Friday 7 February 2014

Early Colclough - Cokeley


Because my surname is pronounced 'cokely' and by common consent this is the pronunciation of that branch of the family connected to Wexford, here are a few miscellanea...
John

Full text of "The manors of Suffolk; notes on their history and ... WA Copinger.…amongst Abbreviation of pleas in 1292 is a judgement in favour of William de Cokeley on finding that he had not ‘disseised’ … Robert de Ludham ( owner of Cookley Manor noted at least in 1285) for a meesuage  including land, woodland, meadow and pasture…

The History of Framlingham, in the County of Suffolk: Including Brief ... p337. Robert Hawes, Robert Loder

William de Cokeley was anciently owner of Cokeley  in the manor of Framlingham Suffolk.
 
November 10th 1389
Grant with the assent of the great council for 800(shillings?) paid for the kings use to John de Hermesthorp one of the chamberlains of the Receipt of the Exchequer, by John bishop of Salisbury, George de Felbrigge knight, Thomas More, clerk, Robert de Asshefeld, Robert Grigge, Thomas de Wroxham and Thomas Fulmere to them their heirs and assigns, of the reversion of the manor of Huntyngfeld Co. Suffolk with the avowances of the priory of Mendham abd the churches of Huntyngfeld and Cokely, Co Suffolk…

    'Index of Entries: S', Petitions to the Pope: 1342-1419 (1896), pp. 728-739.
Maximo, Francis de, archdeacon of Suffolk, 294, 303. -, Paulo, Baldwin de, knt., ..... Sterman, William son of William, alias de Cokely, 54. Sternfield, Sternefeld
The under-written clerks. For the office of notary public:—Richard, son of William Lerveton, of Tykhull, in the diocese of York. Stephen de Marthingho, alias de Combemartin, in the diocese of Exeter. Robert de Skipton, in the diocese of York. Roger Fraunceys, of the diocese of Salisbury. Robert de Swalfield, in the diocese of Lincoln. William de Neuton, in the diocese of Lichfield. Robert son of Richard de Torphankere, in the diocese of Lincoln. Nicholas de Wharroum, of Wartre, in the diocese of York. Adam de Hilton, in the diocese of Lichfield. Conrad Trowrede, of Kingston-on-Hull, in the diocese of York. William, son of the late William Sterman, of Walpole, alias de Cokely, in the diocese of Norwich. John Bronclade, of Coliford, in the diocese of Exeter. Geoffrey Jolif, of Canoligi, in the diocese of Exeter. Granted, if they be found sufficient. Avignon, 14 Kal. June. From: 'Volume V: 2 Clement VI', Petitions to the Pope: 1342-1419 (1896), pp. 54-75.
 URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=92355&strquery=de cokely  Date accessed: 05 January 2014.

More research to connect the above with the below, when I get some time...
 
Colclough’s and 14th 15th century MP’s in England
Richard Colclough (d. by 1385) of Newcastle-under-Lyme MP 1360
John Colclough d 1420/1
Eldest son of Richard Colclough (d. by 1385) of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and bro. of William (see below). Married  by Easter 1408, Margery ...
Offices Held
Bailiff, Newcastle-under-Lyme Mich. 1377-8, 1379-81; mayor 1384-5, 1386-7, 1388-90, 1394-5, 1400-1, 1402-5, 1406-7, 1408-9, 1410-11.2
 
The Colclough family enjoyed considerable influence in Newcastle under Lyme in Staffordshire  and its environs From the mid 14th century probably before. John’s father represented the borough in the Parliament of 1360, and subsequently held office as both bailiff and mayor. Over the years he established himself as a local landowner of some consequence, for besides acquiring land in Newcastle and the neighbouring village of Wolstanton, he was able to purchase the Staffordshire manor of Hanley from Sir Richard Peshale. However the manor came with litigaon and Sir Richard Peshale's widow.
 John had served his first term as bailiff of Newcastle in 1377, and on at least four occasions over the next ten years he went surety for his successors in office. At some point before October 1379 he took on the lease of additional holdings in Wolstanton, where he appears to have been farming his father’s property as well. In 1380 (while he was again acting as bailiff) he witnessed a deed for the prior of Trentham, who had strong connexions with the borough, and may, indeed, have been his feudal overlord. According to a lawsuit heard many years later, Colclough paid £15 to one of Thomas Lichfield’s receivers at about this time. No other burgess could rival his record of 12 terms as mayor, which were served over a period of 27 years. His two returns to Parliament were both made when he was in office; and on each occasion he sat with his younger brother, William, whom he engaged in 1393 to be his attorney in his lawsuit with Joan Peshale )see above), and who eventually made him his executor. Even when he was not acting in an official capacity, Colclough played a prominent part in municipal life. In 1396, for example, he ranked as second among the senior members of the merchant guild, and in 1410 he attested the minutes of that body.
Much of Colclough’s time after 1385 was taken up with the administration of his late father’s estate, and, together with his fellow executor, John Keen, he was obliged to bring a number of lawsuits for the recovery of debts owed to the deceased by such persons as the Newcastle burgess, William Thickness, and Joan, widow of Sir John Swynnerton. In 1397 Colclough joined with Roger Longridge  and the influential landowner, Nicholas Bradshaw, in purchasing property in the Staffordshire villages of Walton near Stone and Great Chatwell. Five years later he and Bradshaw obtained a royal licence to settle most of this land on Stone priory. Other endowments were to be made by Bradshaw’s brother, Roger, so it would appear that Colclough was acting as a feoffee-to-uses rather than a direct benefactor of the priory. During the Easter term of 1408 the MP and his wife either sold or conveyed land in Chorlton, Staffordshire, to a local man. That Colclough earned at least part of his income as a farmer is borne out by a case heard at the Stafford assizes in March 1414 involving the theft of two of his oxen. The death of his younger brother at about this time involved him in yet more litigation, notably as defendant in an action for debt brought in the following year by Sir William Newport. Following a long-established family tradition, Colclough’s son, John, was already active in municipal affairs by then, and it was probably he, rather than his father, who became mayor of Newcastle in 1418, and stood surety for John Mynors at the parliamentary elections held there in the following year. Both men were being sued for a debt of £20 by Margaret Delves a surname noted in various Colclough family trees, during the Hilary term of 1420, although since John Colclough the younger was alone ordered to appear in court during the summer of 1421. The elder was probably dead by this time.

Sourced:  History of Parliament