20. KIRKHAM-HANKFORD

Sampson Tree

ROBERT KIRKHAM and AGNES HANKFORD (20)

 

ROBERT KIRKHAM. John Whiting of Kentisbeare in Devon married three times. His third wife was Joan, daughter of Sir  Robert Kirkham of Blagdon.

Blagdon is a small village 3 miles inland from the coast at Paignton.

Robert was born there around 1375. The Heralds’ Visitation makes him the son of Nicholas Kirkham of Blagdon, who flourished in the time of Richard II [1377-1399], and an unnamed daughter of Sir William Ashton. A Survey  of Worcestershire has his mother as Alice, daughter of Sir Rafe Durburgh, a prominent Somerset gentleman. The Kirkhams certainly had dealings with Durburgh family

Blagdon had been in the hands of the Kirkhams for a century. It was brought to them by the marriage of Robert’s great-grandfather, an older Nicholas Kirkham, to the heiress Agatha Dennys, whose family had held it for generations previously. She brought with it Collaton Clavill, now Collaton St Mary, close to Blagdon.

Robert was still a minor when his father died. The heir was Robert’s elder brother John, but he died without issue, leaving Robert to inherit the Kirkham estates.

His affairs seem to have been managed by John and Alice Cade and the clergyman Thomas Barton, until he reached the age of majority at 21.

 

AGNES HANKFORD was the daughter of a noted judge, Sir William Hankford.and Cristina (or Thomasin) Stapledon. Sir William became chief justice of the Kings Bench and was a prominent figure under Richard II.

She was born around 1379, probably at Annery, in the parish of Monkleigh, north Devon. This manor had been in the hands of the Stapledon family for generations, before it passed to the Hankfords.

She had at least two brothers and two sisters.

She married Robert Kirkham in the early 15^th century.

They had a daughter Joan, and a son, Robert junior, c.1415. Pole has John Whitinge marrying Alis, Robert’s sister, rather than his daughter Joan.

On 4 Jun 1409 a court case was held between Richard and Sibel Baron of Wode and Parson John Boure and chaplain John Baudewyn of Northtauton. It concerned a large number of messuages, mills, arable land, meadow, woodland and rents across a wide number of Devon parishes.[1]

The judgement was in favour of the Barons, with a long list of people who should inherit if the Barons had no heir. These included Robert Kirkham of Blakedon [Blagdon} and the heirs of his body, and Gilbert Hankeford, son of Richard Hankeford, and the heir of his body, and Richard, son of Richard Hankeford, and the heirs of his body.

In 1410 there was a family dispute. [2]

Robert Kyrkham and John Dabernon were the prosecutors and John Hankeford and Joan his wife the defendants.

The case concerned a plea of covenant over messuages, arable land, meadow, woods and rents in Westwanford, Holdesworthy, Thuneburgh, Suttecombe and Chepyngtoryton.

The Hankfords acknowledged the tenements and rent to be the right of Robert, and that Robert and John Dabernon had woodland and rent of their gift.

In return, Robert and John made a complicated grant to the defendants, including the service of a number of tenants.Although these should have reverted to Robert and John at the death of these tenants, they shall instead go to the Hankfords.

Despite marrying a judge’s daughter, in 1414 Robert was in trouble with a commission of enquiry conducted by the noted judge William Skrene.
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Returned commissions of enquiry, held on 30 July-1 Aug 1414 by William Skrene and associates, under commissions of 16 July 1414, to enquire concerning treasons, rebellions, insurrections, felonies, trespasses, etc in Devon, and of 25 July 1414, to enquire concerning the misdeeds of John Boson, Henry Foleford and Robert Kirkham in Devon, who have retarded the execution of Norton’s oyer and terminer sessions there. 

Oyer and terminer were courts of assize.

We do not know what Robert did to delay the execution of the court’s proceedings, or what punishment he may have incurred.

Robert is known to have been active in 1417, but we do not have a death date for him, or for Agnes.

In the church of St John the Baptist in nearby Paignton there is the Kirkham Chantry, the finest in Devon outside Exeter Cathedral. It is believed to have been built by Robert and Agnes’s grandson, Nicholas Kirkham, in the late 15^th century. There is an elaborately sculpted stone screen and recumbent figures, two of whom may be Robert and Agnes’s son and daughter-in-law, Robert Kirkham and Elizabeth Scobhull.

Of particular interest is a carved wooden shield, bearing the arms of the Kirkhams and some of the families they married into. We have the lions of Kirkham, the battle axes of Dennys, for Robert’s great-grandmother, the fleur de lys of Scobhull,  their son’s wife, the fish of Waye, the horseshoes of Ferrers, and the nettle leaves of Malherbe.

 

[1] National Archives: CP 25/1/45/74, number 111.
[2] National Archives: CP 25/1/45/75, number 130