Dear Newsgroup ~
Humphrey Grey, Esquire, of Enville and Whittington (in Kinver), Staffordshire [died 1499], married Anne Fielding, by whom he had two sons, Edward, Knt., and Robert, and three daughters, Elizabeth (wife of Sampson Erdeswicke, Esq.), Margery (wife of Richard Saint Barbe, Gent.), and Mary (wife of John Dixwell). Their descendants include many prominent people, including later earls of Claricarde, Cork, Elgin, Essex, Ferrers, Winchilsea, etc.
Mr. Brandon Fradd includes much helpful information on Humphrey Grey, Esq., in an interesting article on the Lowe family published in The Genealogist, 17 (2003): 86–95. Mr. Fradd shows that Humphrey Grey, Esq., died 11 Dec. 1499. His widow, Anne, held the manor of Withybrook, Warwickshire. She died shortly before 20 October 1507, when a writ of diem clausit extremum was issued.
I find that the book, List of Early Chancery Proceedings, 8 (PRO Lists and Indexes 51) (1929): 96 includes reference to a Chancery lawsuit dated 1538-1544, which lawsuit establishes that Humphrey Grey, Esq., was the son and heir of Robert Grey, Esq. [died before 20 June 1460]. Robert Grey is in turn identified in the lawsuit as a son of Reynold Grey, Knt., Lord of Hastings, Wexford, and Ruthin [died 1440, by his 2nd wife, Joan Astley].
A brief abstract of the Chancery lawsuit can be found in the online Discovery Catalogue of the National Archives at the following weblink:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C7488529
The online abstract reads as follows:
"C 1/991/49
Description:
Short title: Grey v Alen.
Plaintiffs: Thomas, great grandson of Robert GREY, esquire.
Defendants: John ALEN, knight, alderman of London.
Subject: Manor of Wootton entailed on the said Robert, together with the manors of Nailstone and Barford (Berkeford), by Reynold Grey his father, lord Hastings, Wexford andRuthyn. Northampton, Leicestershire Bedfordshire
Date: 1538-1544" END OF QUOTE.
Mr. Fradd's article gives further details of this suit:
Thomas Grey the plaintiff sued Sir John Allen over the manor of Wootton, Northamptonshire. Thomas Grey stated that the manor had been entailed on Robert Grey, together with the manors of Nailston, Leicestershire, and Barford, Bedfordshire by Reynold Grey, his father, lord Hastings, Wexford, and Ruthin. The suit further states that Reynold Grey had enfeoffed his younger son, Robert, who held them for 24 years and who left a son, Humphrey, aged 12, where after, Edmund, Earl of Kent, grandson of Reynold demised the manors to Humphrey. However, the manor and documents had come to John Allen, even though Humphrey had a son, Sir Edward Grey. Thomas Grey, Edward Grey's son, was suing to obtain the manors.
Elsewhere I find that there is a Common Pleas lawsuit dated 1505, in which Henry Vernon, Knt., sued Anne Grey, widow, of Withybrook, Warwickshire, and Robert Alen, of Bosworth, Leicestershire, husbandman, regarding a trespass at Snelston, Derbyshire [Reference: Court of Common Pleas, CP40/971, rot. 568d].
The above lawsuit may be viewed at the following weblink:
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H7/CP40no971/bCP40no971dorses/IMG_0568.htm
The defendant in the above lawsuit is Anne Fielding, widow of Humphrey Grey, Esq., who held the manor of Withybrook, Warwickshire, presumably in dower.
For interest's sake, I've included below a list of the 17th Century New World immigrants that descend from Humphrey Grey, Esq., and his wife, Anne Fielding:
Christopher Batt, Matthew Clarkson
For further details on the Grey family, please see my book, Royal Ancestry [5 volume set] published earlier this year.
Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah