Francis Smith

• Preferred Name: Francis Smith^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]}
  
• Gender: M
  
• Birth: 1522 in Ingatestone, Essex, England at LATI: N1.6745 LONG: E0.3884 with note: GEDCOM Standardized
  
• FSID: G61Q-4KG
  
• Burial: 7 SEP 1606 in Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire, England at LATI: N2.1919 LONG: E1.7096 with note: St. Peter’s Churchyard Standardized
  
• Alt.+Birth: 1522 in Chelmsford, Essex, England at LATI: N1.736 LONG: E0.4696
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: Sir
  
• Death: 3 SEP 1606 in Ashby Folville, Leicestershire, England at LATI: N2.7012 LONG: E0.9559 with note: GEDCOM Standardized
  
• Occupation: High Sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicester1566 in Leicestershire, England at LATI: N2.7139 LONG: E1.1015
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  From History of Parliment https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/smith-francis-1516-1605
  
  SMITH, Francis (by 1516-1605), of Ashby Folville, Leics. and Wootton Wawen, Warws.
  
  ConstituencyDates
  TRURO
  1545
  STAFFORD
  Mar. 1553
  Family and Education
  b. by 1516, 1st s. of Sir John Smith of Cressing Temple, Essex, by 2nd w. Agnes, da. and coh. of Sir William Harwell of Wootton Wawen; half-bro. of Edmund Smith. m. (1) Apr. 1537, Mary (d. 30 Mar. 1550), da. and h. of John Moreton of Ashby Folville, 1s.; (2) Elizabeth, da. of Sir Thomas Brudenell of Deene, Northants., s.p.1
  
  Offices Held
  Sec. to Walter Devereux, 1st Viscount Hereford by 1558; j.p. Leics. 1558/59-64, q. 1569-84/87; sheriff, Warws. and Leics. 1566-7.2
  
  Biography
  Francis Smith was a stranger to both the boroughs for which he served in the Commons. His return as senior Member for Truro to Henry VIII’s last Parliament suggests that in 1545 he had the backing of the receiver-general of the duchy of Cornwall, Sir Thomas Arundell, who supervised the elections in the south-west. Smith’s father was a baron of the Exchequer whom Arundell may have wished to please, and his own business dealings with Lord John Grey, a kinsman of Arundell, could also have helped. By the beginning of 1553 both Arundell and Sir John Smith were dead, and Francis Smith evidently turned to his master Viscount Hereford and to the Giffard family of Chillington for a seat at Stafford in the Parliament summoned on the initiative of the Duke of Northumberland: Hereford’s son William Devereux was returned on that occasion as one of the knights for the county. In 1558 Smith was to witness Hereford’s will under which he received clothes and an annuity of 40s.3
  
  After his first marriage Smith occupied his wife’s house at Ashby Folville, but his mother’s death in 1562 led him to settle at Wootton Wawen. At the accession of Elizabeth he was named to the Leicestershire bench, on which he remained until old age, despite having been reported in 1564 ‘an adversary of true religion’; he was even pricked sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire in 1566, the last man to hold the joint office. By 1586 two of his fellow-justices could assure the Council that he was not a recusant, being ‘a good and dutiful’ subject who attended church regularly. In his will of 10 Jan. 1605 he asked to be buried in the church at Wootton ‘before the place were I have usually sat’. After several bequests to his grandson and to his great-grandchildren, he left £1,000 to be divided between three granddaughters and the residue of his property to his only son George. He appointed his ‘loving kinsmen’ John Giffard and Thomas Throckmorton II overseers. Smith died on 3 Sept. 1605 and was buried on the same day at Wootton, where a fine tomb still marks his grave.4
  
  Ref Volumes: 1509-1558
  Author: J. J. Goring
  Notes
  1. Date of birth estimated from marriage. Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 175-6; Vis. Warws. (Harl. Soc. xii), 71; W. Cooper, Wootton Wawen, 21; CPR, 1553, p. 377.
  2. PCC 47 Noodes; CPR, 1563-6, p. 24; 1569-72, p. 226.
  3. PCC 42 Alen; Morant, Essex, ii. 114; VCH Staffs. iv. 81; VCH Warws. iii. 197-8.
  4.LP Hen. VIII, xii; CPR, 1558-60, p. 135; VCH Warws. iii. 197-8, 205; Cooper, 21-24; Cam. Misc. ix(3), 8; CSP Dom. 1581-90, p. 319; C142/293/70; Pevsner and Wedgwood, Warws. 481.
  
