Parentage of Maud Percy, Dame Ryther [Long]
Brad Verity
Ryther is given an unidentified first wife, as well as a second wife
"Matilda daughter of Henry Percy, Erle of Northumberland". In the
Constable pedigree of the same Visitation, "Kateren", daughter of Sir
Robert Constable of Flamborough, and his wife Agnes Wentworth, is
married to "Sir Raff Ryther", and was indeed his first wife. But in
the Percy pedigree of the 1563 Visitation, there is no mention of a
Percy/Ryther marriage. The editor of the Visitation comments on the
Percy/Ryther marriage: "His second wife was Maud, daughter of Henry
Percy, Earl of Northumberland,--the fourth Earl, I believe...Vincent,
in his 'Baronage', calls her Katherine, daughter of Sir Thomas
Percy and Eleanor Harbottle; but the dates are against him."
So who was the Percy second wife of Sir Ralph Ryther? There are six
possibilities:
1) Katherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Percy and Eleanor Harbottle, and
sister of the ill-fated 7th and 8th Earls of Northumberland, as claimed
by 17th-century Windsor Herald Augustine Vincent. This identity was
continued in Collins' Peerage, and remains in many modern-era Percy
pedigrees, including W. Percy Hedley's "Northumberland Families"
(1968-70).
2) Maud, legitimate daughter of Henry Algernon Percy, 5th Earl of
Northumberland and his wife Catherine Spencer. The 1563 Visitation of
Yorkshire gives them a daughter "Lady Mary" who died young, while
Henry Lane in his 1910 work "Royal Daughters of England and Their
Representatives" says this daughter was Maud Percy who died young.
She may not have died young, but married Sir Ralph Ryther.
3) Maud, illegitimate daughter of Henry Algernon Percy, 5th Earl of
Northumberland. This could be why she was left off of the 1563
Visitation pedigree.
4) Maud, granddaughter of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland and
his wife Maud Herbert. Not through the 5th Earl, but through one of
his younger brothers.
5) Maud, illegitimate daughter of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of
Northumberland. Again, illegitimacy would be the reason why she was
left off of the 1563 Percy pedigree.
6) Maud, legitimate daughter of the 4th Earl of Northumberland and his
wife Maud Herbert.
A look at the Rythers and their surviving documents eliminates a number
of the above possibilities.
Sir Ralph Ryther, lord of Ryther Castle in Yorkshire and associated
manors, including Scarcroft, Shadwell, Kirkby upon Wharf, and
Hornington in the city of York, as well as the Lincolnshire manors of
Alford and Kelcottes, and half of the castle and manor of Harewood in
Yorkshire (which the Rythers shared with the Redman family for several
generations), was born about 1450, the second son of Sir William Ryther
(died 19 July 1475) and Eleanor Fitzwilliam. On the death of his elder
brother Sir Robert Ryther in 1491, Ralph inherited the family castle
and estates. About that time, he married Catherine, one of the
daughters of Sir Robert Constable of Flamborough, and they had two
sons, Robert and Thomas, and a daughter Eleanor. Ralph was made a
Knight of the Bath on Prince Henry's creation as Duke of York 1
November 1494, served with the Earl of Surrey in Scotland and was made
knight banneret by him in 1497. Both his father and his elder brother
had served as sheriff of Yorkshire, and Sir Ralph continued the family
influence by serving as sheriff in 1503-04.
His status as a powerful member of the Yorkshire gentry was confirmed
by the marriages he arranged for his children. His elder son Robert
was contracted to marry Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Gascoigne of
Gawthorpe and his wife Alice Frognell. They were children, and the
marriage terminated with the death of young Robert Ryther, probably
around 1508 or so. Little Elizabeth Gascoigne was then married (by
1510) to Robert Redman (d. 1545), the son and heir of Edward Redman,
who shared the lordship of Harewood Castle with Sir Ralph Ryther. The
younger son Thomas Ryther then became his father's heir and a
marriage was arranged for him in about 1510 (the marriage settlement
was dated 2 April 1510) with Agnes, one of the younger sisters of
Henry, 7th Lord Scrope of Bolton. Sir Ralph arranged his daughter
Eleanor in marriage to John, the son and heir of Robert Aske of
Aughton, and a nephew of the 10th Lord Clifford.
It is not known when Sir Ralph's first wife Katherine Constable died,
but it was likely in the first decade of the 16th century, for on 7
October 1510, Sir Ralph enfeoffed Sir William Percy and others with his
two Lincolnshire manors, for the use of "Dame Matilde" his wife,
for her life. With his second wife, Sir Ralph had a son, Henry Ryther,
born in late 1511 (said to be nearly age 16 in October 1527), and a
daughter Elizabeth Ryther, who was also under age when Sir Ralph wrote
his will on 26 March 1520. He died at Sheffield on 2 April 1520, and
was buried in the All Hallows church in Ryther. His will was proven on
15 April, and his IPM was taken on 14 May. His second wife survived
him, and his heir was his (now) elder son Thomas Ryther, husband of
Agnes Scrope.
It is not surprising that Sir Ralph looked to the Percy family for a
young bride after the death of his first wife, for Sir William
Gascoigne (d. 1552), the father of his elder son Robert's young wife
Elizabeth, was a first cousin of the 5th Earl of Northumberland, and
Agnes Scrope (d. 1525), the young wife of his next son Thomas, was
another first cousin of the 5th Earl. That his Percy second wife was a
full generation (likely close to 40 years) younger than him was also
not surprising for the early Tudor era, nor was it surprising that the
Percy family would want to closely ally itself with Ryther, who was of
importance and influence in Yorkshire.
With the Ryther chronology laid out, several of the above possibilities
for the identity of Sir Ralph's Percy wife can be eliminated.
1) Katherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Percy and Eleanor Harbottle. That
Sir Ralph's second wife was named Maud/Matilda, not Katherine, is
proven by the will of her stepson Thomas Ryther, Esquire, of Ryther
Castle, dated 1 July 1527, who refers to her as "Dame Matilde", and
the will of her own son Henry Ryther, Esquire, of Ryther Castle, dated
23 January 1543, who refers to her as "dame Mawde my mother". It
is chronologically impossible for Sir Thomas Percy, born about 1505,
and Eleanor Harbottle, born about 1513, to have been the parents of Sir
Ralph Ryther's second wife, who was married in 1510 and a mother in
1511. Whether or not they even had a daughter named Katherine is
unclear, but if so, she was certainly not married to any Ryther. The
only children of Sir Thomas Percy (d. 2 June 1537) and Eleanor
Harbottle (d. 1567) that can be confirmed in contemporary records are
their sons Thomas (born 10 June 1528, eventual 7th Earl of
Northumberland), Henry (born about 1532, eventual 8th Earl of
Northumberland), and daughter Mary (born about 1531, said to be buried
7 February 1598, age 66, married Francis Slingsby of Scriven,
Yorkshire), who are mentioned in the wills of their grandmother
Katherine (Spencer), Countess of Northumberland (dated 14 October 1542)
and their stepfather Sir Richard Holland of Denton, Lancashire (dated
27 March 1548). The Harris pedigree in the 1558 Visitation of Essex
gives the wife of "Arthur Harris of Prickwell in Sussex" as
"Joane", daughter of Sir Thomas Percy and Eleanor Harbottle, but
only the three children Thomas, Henry and Mary are given to the couple
in the Percy pedigree in the 1563 Visitation of Yorkshire. The Herald
Vincent also assigns them the daughter Joan wife of Arthur Harris in
addition to Mary and to Katherine wife of Ralph Ryther. It would
appear from the contemporary evidence however that Mary was the only
surviving daughter of Sir Thomas Percy and Eleanor Harbottle who went
on to marry.
2) Maud, legitimate daughter of Henry Algernon Percy, 5th Earl of
Northumberland and his wife Catherine Spencer. The 5th Earl was born
14 January 1478, and Catherine Spencer was born 1477. The account in
CP of the 5th Earl says only that they were married "before 1502".
It is very likely the marriage took place several years earlier,
perhaps arranged as early as 1489. His father the 4th Earl was
murdered in April that year, and the 11-year-old 5th Earl became a ward
of the crown and made a Knight of the Bath at the creation of Arthur as
Prince of Wales in November. Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of
Richmond, mother of the King, actively arranged marriages for her
extended family and the mother of Catherine Spencer was a Beaufort
cousin. Lady Anne Clifford, writing an account of her family in the
late 17th-century, refers to Lady Margaret Percy, the second wife of
the 1st Earl of Cumberland, as "first child and only daughter" of
the 5th Earl and Catherine Spencer, and goes on to say, "She was born
10 or 11 years before any of her brothers, & lived so long only child
to her father & mother, so as they resolved to give her a good portion
in lands." Indeed her parents gave her on her marriage, contracted
on 2 February 1513, the Percy fee lordships in Craven (with an income
of about ¶120 a year) for life. Thomas Percy, 6th Earl of
Northumberland, was born about 1502, placing his sister Margaret's
birthdate, per Lady Anne Clifford's account, as 1491/2, which is too
early, given the birthdates of her parents. Margaret Percy, Countess
of Cumberland, was likely born about 1495/6, with her parents
cohabiting about 1494, possibly around November when the 5th Earl
participated in the creation of Prince Henry as Duke of York. Given
the chronology, plus the fact that Maud Percy brought to her marriage
to Sir Ralph Ryther in 1510 nothing near to what Margaret Percy brought
to her marriage to Henry Clifford in 1513, plus the fact that Countess
Catherine (who outlived all of her children) in her 1542 will mentions
grandchildren from her three children who left issue and makes no
mention of Henry Ryther, who was still alive at the time, it can be
concluded that Sir Ralph Ryther's second wife Maud could not have
been the daughter of the 5th Earl and Catherine Spencer. If they did
have a daughter Mary/Maud, as given in the Percy pedigree in the 1563
Visitation, contemporary evidence shows she indeed died young, with
Countess Margaret being their eldest and only surviving daughter.
3) Maud, illegitimate daughter of Henry Algernon Percy, 5th Earl of
Northumberland. Though it would seem natural for the 5th Earl to name
a natural-born daughter after his own mother, chronology is too tight
for the earl, born January 1478, to father a daughter who was herself a
mother in 1511. Also if Sir Ralph Ryther was marrying the illegitimate
daughter of the 5th Earl, it would make more sense for him to have made
the Earl himself one of the feoffees in 1510 overseeing her interests,
rather than the Earl's younger brother Sir William Percy.
4) Maud, granddaughter of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland and
his wife Maud Herbert. Could the fact that it was Sir William Percy,
second son of the 4th Earl, who was chosen by Sir Ralph Ryther in 1510
as a feoffee overseeing Maud's interests, indicate that Sir William
was Maud's father? Again, chronology is just too tight for Sir
William Percy, Alan Percy (who embarked on a clerical career) or
Joscelin Percy (d. 1532), the younger sons of the 4th Earl, who all had
to have been born between 1479 and 1484, to have fathered a daughter,
legitimate or otherwise, who was herself a mother in 1511.
5) Maud, illegitimate daughter of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of
Northumberland. The 4th Earl was born about 1449 and could have
fathered bastard children at any point from his reaching puberty in the
late 1460s to his 1489 murder. Maud's marriage to Sir Ralph Ryther
in 1510 and the birth of their son Henry the following year would
indicate a birth for Maud in the 1480s, though she could have been
born, from a biological standpoint, as early as 1473 or so. Since the
Ryther pedigree in the 1563 Visitation mentions only her father the
Earl, and there is no mention of her in the Percy pedigree in the same
Visitation, illegitimacy cannot be ruled out. However if the case, it
is curious that the 4th Earl would give a bastard daughter the same
first name as that of his wife.
6) Maud, legitimate daughter of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland
and his wife Maud Herbert. At first glance, this possibility seems
easily ruled out. CP states the couple was married "about 1476",
but they were actually married by Michaelmas (October) 1472 (see
Michael Hicks, "Dynastic Change and Northern Society: The Career of
the Fourth Earl of Northumberland, 1470-89" in 'Northern
History', xiv (1978), pp. 83-84). Per the Percy pedigree in the
Visitation of the North circa 1480-1500, their children were
"Henricus Percy, Anna, Elizabeth Percy obijt iuuencula, and
Aleonora." Per the will of the 4th Earl, dated 27 July 1485 as he
was mustering to fight for Richard III at Bosworth, his children were
sons Henry, William, Alan and Jocelin, and daughters Eleanor and Anne.
