Sampson of Appleton
1. Ancestry
2. Arms
3. William
4. Dionisia
5. Later Fauconbergs
1. Ancestry
John Sampson, Lord Mayor of York 5 times 1279-1300, married Mary Fawconberg, whose ancestors had held land in Appleton since the early 12th C:
[marginal note by Dodsworth:] “I take this Mary to be Richard [Fawconberg]’s heire“.1
Descent:2
In 1299 a Thomas Brocket was one of a group evaluating a property of John and Mary’s in Nun Appleton for the sheriff.
Southwood in Appleton:3
Richard the son of Philip Fawconberg gave all his mannor of Suthwood in Appleton
to John Sampson of York knight & Mary his wife which he had of the gift of Walter Read more
2. Arms4
Glover’s Visitation of Yorkshire records the identical arms of William de Lacell: Sable a cross patonce or, who held 2 knight’s fees of William de Vescy, whose arms were: Gules a cross patonce argent.5 Compare also the later ?15-17th C Lascelles lines—of Sowerby and Brackenbury in Birdforth cum Allertonshire—Sable a cross flory or and Sable a cross patonce or.6
In Harley 807 Glover gave the arms of Dionisia Sampson as: Argent a lion rampant azure, and these carried through to the Broketts of Hertfordshire. In fact they were the arms of Fauconberg of Rise and Skelton7 and of the Bruces of Skelton, whose senior representatives they were. Compare Percy of Northumberland: Or a lion rampant azure.8
3. William Sampson of Appleton
3.1. 1379 poll tax
William Sampson and wife paid 40d as a Franklin—a substantial freeholder.9 This was the highest payment in the vill, but half the normal rate for franklins and equivalent to the rate for landless esquires.10 The Sampson family was probably in decline by 1379.11
3.2. The Calendars of Close Rolls 1386, 88
William is recorded twice concerning land in Colton and Steeton:Read more
3.3. Testament 1393
Written 11 Sep, pr 30 Oct 1393. William willed to be “buried in Bolton Percy church next to the grave of my father”. He had previously passed on all his property, including the manor of Southwood, since the only bequest was to his executor: “The rest however of all my goods I have given to John Saynell of Normanton by a certain writing confirmed by my seal to pay my debts”.14
3.4. Thomas Sampson of Appleton 1396
The Calendar of Close Rolls records one other Appleton Sampson after their manor had passed to Thomas Broket, as witness to a land deed there:Read more
4. Dionisia Sampson
4.1. A deed from 1458 confirmed that Dionisia was the daughter of William.
4.2. She died 14 April 1437 and was buried in the Brockett Chapel in Bolton Percy Church, 2 years after her husband Thomas Broket, and no doubt next to him in the centre of the chapel, head towards the altar.
4.3. Dionisia’s descent from the Folifayts of Badsworth—and hence a claim to be the heir of the Nevilles—was recorded in the preamble to an unsuccessful suit brought in York by Thomas Broket and Dionisia against Thomas Urswyk for the manor of Baddesworth in 1424:16Read more
Wrottesley gave the name of William’s mother as Eujoria (sic).
5. Later Fauconbergs
The end of the FAUCONBERG of Rise main line:17
In 1422 Sir William Neville inherited all the castles, manors etc of Sir Thomas of Skelton through his wife the Fauconberg heiress Joan, and took on the Fauconberg title. Wiliam was a prominent Yorkist commander during the Wars of the Roses, leading them to the decisive victory at Towton in 1461, which “was not only the climax of the dynastic struggle between Lancaster and York, [but] also the denouement of the feud between Neville and Percy”.18 Although the Fauconbergs’ Appleton lands had been held by younger sons while the main line were barons in Rise in Holderness,19 the main line nevertheless had maintained links and William Neville inherited a quarter of a knight’s fee in Appleton. 20
William had no son, so his 3 daughters became Fauconberg co-heiresses. Or at least 2 did—Joan is said to have been “a fool and idiot from birth”.21 Nonetheless, the Appleton inheritance may have descended to Joan. Whether connected or not, a curious reference occurred in the Visitation of Yorkshire re the Conyers family, whose heir married the 3rd daughter Alice, that [after 1472] the eldest daughter Joan Fauconberg was “married to Nicholas Belliany, sans issue, and after to Mr. Thos. Brocket, of co. Herts, and had issue”.22 This is corrupt. Nicholas Belliany is unknown and although all Hertfordshire Broket gentleman of the late 1470s are known, this Thomas is not.
The Strangways and Conyers were 2 of the main knightly families of 15th C North Riding of Yorkshire, sharing by parallel marriages the succession of 2 baronies, the Darcy heiresses in the 1st half of the century and the Fauconberg heiresses in the 2nd.23 Connecting a Brocket to the 3rd heiress was a fabrication.
The Complete Peerage relegated the 2nd and 3rd of Joan’s alledged marriages to a footnote,24 dismissing the 3rd as neither to Thomas who married and predeceased Dionesia 1435 nor to his son Thomas who married and predeceased Elizabeth Ashe 1477. These two, apart from being esquires were in any case too early, and only a Thomas from the next generation could have been possible. In the 1570s Glover gave Edward 2 sons Thomas: one marrying Elizabeth Calthrop and [presumably] an earlier one dying unmarried without issue. Glover was by no means accurate in all details but it is hard to imagine a reason for him to omit a marriage to an heiress of a peer like Joan Fauconberg, especially if there had been issue. Edward’s Will shows that a Thomas was not a surviving son in 1485.
Page Last Updated: September 21, 2020
[1] BL Harley 794, f 73r—see lines 1-4 of the full text below.
[2] Sources: M J Harrison 2000 pp 70-5; Brown 1897 p 119n; Complete Peerage 1926 vol 5 pp 267ff; Poulson 1840 p 403. Primary documents not checked.
[3] full text of BL Harley 794 f 73r, 74—Notes taken by Roger Dodsworth, antiquarian, d 1654, from mss of Thomas, 3rd Lord Fairfax, d 1671; M J Harrison 2000 pp 73, 257.
[4] Burke’s 1884.
[5] Foster 1875 p 25.
[6] Foster 1875 pp 61, 402, 641.
[7] cf Foster 1875 p 186.
[8] Foster 1875 p 651.
[9] YATARS 6 p 293.
[10] Keen 1990 p 9.
[11] M J Harrison 2000 p 73.
[12] Jul 26 Westminster, Calendar p 182.
[13] Feb 24 Westminster, Calendar p 471.
[14] York Registry Wills Oct 1393, vol 1 f 69 l 4.
[15] Feb 4 Westminster, Calendar p 79.
[16] 1424 Easter York: Plea Rolls De Banco m 329d; Wrottesley 1905 p 318; The Genealogist vol 17 p 22; YAJ vol 10 1899 p 349. For the original Latin contact the Archivist of this website.
[17] Sources: Complete Peerage 1926 vol 5 pp 272ff; Poulson 1840 p 403. Primary documents not checked.
[18] Pollard 1990 p 283.
[19] Complete Peerage, 1926 vol 5 pp 267ff.
[20] Complete Peerage, 1926 vol 5 pp 282; M J Harrison 2000 p 73.
[21] Complete Peerage, 1926 vol 5 pp 281.
[22] Foster 1875 p 71.
[23] Pollard 1990 p 90.
[24] 1926 vol 5 p 286b.