  === *He was age 84 at his death. *War W3 p 2 ===
  *He was age 84 at his death. *War W3 p 21, 24, 25-; Leic 2 p 128-; Eng Pub AC vol 2; See Archive Family Group Sheets
  
  === !#240-v8-p549fn(d); ^born-L1> of Ashby T ===
  !#240-v8-p549fn(d); ^born-L1> of Ashby Tolville;

• m. 1540 in England

1. Title: Wootton Wawen parish
   Author: British History online
   Publication: Name: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol3/pp196-205;
   Note: ...Wootton was granted in 1523 by the King to Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset, (fn. 24) who died in 1530 and was succeeded by his son Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset (fn. 25) and afterwards Duke of Suffolk. He was attainted and beheaded in 1554 and the manor reverted in 1558 to his brother Lord John Grey and his wife Mary, (fn. 26) who at once sold it to Dame Agnes Smith the widow of Sir John Smith, one of the Barons of the Exchequer, and Francis her son and heir in 1559. (fn. 27) It then descended with the Harewells manor as shown later..... ....In the south chapel against the north wall is a painted stone monument to Francis Smith, 3 September 1606. (fn. 143) It has a panelled base on which is his effigy reclining on its right side, and a pair of Ionic shafts and pilasters supporting an entablature. Above is an achievement of arms, Smith quartering Harewell. On the wall next it is a brass plate to Lady Agnes Smyth wife of Sir John Smyth, Knight, Baron of the Exchequer, and daughter of John Harewell, died 15 February 1562.... ....Various parcels of land in Wootton were acquired by Master Richard de Stanford and Idonea his wife temp. Edward I and Edward II. (fn. 30) Richard died in 1320 and left a son John, (fn. 31) whose daughter Maud married Roger Harewell of Wootton. (fn. 32) Roger died in 1390 and his son John succeeded him. (fn. 33) He died in 1428 and in his will desired to be buried in the church of St. Peter of Wootton. (fn. 34) It can hardly be doubted that the high tomb in the chancel with the recumbent effigy of a man in armour bearing the Harewell arms is to his memory, although it has no inscription upon it. He left £6 13s. 4d. to repair the highway between Wootton and Silesbourne. (fn. 35) His son John was the next lord (fn. 36) and was succeeded by Roger his son. (fn. 37) At Roger's death the manor descended to his son William, (fn. 38) whose wife was Agnes daughter of Sir Henry Owgan and her arms are impaled with those of Harewell on the tomb of her son John in the chancel. William was taken prisoner fighting for Henry VI at Barnet Field in 1471 and his lands were seized by Edward IV and given to Humphrey Stafford, but he was afterwards released and his lands restored to him. (fn. 39) He died in 1501, (fn. 40) leaving estates in Wootton Wawen now for the first time called the manor of LUCIES, and other lands in Wootton held of the Duke of Buckingham by fealty. John his son, who in 1501 was aged 30, (fn. 41), married Anne daughter and heir of Richard Midleton. He died in 1505 and lies beneath a fine altar tomb in the chancel at Wootton. His son Thomas (fn. 42) died in 1512, when only 18 years old, and the estates were divided among his sisters. (fn. 43) The manor of Lucies in Wootton went to his sister Agnes, wife of Sir John Smith, Baron of the Exchequer. (fn. 44) In 1559 Lord John Grey and Mary his wife sold the principal manor of Wootton (see above) to Dame Agnes Smith and her son Francis, (fn. 45) and henceforth the Smiths held the whole of Wootton (except the Priory Manor) in chief of the king. Dame Agnes died in 1562, (fn. 46) when her son Francis succeeded to the manor. He married firstly, in 1537, Mary Morton, 'in accordance with the rites and ceremonies of the Catholic Church', (fn. 47) and secondly Elizabeth Brudenell. (fn. 48) In 1580 and again in 1588 he contributed £25 towards the defence of his country against the Spanish Invasion. (fn. 49) It is stated in 1586 that Francis Smith is not a recusant, as he usually goes to church as a good and dutiful subject. (fn. 50) He died in 1605 seised inter alia of the manors of Wawenswotton and Lucies alias HAREWELLS, (fn. 51) and was buried in the chapel of Wootton Church under a fine Renaissance tomb. His heir was his son George Smith, then aged 60, who married Anne daughter of Sir Thomas Giffard of Chillington, co. Stafford, a staunch Roman Catholic. (fn. 52) George died in 1607 and was succeeded by his son Sir Francis. (fn. 53) ...
   
2. Title: Franncis Smith in entry for Thomas Smith, "England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991"
   Author: "England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JZPG-7JV : 17 April 2023), Franncis Smith in entry for Thomas Smith, 1645.
   Publication: Name: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JZPG-7JV;
   
3. Title: UK and Ireland, Find a Grave Index, 1300s-Current
   Publication: Name: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181207927/francis-smith;
   
4. Title: Tomb of Sir Francis Smith
   Publication: Name: https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/catalogue_wow/wootton-wawen-tomb-of-sir-francis-smith;
   
5. Title: History of Parliament online
   Publication: Name: https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/smith-francis-1516-1605;
   
6. Title: Francis Smith, "Find A Grave Index"
   Author: "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DMKZ-83N2 : 10 September 2021), Francis Smith, ; Burial, Wootton Wawen, Stratford-on-Avon District, Warwickshire, England, St Peter's Churchyard; citing record ID 181207927, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
   Publication: Name: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DMKZ-83N2;
   
7. Title: SMITH, Francis (by 1516-1605), of Ashby Folville, Leics. and Wootton Wawen, Warws. Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982 Available from Boydell and Brewer
   Author: History of Parliment online
   Publication: Name: https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/smith-francis-1516-1605;
   Note: Offices Held Dates TRURO 1545 STAFFORD Mar. 1553 Family and Education b. by 1516, 1st s. of Sir John Smith of Cressing Temple, Essex, by 2nd w. Agnes, da. and coh. of Sir William Harwell of Wootton Wawen; half-bro. of Edmund Smith. m. (1) Apr. 1537, Mary (d. 30 Mar. 1550), da. and h. of John Moreton of Ashby Folville, 1s.; (2) Elizabeth, da. of Sir Thomas Brudenell of Deene, Northants., s.p.1 Offices Held Sec. to Walter Devereux, 1st Viscount Hereford by 1558; j.p. Leics. 1558/59-64, q. 1569-84/87; sheriff, Warws. and Leics. 1566-7.2 Biography Francis Smith was a stranger to both the boroughs for which he served in the Commons. His return as senior Member for Truro to Henry VIII’s last Parliament suggests that in 1545 he had the backing of the receiver-general of the duchy of Cornwall, Sir Thomas Arundell, who supervised the elections in the south-west. Smith’s father was a baron of the Exchequer whom Arundell may have wished to please, and his own business dealings with Lord John Grey, a kinsman of Arundell, could also have helped. By the beginning of 1553 both Arundell and Sir John Smith were dead, and Francis Smith evidently turned to his master Viscount Hereford and to the Giffard family of Chillington for a seat at Stafford in the Parliament summoned on the initiative of the Duke of Northumberland: Hereford’s son William Devereux was returned on that occasion as one of the knights for the county. In 1558 Smith was to witness Hereford’s will under which he received clothes and an annuity of 40s.3 After his first marriage Smith occupied his wife’s house at Ashby Folville, but his mother’s death in 1562 led him to settle at Wootton Wawen. At the accession of Elizabeth he was named to the Leicestershire bench, on which he remained until old age, despite having been reported in 1564 ‘an adversary of true religion’; he was even pricked sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire in 1566, the last man to hold the joint office. By 1586 two of his fellow-justices could assure the Council that he was not a recusant, being ‘a good and dutiful’ subject who attended church regularly. In his will of 10 Jan. 1605 he asked to be buried in the church at Wootton ‘before the place were I have usually sat’. After several bequests to his grandson and to his great-grandchildren, he left £1,000 to be divided between three granddaughters and the residue of his property to his only son George. He appointed his ‘loving kinsmen’ John Giffard and Thomas Throckmorton II overseers. Smith died on 3 Sept. 1605 and was buried on the same day at Wootton, where a fine tomb still marks his grave.4 Ref Volumes: 1509-1558 Author: J. J. Goring Notes 1. Date of birth estimated from marriage. Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 175-6; Vis. Warws. (Harl. Soc. xii), 71; W. Cooper, Wootton Wawen, 21; CPR, 1553, p. 377. 2. PCC 47 Noodes; CPR, 1563-6, p. 24; 1569-72, p. 226. 3. PCC 42 Alen; Morant, Essex, ii. 114; VCH Staffs. iv. 81; VCH Warws. iii. 197-8. 4.LP Hen. VIII, xii; CPR, 1558-60, p. 135; VCH Warws. iii. 197-8, 205; Cooper, 21-24; Cam. Misc. ix(3), 8; CSP Dom. 1581-90, p. 319; C142/293/70; Pevsner and Wedgwood, Warws. 481
   
8. Title: The visitations of Essex by Hawley, 1552; Hervey, 1558; Cooke, 1570; Raven, 1612; and Owen and Lilly, 1634. To which are added Miscellaneous Essex pedigrees from various Harleian manuscripts: and an appendix containing Berry's Essex pedigrees by Metcalfe
   Author: Archive.org
   Publication: Name: https://archive.org/stream/visitationsofess1314metc#page/176/mode/2up;
   Note: Pedigrees of various families
   
9. Title: Leicestershire Pedigrees and Royal Descents Front Cover William George Dimock Fletcher Clarke and Hodgson, 1887 - Families of royal descent - 207 pages
   Author: Google Books
   Publication: Name: https://books.google.com/books?id=VpnC3wgof6gC&lpg=PA128&ots=O4_jp_bd1_&dq=john%20smith%20cressing%20temple%20agnes%20harewell&pg=PA128#v=onepage&q=john%20smith%20cressing%20temple%20agnes%20harewell&f=false;