Roet with the wife of Hugh Pauncefoot.

Their home of Toddington is a village near Tewkesbury. The present manor house is 19th century, but the earlier manor was moated. Since the 10th century it had been the home of the Tracey family, who were related to the Pauncefoots by marriage.

 

In1375 Hugh’s elder brother Grimbald died without a son and the family lands passed to Hugh.

 

The Pauncefoot arms are three lions argent on a field gules.

 

Hugh did not have long to enjoy his inheritance. He died before 21 June 1379, aged 34. He is believed to have died at the family seat of Crickhowell Castle, on the Welsh borders.

Their son John had been born not long before and was still very much a minor when he inherited the estates.

Not long afterwards, Katherine married Richard Ruyhale, a Worcestershire lawyer. He took possession of her dower estates, consisting of a third part of Crickhowell castle and two-thirds of the manor ofCowarne, as well as land in Bentley Pauncefoot, Worcestershire.

 

Katherine herself died in 1382, also aged 34. Ruyhale gained custody of John’s inheritance.

 

[1] https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/pauncefoot-sir-john-1368-1445

 

NEXT GENERATION: 20. PAUNCEFOOT-HERLE

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