William Calthorpe

Sir William Calthorpe (30 January 1410 – 15 November 1494) was an English knight and Lord of the Manors of Burnham Thorpe and Ludham in Norfolk. He is on record as High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1442, 1458 and 1464 and 1476.

Family
Sir William Calthorpe was born on 30 January 1410 at Burnham Thorpe, in the English county of Norfolk. He was the son of Sir John Calthorpe and his wife Amy (Amice) Wythe.

Career
Sir William Calthorpe was a Norfolk sheep farmer. He became the heir to his grandfather's lands in 1431, and his children inherited the manor at Ingham, in north-east Norfolk. He is recorded on 28 June 1443, when he released one of his villeins, from serfdom and set him free from all future services.

He was a Member of Parliament, representing Norfolk from 1445 to 1446. He was sworn to the peace in Norfolk in 1434; the following year he was recorded as paying 10 marks rent for the farm of the church of Sculthorpe, Norfolk. He was among those thanked by the Council in connection with dealing with riots that took place in Norfolk in1443. In 1448 he produced a charter of Henry III of England that granted free warren in Calthorpe to his ancestor William de Calthorpe.

He became locum tenens and Commissary-General to the late most noble and potent William, Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Pembroke, and Lord Great Chamberlain of England, Ireland and Aquitaine, during the minority of the Duke's son and heir, Henry, Earl of Exeter. In 1469, Sir William described himself as Sir William Calthorp of Ludham, a manor which he owned, as well as that of Burnham Thorpe. In 1479, he was Steward of the household of the Duke of Norfolk.

A Lancastrian, his arrest was ordered on 20 May 1450; he was pardoned in 1458. Calthorpe was made a Knight of the Bath in the Tower of London, by King Edward IV, on the Coronation of his Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, Ascension Day.

Calthorpe made Presentations to the Rectory of Beeston, Norfolk in 1460, 1481, 1492, and the Rectory of Hempstede in 1479 and 1485. He is on record as High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1442, 1458 and 1464 and 1476. He served as a Justice of the peace in Norfolk from 16 March to 24 November 1460; 4 July 1461 until becoming sheriff in 1463, 24 July 1466 until becoming sheriff in 1475, and from 28 June 1483 to 7 December 1485.

In June 1469, he was "sworn one of my lord of Gloucester's men", but the following year was recorded as being a supporter of the Readeption of Henry VI. He was subsequently pardoned by the Yorkists on 8 February 1471, when he was given as being as "of Ingham, alias of Ludham, late sheriff". Similar documents name him on 12 December 1471 as being "of Norwich senior", and again in February 1473. He was a supporter of Richard III.

In the church of St Martin at Palace, Norwich, is a tablet showing that in 1550 Lady Calthorp (Sir William's daughter-in-law) gave a silver cup and a velvet carpet to that church. It appears that the Calthorpes had their townhouse in this parish for many years, and Sir William Calthorp certainly lived there in 1492, and probably long before then, for it is recorded that in 1447 the Executors of Joan Lady Bardolph, sold the old seat of the Erpinghams, in St.Martin's at the Palace, to William Calthorp, Esq., and the receivership of the Erpingham manor was vested in Sir Philip Calthorp (d. 1535 - grandson of Sir William) and his wife Joan (née Blennerhasset), in 1487.

Marriage and issue
Calthorpe's first wife was Elizabeth (1406-1437), daughter of Reginald Grey, 3rd Baron Grey de Ruthyn, by whom Sir William had a son and two daughters.

His second wife was Elizabeth (c. 1441-18 February 1505), eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Miles Stapleton, of Ingham, Norfolk, by his spouse, Katherine de la Pole (c. 1416-1488), who settled the manor of Hempstead, Norfolk, upon Elizabeth. Sir William was subsequently found to be lord of three parts of it in 1491; his second surviving son, Sir Francis, died possessed of it in 1544, and his son William next inherited it, and sold it about 1573. William was the elder brother of Charles Calthorpe, for many years Attorney General for Ireland.

One of Sir William's daughters by his second marriage, Anne (d. before March 1558), married Sir Robert Drury, of Thurston, and Hawstead, Suffolk. Another of Sir William's daughters by his second marriage, Elizabeth Calthorpe married Francis Hasilden on 31 May 1494. They had a daughter, Frances Hasilden who married Sir Robert Peyton, of Isleham in January 1516, becoming ancestors of the Peyton baronets. Sir Robert Peyton of Isleham was the son of Sir Robert Peyton, of Wicken by Elizabeth Clere.

Will and death
One of the executors of Sir William's will was the Norfolk justice of the peace Sir Robert Clere of Ormesby St Margaret, who was bequeathed 200 sheep. The will mentions that many of his ancestors were buried in St Mary's, North Creake in north-west Norfolk. Many of his family are mentioned. Sir William was buried at White Friars, Norwich, beside his first wife.