No daughter Maud. Eleanor (named for paternal grandmother Eleanor,
Countess of Northumberland), the eldest surviving daughter and no doubt
born before her brother Henry the 5th Earl, was bequested 3,000 marks
as her marriage portion by her father, and was contracted in marriage
in 1490, the year following her father's murder, to Edward Stafford,
3rd Duke of Buckingham. Anne Percy (named for maternal grandmother
Anne, Countess of Pembroke), bequested 2,000 marks as a marriage
portion by her father, did not marry William, son and heir of the Earl
of Arundel, until February 1511, when she was well over age 25 and
possibly (if older than her brother the 5th Earl) over age 30. Why
there was such a delay in her marrying is not clear. Per CP, Maud
Herbert, wife of the 4th Earl, died before July 1485, when her husband
made his will. So it would appear there is no room for another
daughter Maud, wife of Sir Ralph Ryther.
But CP is incorrect in its statement about Maud Herbert's death. A
full reading of the 4th Earl's will shows that she was alive when he
wrote it. He goes into great detail about his funeral arrangements,
and prayers for the soul of himself and his parents, without any
indication that his wife had died. And later he clearly states,
"Also I will that William Rilston [an executor and one of his most
trusted retainers] have fourtie markes yerlie during his lyve,
t'abide wt my wyff and wt myne heir." So, how did CP get confused?
Because a codicil to the will, added by the 4th Earl "at Newburgh,
ye xxiiij day of Fev'yer, wt my hand" adds the following, "Also I
wol ther be mortest as moch land to Beverlay, wher my wife lyes, and I
entend shal lye..." So at some point after Bosworth, Countess Maud
died. The 4th Earl was imprisoned after the battle but released by
December 1485, so the February 24th codicil could have been written in
1486/87/88 or 89. Countess Maud was a young woman in the late 1480s,
in her early 30s at the most - could her death have been in
childbirth? A daughter Maud, born in 1486/88, would be of the perfect
age for marriage in October 1510.
After the 4th Earl's children were orphaned in April 1489, the two
eldest, Eleanor and Henry, in their preteens, were taken in by the
Court and soon married, probably under the watchful eyes of the
King's mother and her good friend their maternal aunt Anne (Herbert),
Lady Powis. Anne, the next daughter, probably close in age, may have
been taken into the Court as well. But the younger sons, all under age
10, would have been given to the care of their father's executors, as
per the instructions in his will, until they reached the age of 18.
And little Maud would have been a mere infant, perhaps sent to the
household of one of her paternal aunts, Dame Margaret Gascoigne or
Elizabeth, Lady Scrope of Bolton? Each of which ladies would see a
granddaughter and daughter, respectively, married to a son of Sir Ralph
Ryther before October 1510. And it would be perfectly natural for the
brother who would oversee Maud's interests in her marriage to Sir
Ralph, to not be her eldest brother the 5th Earl, raised far away from
her at Court, but her next eldest brother Sir William, himself
approaching age 30 in 1510, who was her oldest sibling while they were
raised in the North.
It is not clear when Maud Percy, Dame Ryther, died. She was alive when
her stepson Thomas Ryther made his will in 1527 and dead by the time
her son Henry Ryther made his will in 1543. Perhaps she is mentioned
in the wills of Eleanor, Duchess of Buckingham (1528), Joscelin Percy
(1532), or Anne, Countess of Arundel (1552), and her identification as
their sister can be confirmed.
At this point, her identification as a daughter of the 4th Earl of
Northumberland seems very solid on chronological and other evidence
(she named her son 'Henry'), and the possibility of her being a
daughter by his wife Maud Herbert seems promising as well.
Maud Percy's daughter Elizabeth Ryther married, at some point after
1527, William Aclam of Moreby, Yorkshire, and died before her brother
Henry, who died without issue 5 January 1544, when his nephew William
Aclam (d. 1567) was found to be one of his co-heirs, and the latter
carried the line of his grandmother Maud Percy further forward.
If anyone can add anything further about these families, I'd greatly
appreciate it.
Cheers, ------Brad