Complete Peerage Correction: Birth date of Thomas Lumley, 2nd Lord Lumley (died 1485)

[Douglas Richardson]

Dear Newsgroup ~

Complete Peerage, 8 (1932): 271-273 (sub Lumley) has a good account of
the life of Sir Thomas Lumley, 2nd Lord Lumley, who died in 1485. Sir
Thomas Lumley was the son and heir of Sir John Lumley, of Lumley (in
Little Lumley), Durham, by his wife, Felice Redman.

Regarding the birth date of Sir Thomas Lumley, the following
information is provided by Complete Peerage:

"Thomas Lumley, son and heir, was born at Morpeth [Northumberland] 29
Sept. 1408, and baptized in the church there the following day." END
OF QUOTE.

The source given for this information is Thomas Lumley's Proof of Age,
namely "Inq. p.m. 10 Henry VI, no. 56."

The birth date for Sir Thomas Lumley provided by Complete Peerage is
evidently in error as Felice Redman's first husband, John Wodecok (or
Woodcock), Citizen and mercer of London, left a P.C.C. will which was
probated 21 April 1408.

A transcript of the actual Proof of Age of Sir Thomas Lumey is
published in Archaeologia Aeliana, 22 (1900): 125, which may be viewed
at the following weblink:

http://books.google.com/books?id=VZUbAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA125

While it is true that the Proof of Age records that Thomas Lumley was
born 29 Sept. 1408, the inquisition further indicates that the jurors
stated that Thomas Lumley was aged 22 on the feast of St. Michael
last past [1431], or born 29 Sept. 1409.

Given that Felice Redman's 1st husband, John Wodecok, died in early
1408, it is apparent that her son, Sir Thomas Lumley, by her next
marriage can not have been born in Sept. of the same year. Rather,
the jurors appear to have correctly stated that Thomas Lumley was aged
22 on 29 Sept. 1431, or born in 1409.

Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah.